To prepare for AWS Certified Developer - Associate, use the exam guide for the code on your booking, identify gaps across all four domains, and practice explaining application behavior. This guide covers DVA-C02, including a worked Lambda and SQS exercise and the announced transition to DVA-C03.
Is Developer Associate right for you?
The credential validates that you can develop, test, deploy, and debug AWS Cloud-based applications as a working developer.
AWS recommends at least one year of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications with AWS services, along with proficiency in a high-level programming language. These are recommendations: AWS does not require a prerequisite certification or a training course.
If you are new to IT, AWS suggests Cloud Practitioner as a way to build foundational knowledge. Use the Developer exam tasks to decide what you still need to learn before booking.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024; AWS Certification FAQs
Which exam version should you prepare for?
DVA-C02 is the current exam. Its last testing day is December 1, 2026; registration for DVA-C03 opens October 27, 2026.
December 1 is the last day to take DVA-C02, not merely a deadline to reserve a later appointment. Check the exam code on your booking and match your study materials to that code.
AWS asks candidates to return on October 27 for DVA-C03 information and preparation resources. Registration opening is not, by itself, a first testing date. This guide describes DVA-C02; check the updated official guide before preparing for DVA-C03.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024
What to expect on the exam
You have 130 minutes for 65 multiple-choice or multiple-response questions. Fifty questions are scored, and 15 unscored questions are not identified.
Multiple-choice questions have one correct answer and three distractors. Multiple-response questions have two or more correct answers among five or more options. Follow the selection instructions in each question.
The passing score is 720 on a scale of 100–1,000. It is a scaled score, so you cannot read it as a requirement to answer 72% correctly. You pass on your overall result; there is no separate passing requirement for every domain. Unanswered questions count as incorrect, and there is no penalty for guessing.
The guide describes possible unscored pretest questions on emerging AI topics. That does not make every AI-related question unscored: using Amazon Q Developer already appears in the current domain tasks. Prepare for the published tasks rather than trying to identify pretest questions.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024; AWS Certification FAQs
What to study in each domain
Use all four domains to plan your preparation. The percentages describe scored exam content, rather than a fixed study-time split for every candidate.
Start with the tasks in the official guide, then spend extra time on those you cannot yet explain or carry out. The practice ideas below are study suggestions; they are not additional exam requirements.
| Domain | Weight | What to review and practice |
|---|---|---|
| Development with AWS Services | 32% | Application code using APIs and SDKs, Lambda, and data stores. Trace a message through an application, inspect error handling, and explain a data-access choice. |
| Security | 26% | Authentication, authorization, encryption, and sensitive data in code. Review a sample application’s permissions and identify where it handles credentials and sensitive information. |
| Deployment | 24% | Application artifacts, development testing, automated deployment testing, and deployment using CI/CD services. Practice reading a deployment configuration and explaining its test and rollback steps. |
| Troubleshooting and Optimization | 18% | Root cause analysis, observability, and optimization. Read sample logs, metrics, and traces; list what they establish and what you would investigate next. |
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024
Where does the developer role stop?
The guide excludes specified architecture and administration tasks, while still testing how developers use the relevant services.
For example, deploying through existing continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) services is in scope, even though designing and creating the pipelines is outside the target role. IAM permissions and access to private VPC resources from Lambda code also appear in the development tasks. Use these specific boundaries rather than excluding an entire technology.
- Designing architectures, including distributed systems, microservices, and database schemas
- Designing and creating CI/CD pipelines (deploying code with existing CI/CD services is in scope)
- Administering IAM users and groups
- Administering servers and operating systems
- Designing AWS networking infrastructure, such as Amazon VPC and AWS Direct Connect
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024
How to use the service list
Use the official service list alongside the domain tasks, and learn what a service does in an application rather than memorizing names alone.
The guide lists services that are in and out of scope and says the lists are not exhaustive. Connect each service you review to a development, security, deployment, or troubleshooting task.
AWS provides a list of service short names and full names through the exam’s Help button. The issuer says this change is on the English exam and is being introduced in other languages on a rolling basis. You can review the published list before your exam.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024
Practice: report a failed message in a Lambda batch
A partial batch response identifies the messages that failed. It reduces unnecessary retries from that failed batch; your code still needs to tolerate duplicate delivery.
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) can supply batches of messages to a Lambda function through an event source mapping. With ReportBatchItemFailures enabled, the function can return failed message IDs in batchItemFailures instead of failing the whole batch.
The exercise uses a standard queue and a handler that catches processing errors and returns normally. An uncaught exception makes the whole batch fail. For a FIFO queue, AWS instead instructs you to stop after the first failure and report failed and unprocessed messages to preserve ordering.
Lambda’s SQS event source mappings process records at least once. Idempotent code handles a repeated message without an unintended repeated effect, such as charging a customer twice.
Practice exercise
A Lambda function receives a batch from a standard SQS queue. ReportBatchItemFailures is enabled on its event source mapping. The message IDs are orderA, orderB, and orderC. The handler processes orderA and orderC successfully. Processing orderB fails; the handler catches that error and returns normally. What JSON response should report the failed item? Why does the handler still need to tolerate repeated messages?
Show answer
Return {"batchItemFailures":[{"itemIdentifier":"orderB"}]}. The handler still needs to tolerate duplicates because the event source mapping processes records at least once.
Only orderB failed in this completed invocation, so it is the only message ID to include in the partial failure response. This avoids retrying orderA and orderC solely because orderB failed; it does not guarantee that they can never be delivered again. If the handler had thrown an uncaught exception, the entire batch would have been considered a failure.
Sources used: Using AWS Lambda with Amazon SQS - AWS Lambda Developer Guide; Handling errors for an SQS event source in Lambda - AWS Lambda Developer Guide — Implementing partial batch responses
Booking, fees, and results
The listed exam fee is USD 150. You can book with Pearson VUE at a test center or online, subject to availability; check local taxes and currency pricing before paying.
The AWS Certification FAQ explains appointment changes and retakes. Review the full policy for your circumstances before booking.
- Schedule changes: the standard policy permits rescheduling or cancellation up to 24 hours before the appointment. Within 24 hours, you normally cannot change it.
- Failed attempt: wait 14 calendar days before retaking the exam. AWS states that there is no attempt limit and that each attempt requires the full registration fee.
- Results: check Exam History in your AWS Certification Account within five business days. Most exams do not show a pass or fail result on screen immediately.
- Language: DVA-C02 is listed in English, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Latin American Spanish. Confirm the available language when booking.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certification FAQs
A practical preparation checklist
Use this suggested sequence to identify and close gaps before your exam.
AWS’s preparation path combines exam-style questions, targeted learning, practice, and a readiness assessment. Adapt it to your starting point; completing a particular course is not an entry requirement.
- Confirm the exam code and testing date, then save the matching official exam guide.
- Mark each domain task as something you can explain, something you have practiced, or a gap to work on.
- Use the official practice question set to learn the format. Review both incorrect answers and correct answers you guessed.
- Choose hands-on practice that addresses your gaps. For each exercise, write down its assumptions, expected result, observed result, and explanation.
- Revisit the Lambda exercise above: explain the partial failure response, the uncaught-exception case, and the need for idempotency.
- Use a practice exam to find remaining weaknesses, then review the booking instructions and appointment-change deadline.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page); AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) — Version 2.1, published December 12, 2024; Using AWS Lambda with Amazon SQS - AWS Lambda Developer Guide; Handling errors for an SQS event source in Lambda - AWS Lambda Developer Guide — Implementing partial batch responses; AWS Certification FAQs
Keeping your certification current
AWS Certified Developer - Associate is valid for three years.
AWS lists two recertification routes: pass the latest version of this Associate exam, or earn AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional. Check the issuer’s current requirements as your renewal date approaches.
Sources used: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (AWS Certification page)
Sources used
Facts checked against official sources: