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What are the limitations of AWS Lambda?

🟡 Medium Conceptual Junior level
1Times asked
Nov 2026Last seen
Nov 2026First seen

💡 Model Answer

AWS Lambda has several operational limits that can affect your architecture. The maximum memory allocation is 10 GB, and the default timeout is 3 seconds, extendable to 15 minutes. Deployment package size is limited to 50 MB (unzipped) or 250 MB (compressed) for direct uploads, and 250 MB for layers. Each function can have up to 50 concurrent executions per account by default, with a soft limit that can be increased. Environment variables are limited to 4 KB total. Lambda functions cannot run for more than 15 minutes, so long‑running workloads must be broken into smaller tasks or use Step Functions. The function’s execution role must have the necessary IAM permissions, and the cold‑start latency can be significant for large runtimes. Additionally, Lambda does not support persistent local storage beyond the /tmp directory (512 MB). Understanding these constraints helps you design efficient, scalable serverless applications.

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