ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Amazon Simple Queue Service

Amazon Simple Queue Service (or Amazon SQS for short) is a way for computers to send messages to each other. Imagine you have a bunch of toy trucks and you want to send them to your friend's house. You could put them in a bag and send them through the mail, but that would take a long time and you might not know when they would arrive. Instead, you could put the trucks in a bucket and give the bucket to your friend's mom, who could pass it on to your friend when they see each other.

In the same way, Amazon SQS lets computers put messages in a "bucket" (called a queue) that other computers can check for messages. For example, if you have a website that allows people to add items to a shopping cart, you can use SQS to send a message to the computer that handles processing orders when someone adds something to their cart.

SQS also makes sure that each message is processed only once. Just like how your friend's mom makes sure the bucket gets to your friend without losing any trucks, SQS makes sure that each message gets processed without being lost or duplicated. This can be very important for things like processing credit card transactions or sending important notifications.

So, Amazon Simple Queue Service is like a way for computers to send messages to each other quickly and reliably, which helps them work together to do all sorts of useful things.