DVA-C02 Study Guide: AWS Developer – Associate

How to Pass the AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C02) Exam in 2026 — hero

The AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam (DVA-C02) costs USD 150 (JPY 20,000 in Japan). It has 65 questions in 130 minutes and passes at 720 out of 1,000. The last day to take DVA-C02 is November 30, 2026; DVA-C03 replaces it from December 1, 2026, at the same length and price.

The AWS certification hub lists every AWS exam guide and practice app.

To prepare, learn Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, IAM and the AWS deployment tools well, then practise timed 65-question sets. Exam facts are from the AWS pages under Sources, checked October 15, 2026.

The Developer Associate is for people who write code that runs on AWS. The Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) is about designing systems; the CloudOps Engineer (formerly SysOps Administrator) is about operating them.

What is the DVA-C02 exam format?

Exam update (October 2026): DVA-C02’s last day is November 30, 2026. DVA-C03 is available from December 1, 2026 (registration opens October 27, 2026). According to the AWS announcement, DVA-C03 weights are Development with AWS Services 30%, Security 26%, Testing and Deployment 22%, Troubleshooting and Optimization 22%, with new AI-assisted development and AI security topics. This guide and the StudyKits Developer Associate app follow DVA-C02.

The DVA-C02 is the AWS Developer Associate exam until November 30, 2026. It has 65 questions (50 scored + 15 unscored), a 130-minute time limit, and requires a scaled score of 720 out of 1000 to pass. The exam costs USD 150.

Hands-on development experience on AWS helps a lot. If you have been building serverless applications or microservices on AWS, you are in good shape. If you come from a non-AWS development background, expect to spend extra time learning the AWS-specific ways of doing things.

What are the four DVA-C02 domains?

Domain 1: Development with AWS Services (32%)

This is the largest domain and the heart of the exam. You need deep knowledge of:

AWS Lambda:

Lambda execution model — handler function, context object, event object
Runtime environments and layers
Environment variables and encryption
Concurrency — reserved concurrency, provisioned concurrency, throttling behavior
Lambda destinations and dead-letter queues
Lambda Powertools for structured logging, tracing, and metrics
Cold starts and performance optimization
Lambda@Edge and CloudFront Functions
Lambda container image support

Lambda is the single most important service on this exam. If you understand Lambda deeply, you have a strong foundation for the entire test.

Amazon DynamoDB:

Table design — partition keys, sort keys, composite keys
Secondary indexes — Global Secondary Indexes (GSI) vs Local Secondary Indexes (LSI)
Read/write capacity — on-demand vs provisioned, RCUs and WCUs
DynamoDB Streams and triggers with Lambda
Batch operations — BatchGetItem, BatchWriteItem
Conditional writes, atomic counters, and optimistic locking
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for caching
PartiQL for SQL-compatible queries
Single-table design patterns

DynamoDB is the second most important service. You must understand capacity calculations (how to compute RCUs and WCUs), when to use GSI vs LSI, and how DynamoDB Streams work.

Amazon API Gateway:

REST APIs vs HTTP APIs vs WebSocket APIs
Stages, stage variables, and deployment
Request/response transformations with mapping templates
Authorization — IAM, Cognito, Lambda authorizers
Throttling and usage plans
API caching
CORS configuration
Integration types — Lambda proxy, Lambda custom, HTTP, Mock, AWS service

Amazon S3 from a developer perspective:

Pre-signed URLs for secure uploads and downloads
S3 event notifications
Multipart uploads
S3 Select for querying data in place
Server-side encryption options (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C)
CORS for web applications

Other development services:

Amazon SQS — standard vs FIFO, visibility timeout, dead-letter queues, long polling
Amazon SNS — topics, subscriptions, fan-out pattern, message filtering
Amazon EventBridge — event buses, rules, targets, schema registry
AWS AppSync — GraphQL API service, resolvers, data sources
Amazon ElastiCache — Redis vs Memcached, caching strategies (lazy loading, write-through)
Amazon Cognito — user pools vs identity pools, hosted UI, token handling

Domain 2: Security (26%)

Security is a larger part of the developer exam than many candidates expect.

Authentication and authorization:

IAM policies — identity-based vs resource-based, policy evaluation logic
IAM roles for EC2, Lambda, and ECS
STS AssumeRole and cross-account access
Amazon Cognito integration with API Gateway
Secrets Manager and Systems Manager Parameter Store

Encryption:

KMS — key policies, key rotation, envelope encryption
Encryption at rest for S3, DynamoDB, RDS, SQS, SNS
Encryption in transit — TLS/SSL, ACM certificates
Client-side vs server-side encryption

Application security:

Input validation and injection prevention
OWASP top 10 awareness
AWS WAF integration
VPC basics for developers — security groups, NACLs, VPC endpoints

Domain 3: Deployment (24%)

This domain tests CI/CD and infrastructure as code.

AWS developer tools:

CodeCommit — Git repositories on AWS (though this is being deprecated in favor of external Git providers)
CodeBuild — build specifications (buildspec.yml), build phases, build environments
CodeDeploy — deployment configurations, appspec.yml, deployment strategies (in-place, blue/green), lifecycle hooks
CodePipeline — pipeline stages, actions, artifacts, manual approvals
CodeArtifact — package management

Deployment patterns:

Blue/green deployments with CodeDeploy and Elastic Beanstalk
Canary deployments with Lambda aliases and weighted traffic shifting
Rolling deployments and rolling with additional batch
All-at-once deployment (and why to avoid it in production)

Infrastructure as Code:

CloudFormation — templates, stacks, change sets, drift detection
CloudFormation intrinsic functions — Ref, Fn::GetAtt, Fn::Join, Fn::Sub, Fn::Select, Fn::ImportValue
CloudFormation pseudo parameters and mappings
Nested stacks and cross-stack references
SAM (Serverless Application Model) — template syntax, sam build, sam deploy, sam local for testing
CDK (Cloud Development Kit) — constructs, stacks, synthesis

Elastic Beanstalk:

Platform types and configurations
Deployment policies
.ebextensions for customization
Environment management

Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%)

Observability:

CloudWatch Logs — log groups, log streams, metric filters, Logs Insights queries
CloudWatch Metrics — custom metrics, dimensions, statistics
CloudWatch Alarms — actions, composite alarms
X-Ray — tracing, segments, subsegments, annotations, metadata, sampling rules, service maps
X-Ray integration with Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, SNS

Troubleshooting:

Lambda troubleshooting — timeout errors, memory errors, permission errors
API Gateway error codes — 4xx vs 5xx, common scenarios
DynamoDB throttling and error handling
SQS visibility timeout issues
Reading and interpreting CloudWatch Logs

Optimization:

Lambda performance tuning — memory allocation, cold start mitigation, provisioned concurrency
DynamoDB performance — partition key design, adaptive capacity, on-demand vs provisioned
API Gateway caching
S3 transfer acceleration

What does a 5-week study plan look like?

Week 1: Lambda, DynamoDB, and API Gateway

Days 1-2: Deep dive into Lambda. Study the execution model, concurrency, layers, destinations, and performance optimization. Write and deploy at least one Lambda function.
Days 3-4: Deep dive into DynamoDB. Study table design, indexes, capacity modes, streams, and DAX. Practice capacity calculations.
Day 5: Study API Gateway — REST APIs, HTTP APIs, authorization options, stages, and throttling. Complete 3 practice question sets.

Week 2: Messaging, Caching, and Other Services

Days 1-2: Study SQS (standard vs FIFO, dead-letter queues, long polling), SNS (fan-out, filtering), and EventBridge (rules, targets, event patterns).
Days 3-4: Study Cognito (user pools, identity pools), ElastiCache (Redis vs Memcached, caching strategies), S3 developer features (pre-signed URLs, event notifications).
Day 5: Complete 3 practice question sets covering messaging and integration services.

Week 3: Security

Days 1-2: Study IAM policies in depth — policy structure, evaluation logic, cross-account access, STS. Study KMS encryption and key management.
Days 3-4: Study Secrets Manager, Parameter Store, Cognito authentication flows, and API Gateway authorization options.
Day 5: Complete 3 practice question sets on security topics.

Week 4: Deployment, IaC, and Troubleshooting

Days 1-2: Study the CodePipeline/CodeBuild/CodeDeploy toolchain. Understand buildspec.yml and appspec.yml. Study deployment strategies.
Days 3-4: Study CloudFormation templates, SAM, and CDK basics. Study X-Ray tracing and CloudWatch observability.
Day 5: Complete 3 practice question sets on deployment and troubleshooting.

Week 5: Review and Exam Simulation

Days 1-2: Full-length practice exam under timed conditions. Identify weak areas.
Days 3-4: Targeted review of weak topics. Focus on services and scenarios you consistently miss.
Day 5: Second full-length practice exam. Aim for 80%+.

What tips are specific to DVA-C02?

Know your error codes. The exam frequently tests whether you can identify what is wrong from an error message or status code. A 429 from API Gateway means throttling. A ProvisionedThroughputExceededException from DynamoDB means you need more capacity or better key design. A timeout error from Lambda means your function ran longer than its configured timeout.

Understand the developer perspective. This is not the Solutions Architect exam. Questions focus on “how would you implement this” rather than “how would you design this.” Expect questions about code structure, SDK usage, and debugging.

SAM and CDK are increasingly important. AWS is pushing SAM and CDK heavily. Know the SAM template format, the sam local testing command, and how CDK synthesizes CloudFormation templates.

Study X-Ray integration patterns. X-Ray appears in many troubleshooting questions. Know how to enable tracing for Lambda, API Gateway, and how to read a service map to identify bottlenecks.

What comes after DVA-C02?

After DVA-C02, common paths include:

AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) if you want to broaden your architecture skills
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional (DOP-C02) if you want to go deeper into CI/CD, automation, and operations at scale
AWS Generative AI Developer - Professional (AIP-C01) if you want to build generative AI applications on AWS

The skills this exam tests are the ones you use when building applications on AWS. Follow the 5-week plan, practise timed sets, and check which exam version you are booking.

See the full 2026 AWS certification roadmap for all available paths.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the DVA-C02 exam cost?

USD 150. In Japan the price is JPY 20,000. AWS also lists local prices for AUD, EUR, KRW, CNY and INR on its before-testing page.

When is the last day for DVA-C02?

November 30, 2026. DVA-C03 is delivered from December 1, 2026, and registration opens October 27, 2026.

What changes in DVA-C03?

According to the AWS announcement: Development with AWS Services 30%, Security 26%, Testing and Deployment 22%, and Troubleshooting and Optimization 22%. It adds AI-assisted development, an AI security task and container management. The full guide is due when registration opens.

What is the DVA-C02 passing score?

720 on a scale of 100-1,000.

Can I take it in Japanese?

Yes. DVA-C02 is offered in English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese and Spanish (Latin America).

How to Pass the AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C02) Exam in 2026