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AWS Certified Developer · Associate badge
DVA-C02 · Free study guideDVA-C03 opens Oct 27

AWS Certified Developer · Associate

For developers who build on AWS: you write code that uses AWS services, secure it, deploy it through CI/CD, and fix it when it misbehaves. AWS is moving to DVA-C03; the last day for DVA-C02 is November 30, 2026.

Questions
65 (50 scored)
Time
130 minutes
Passing score
720 / 1000
Level
Associate

What the exam covers

Domains and key topics

Domain 132% of the exam

Development with AWS Services

  • Event-driven and serverless patterns: Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions
  • Lambda configuration: memory, timeouts, concurrency, layers, destinations
  • Messaging and streaming in code: SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Kinesis
  • DynamoDB design: keys, indexes, queries vs. scans, capacity modes
  • SDK patterns: retries with backoff, pagination, idempotency
Official domain details ↗
Domain 226% of the exam

Security

  • Authentication with Amazon Cognito user pools and identity pools
  • IAM roles for applications, temporary credentials and STS
  • Encryption with KMS: envelope encryption, client vs. server side
  • Secrets in code: Secrets Manager and Parameter Store, never hard-coded
Official domain details ↗
Domain 324% of the exam

Deployment

  • Packaging artifacts: container images in ECR, Lambda packages, AWS SAM
  • Environments and testing: stages, aliases, versions
  • CI/CD with CodePipeline, CodeBuild and CodeDeploy
  • Deployment strategies: all at once, rolling, blue/green, canary
Official domain details ↗
Domain 418% of the exam

Troubleshooting and Optimization

  • Root cause analysis with CloudWatch Logs and Logs Insights
  • Tracing with AWS X-Ray and structured logging
  • Custom metrics, alarms and dashboards
  • Performance: caching, concurrency limits, cold starts, throttling
Official domain details ↗

Know these well

Key AWS services

AWS Lambda

Functions, triggers, concurrency and versions.

Amazon API Gateway

REST, HTTP and WebSocket APIs in front of your code.

Amazon DynamoDB

Keys, indexes, streams and DAX.

SQS, SNS & EventBridge

Decoupling and event routing.

AWS Step Functions

Orchestrate multi-step workflows.

Amazon Cognito

Sign-up, sign-in and access for app users.

AWS KMS & Secrets Manager

Encryption keys and stored secrets.

AWS SAM & CloudFormation

Infrastructure as code for serverless apps.

CodePipeline, CodeBuild & CodeDeploy

Build, test and release automatically.

CloudWatch & X-Ray

Logs, metrics, alarms and traces.

How to prepare

A simple study plan

  1. 1Read the official exam guide and check which version (C02 or C03) you will sit.
  2. 2Build one small serverless app: API Gateway, Lambda and DynamoDB.
  3. 3Spend the most time on domain 1 (32%): Lambda and DynamoDB details decide many questions.
  4. 4Practice the deployment strategies until you can pick one from a requirement.
  5. 5Take a timed practice exam and review every explanation, right and wrong.

Always check the official DVA-C02 exam guide ↗ for the current version of the exam.

Preparing for more than one exam?

Every AWS certification has a free study guide here, from Foundational to Specialty.

All study guides →