Ever had to add the ability to your ASP.NET Core web application to authenticate users? Or build an API that needs to verify it's being called by the right clients? Be honest: did you fully understand what you were doing, or did you just copy-paste some code from StackOverflow or your favorite AI assistant and hope for the best?

In this session, I'll explain how authentication actually works in ASP.NET Core from start to finish. We'll begin with configuring the middleware, explore how authentication schemes are selected, and dig into handlers, tokens, cookies and headers.

Bring your questions and leave your fear of AddAuthentication() behind!

You will learn:

• Demystify the ASP.NET Core Authentication Architecture: Understand how the authentication middleware, schemes, and handlers interact behind the scenes to process identity for incoming requests.
• How to differentiate and Configure Identity Mechanisms: Learn how to correctly evaluate, select, and implement different authentication state mechanisms, including cookies, JWT tokens, and request headers.
• How to transition from Boilerplate to Purpose-Built Code: Move beyond copy-pasting code from StackOverflow or AI assistants by gaining the confidence to configure, customize, and troubleshoot AddAuthentication() for specific application needs.