Authentication and Authorization in ASP.NET Core

Securing modern web applications requires a rock-solid understanding of who your users are and what they are allowed to do. This comprehensive text-based course guides you through the crucial differences between authentication and authorization, helping you build secure, production-ready ASP.NET Core applications. You will transition from understanding basic security concepts to implementing industry-standard access control models. By reading through clear, structured explanations and analyzing practical code examples, you will learn how to protect your endpoints and manage user identities with confidence. What you'll learn: - Understand the core differences between authentication (identity verification) and authorization (access control). - Configure cookie-based authentication and modern JSON Web Token (JWT) flows for APIs. - Implement role-based and policy-based authorization to restrict access to specific application resources. - Explore modern OAuth and OpenID Connect protocols to integrate external identity providers. - Apply security best practices to protect ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs and controller-based architectures. - Practice designing custom authorization requirements and handlers for complex business logic. The course begins with foundational security terminology and basic concepts before moving step-by-step into configuration, middleware setup, and policy design. This course is designed specifically for beginners and developers new to web security, requiring only a basic familiarity with C# and web development concepts. Start reading today to build a secure foundation for your next ASP.NET Core project.