What you'll learn

Working with containers gets messy fast if you're constantly rebuilding images, wiring up networks, and manually running every service.

In this course, Docker for Software Development: Docker Compose, you’ll learn how to use Docker Compose to standardize and automate your container workflow.

First, you’ll see what Docker Compose does, how its YAML structure defines services, and how a single file can replace long chains of docker commands.

Next, you’ll learn to build images from a Docker Compose file, and customize builds with context, custom Dockerfiles, and build args.

Then, you’ll explore core service settings including ports, volumes, environment variables, and bridge networks, so your containers run consistently and can communicate with each other.

Finally, you’ll discover the Docker Compose commands developers use every day: bringing stacks up and down, inspecting container status, viewing logs, shelling into containers, and even scaling services to simulate multi-instance setups.

When you're finished, you'll know how to build, configure, run, troubleshoot, and manage multi-container applications using Docker Compose in your development workflow.