FREE AWS Developer DVA-C02 Exam Guide 2026: Pass on Attempt 1

AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) Exam Guide 2026: The Only Walkthrough You Need

If you write code that touches AWS - Lambda handlers, DynamoDB reads, S3 uploads, IAM policies, API Gateway routes - the AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) is the single most useful credential on your resume in 2026. It is explicitly an implementation exam: less architecture whiteboarding than Solutions Architect Associate, and far more "how does boto3 actually behave when DynamoDB throttles." That narrower focus is why experienced developers often pass DVA-C02 in 3-5 weeks of focused study while total beginners need 10-12.

This guide is built exclusively for the current 2026 exam version (DVA-C02). Every weight, fee, service in/out-of-scope, and policy below is cross-checked against the Exam Guide PDF published on docs.aws.amazon.com and the official exam page at aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/. If a competitor guide still references DVA-C01, closed captions of DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) as optional, or Amazon Linux 1, skip it - that exam was retired in 2023.

DVA-C02 At-a-Glance (2026)

Sources: aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/ and the DVA-C02 Exam Guide PDF (d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-dev-associate/AWS-Certified-Developer-Associate_Exam-Guide.pdf).

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Who Should Sit DVA-C02

The DVA-C02 is positioned by AWS as a role-based Associate exam for software developers, not architects or operators. You are a strong fit if:

Who should NOT start here? Complete AWS newcomers who have never deployed a Lambda should pass AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) first - it is cheaper ($100), covers the vocabulary, and the 50% voucher you get for passing it pays for DVA-C02. If your job is infrastructure and networking (VPC, Transit Gateway, subnet design), the Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) is the better first exam.

Prerequisites and Recommended Background

AWS does not require any certification to sit DVA-C02. The official target-candidate description is:

• 1+ year of hands-on experience developing and maintaining AWS Cloud applications
• Strong proficiency in at least one high-level programming language (Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Go, PHP, Ruby)
• Familiarity with developer tooling: Git, CI/CD concepts, CLI, IDEs with AWS extensions
• Core AWS vocabulary: regions, AZs, IAM identities, S3 buckets, EC2 basics, VPC basics
• Understanding of HTTP, REST, JSON, and basic distributed systems concepts (idempotency, eventual consistency, retries)

If any of those are gaps, close them before you buy an exam voucher. Reading the Lambda Developer Guide cover-to-cover takes a weekend and pays back 10x during the exam.

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DVA-C02 Domain Blueprint (2026 Weights - Verified)

The official Exam Guide (Version 1.3 as of the 2026 exam window) breaks DVA-C02 into four content domains with fixed percentage weights:

Source: AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Guide (DVA-C02) - Content outline section.

Three observations experienced candidates wish they had known:

1. Development (32%) is not a coding test. You will see pseudocode and boto3/CLI snippets, but nothing that asks you to compile. The domain tests your knowledge of which service to call, with what parameters, and how it will behave under failure.
2. Security is 26% - larger than Deployment. Candidates routinely under-study IAM policy evaluation, KMS, Secrets Manager vs Parameter Store, Cognito user pools vs identity pools, and temporary credentials. This is the #1 domain where borderline candidates lose points.
3. Troubleshooting is only 18% but touches every service. CloudWatch Logs, X-Ray, Lambda dead-letter queues, DynamoDB throttling, S3 transfer acceleration, and API Gateway 5xx patterns all live here.

Domain 1: Development with AWS Services (32%)

This is the largest and most code-adjacent domain. The four tasks the exam guide lists:

1. Develop code for applications hosted on AWS - event-driven, microservices, monolith, choreography vs orchestration, idempotency, stateful vs stateless, tight vs loose coupling.
2. Develop code for AWS Lambda - event sources, synchronous vs asynchronous invocation, destinations, Lambda layers, environment variables, concurrency (reserved vs provisioned), container images, ephemeral storage, response streaming.
3. Use data stores in application development - DynamoDB (keys, GSI/LSI, PartiQL, Streams, transactions, TTL), RDS/Aurora (connection pooling, RDS Proxy), S3 (event notifications, versioning, lifecycle), ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached patterns), Aurora DSQL.
4. Manage application integration with AWS services - SQS (standard vs FIFO, visibility timeout, DLQs), SNS (fan-out, message filtering, FIFO topics), EventBridge (rules, schemas, pipes), Step Functions (standard vs express, Map state, error retries).

Highest-yield sub-topics:

• Lambda invocation models: synchronous (API Gateway, ALB), asynchronous (S3, SNS, EventBridge), poll-based (SQS, Kinesis, DynamoDB Streams). Know which ones retry automatically and which need client retry logic.
• DynamoDB partition keys: hot partition diagnosis, GSI vs LSI trade-offs (GSI is eventually consistent across partitions; LSI must share PK with base table), TTL for automatic expiry, DynamoDB Streams for CDC into Lambda.
• SQS visibility timeout: must exceed function execution time + processing buffer; exam loves "why are my messages processed twice?" scenarios.
• Step Functions: Standard (up to 1 year, expensive per transition) vs Express (up to 5 min, cheap, at-least-once). Map state for parallel iteration. Error handling with Retry and Catch blocks.

Domain 2: Security (26%)

The domain that quietly separates passes from fails.

1. Implement authentication and/or authorization for applications and AWS services.
2. Implement encryption by using AWS services.
3. Manage sensitive data in application code.

High-yield sub-topics:

• IAM policy evaluation logic: explicit Deny > explicit Allow > implicit Deny. Resource-based + identity-based policies (both evaluated). Permission boundaries vs SCPs vs session policies. Principle of least privilege.
• Cognito user pools vs identity pools: user pools = authentication (sign-in, MFA, JWT issuance). Identity pools = authorization for AWS resources via temporary credentials. Federation with OIDC/SAML/social.
• AWS STS: AssumeRole, AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity, AssumeRoleWithSAML, GetSessionToken. 15 min to 12 hours session duration. External ID for cross-account confused-deputy protection.
• KMS: customer managed keys (CMK) vs AWS managed vs AWS owned, key policies, grants, automatic key rotation (365 days), envelope encryption, GenerateDataKey patterns, multi-Region keys.
• Secrets Manager vs Parameter Store: Secrets Manager rotates secrets automatically via Lambda, costs $0.40/secret/month + API calls; Parameter Store is free for Standard tier, ~$0.05/advanced param/month with rotation via EventBridge.
• S3 encryption options: SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C, client-side. DSSE-KMS (dual-layer server-side KMS). Bucket keys for KMS cost reduction.

Domain 3: Deployment (24%)

1. Prepare application artifacts to be deployed to AWS - AWS SAM, CDK, CloudFormation, container images, Lambda layers, AppConfig, Secrets Manager.
2. Test applications in development environments.
3. Automate deployment testing.
4. Deploy code by using AWS CI/CD services - CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodePipeline, CodeArtifact. Deployment strategies (canary, blue/green, rolling, linear, all-at-once).

High-yield sub-topics:

• CloudFormation: intrinsic functions (Fn::Ref, Fn::GetAtt, Fn::Sub, Fn::ImportValue), nested stacks vs cross-stack references, change sets, stack policies, DeletionPolicy (Retain/Snapshot/Delete), UpdateReplacePolicy, drift detection, Transform: AWS::Serverless (SAM).
• AWS SAM: SAM CLI (sam build, sam deploy --guided, sam local invoke, sam sync), Globals section, SAM templates as a CloudFormation transform.
• AWS CDK: L1 (Cfn), L2 (Construct), L3 (Patterns). cdk synth, cdk diff, cdk deploy, cdk destroy. Aspects for policy injection.
• CodeDeploy deployment configurations: Lambda (Canary10Percent5Minutes, Canary10Percent15Minutes, Linear10PercentEvery1Minute, Linear10PercentEvery2Minutes, Linear10PercentEvery3Minutes, Linear10PercentEvery10Minutes, AllAtOnce), EC2/On-Prem (OneAtATime, HalfAtATime, AllAtOnce, custom), ECS (Canary, Linear, AllAtOnce).
• CodePipeline: source -> build -> test -> deploy stages. Manual approval actions. Cross-region artifact buckets. Integrations with CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation, ECS, Lambda.

Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%)

1. Assist in a root cause analysis.
2. Instrument code for observability.
3. Optimize applications and services for performance, cost, and scalability.

High-yield sub-topics:

• AWS X-Ray: traces, segments, subsegments, annotations (indexed, filterable) vs metadata (not indexed). X-Ray SDK auto-instrumentation for AWS SDK calls, sampling rules.
• CloudWatch Logs: log groups, log streams, retention, metric filters, Logs Insights queries (fields, filter, stats, sort). Embedded Metric Format (EMF) for structured metrics from Lambda.
• CloudWatch Metrics & Alarms: standard (1-minute) vs high-resolution (1-second) metrics. Composite alarms. Alarms triggering SNS/EventBridge/Auto Scaling actions.
• Lambda troubleshooting: cold starts (SnapStart for Java/Python/.NET, provisioned concurrency, smaller packages), memory tuning (Lambda Power Tuning tool), timeout vs memory relationship, dead-letter queues, on-failure destinations.
• API Gateway caching: stage-level cache, cache key parameters, cache invalidation via request header, throttling (account-level 10K RPS default, per-method throttling, usage plans).
• S3 performance patterns: multipart upload (>= 100MB recommended, required > 5GB), Transfer Acceleration (CloudFront edge upload), S3 Intelligent-Tiering, request rate 3,500 PUT/COPY/POST/DELETE and 5,500 GET/HEAD per second per prefix.

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Per-Service Deep Dive: The 10 Services You MUST Master

1. AWS Lambda

Lambda is the single highest-impact service on DVA-C02. If you can only study deeply for two services, make one of them Lambda. Key concepts:

• Execution model: container re-use, cold-start causes (new container, config change, code change, scale-up), /tmp ephemeral storage (up to 10 GB configurable).
• Concurrency: unreserved pool default 1,000 per Region per account (raisable), reserved concurrency (guarantees capacity AND caps it), provisioned concurrency (pre-warmed, no cold starts, billed per GB-sec).
• Packaging: .zip up to 50 MB zipped / 250 MB unzipped direct upload; 250 MB via S3; container images up to 10 GB.
• Layers: up to 5 layers per function; shared code/dependencies; versioned independently.
• Triggers you must know cold: API Gateway (sync), ALB (sync), S3 events (async), SNS (async), EventBridge (async), SQS (poll, batch), Kinesis (poll, batch), DynamoDB Streams (poll, batch).
• Error handling: async invocations auto-retry twice over ~6 hours; on-failure destination sends failed events to SQS/SNS/EventBridge/Lambda; DLQs still supported but destinations are the current best practice.

2. Amazon DynamoDB

• Primary key: partition key only, OR partition key + sort key (composite). Partition key design is the #1 performance lever.
• Indexes: GSI (any key, eventual consistency, new partition key allowed, up to 20 per table default) vs LSI (same partition key as base, strong consistency optional, up to 5, must be defined at table creation).
• Capacity modes: provisioned (RCU/WCU, Auto Scaling optional) vs on-demand (pay per request, no capacity planning).
• Transactions: TransactWriteItems (up to 100 actions, 4MB total), TransactGetItems (up to 100, 4MB).
• Streams: 24-hour change log, up to 2 consumers per stream, Kinesis Data Streams adapter for higher fan-out; common Lambda trigger pattern.
• PartiQL: SQL-compatible query language for DynamoDB (SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE).
• TTL: automatic expiry; attribute must be Number in epoch seconds; deletion within 48 hours of expiry, not instant.
• DAX: in-memory cache for DynamoDB; microsecond reads; separate VPC endpoint; eventual consistency.

3. Amazon S3

• Consistency: strong read-after-write consistency for all operations as of December 2020 (on all exam versions since DVA-C02 launched).
• Storage classes: Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier Flexible Retrieval, Glacier Deep Archive. Know minimum storage durations and retrieval costs.
• Versioning & MFA Delete: versioning must be enabled to use Object Lock (compliance vs governance mode).
• Event notifications: SQS, SNS, Lambda, EventBridge - know the limits (one notification target per event type unless using EventBridge).
• Presigned URLs: inherit the IAM permissions of the signing identity; time-limited (up to 7 days with SigV4 + IAM user; up to 12 hours with role credentials).
• Multipart upload: required > 5GB; recommended > 100MB; lifecycle rule to abort incomplete multipart uploads is exam gold.
• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS): JSON-based policy on bucket; required for static site + JS SPA architectures.

4. Amazon IAM

• Policy types: identity-based (user/group/role), resource-based (bucket policy, key policy, Lambda resource policy), permission boundaries, SCPs (Organization-level), session policies, ACLs (legacy).
• Evaluation logic: explicit Deny wins always, then explicit Allow, else implicit Deny.
• Roles vs users: roles are assumable (temporary credentials via STS); services should use roles; humans should use IAM Identity Center (federation) not IAM users in 2026.
• Condition keys: global (aws:PrincipalArn, aws:SourceIp, aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent, aws:SecureTransport) and service-specific (s3:prefix, dynamodb:LeadingKeys).
• IAM Access Analyzer: identifies resources shared with external accounts.

5. AWS CloudFormation & CDK

• CloudFormation anatomy: Parameters, Mappings, Conditions, Resources, Outputs, Metadata, Transform.
• Intrinsic functions: Ref, Fn::GetAtt, Fn::Sub, Fn::Join, Fn::Select, Fn::Split, Fn::ImportValue, Fn::FindInMap, Fn::If, Fn::Equals.
• Stack lifecycle: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS -> CREATE_COMPLETE; ROLLBACK states on failure. Drift detection. Change sets preview updates.
• DeletionPolicy and UpdateReplacePolicy: Retain, Snapshot (RDS/EBS/Redshift), Delete (default). Critical for data-layer stacks.
• Nested stacks vs cross-stack references: nested stacks for repeated patterns, Exports + Fn::ImportValue for shared resources.
• CDK: synthesizes CloudFormation; strongly-typed constructs; Aspects for org-wide policy; cdk bootstrap sets up the deployment account.

6. AWS X-Ray

• Traces and segments: one trace per request; each AWS service call becomes a subsegment; annotations (key/value indexed) vs metadata (arbitrary, not searchable).
• SDK integration: aws-xray-sdk-python, aws-xray-sdk-node, AWS X-Ray SDK for Java. Auto-instruments boto3, requests, MySQL, Postgres.
• Sampling: default 1 req/sec + 5% thereafter; custom sampling rules in X-Ray console.
• ServiceLens & Contributor Insights: higher-level dashboards built on X-Ray + CloudWatch Logs.

7. AWS CodePipeline / CodeBuild / CodeDeploy / CodeCommit / CodeArtifact

Note: CodeCommit was closed to new customers in 2024 but remains in scope for existing users; CodePipeline is expanding toward GitHub/Bitbucket-native source stages. Verify current availability before relying on Code services in production.*

• CodePipeline: stage/action model; transition controls; manual approvals; cross-region artifact bucket for multi-Region deploys.
• CodeBuild: buildspec.yml (install, pre_build, build, post_build, artifacts, cache). Compute types (general1.small -> 2xlarge). Reports for test results.
• CodeDeploy: appspec.yml at repo root. Lifecycle hooks differ by compute platform (Lambda has BeforeAllowTraffic, AfterAllowTraffic; ECS adds BeforeInstall; EC2 adds ApplicationStop, DownloadBundle, etc.).
• CodeArtifact: private package repository for npm, PyPI, Maven, NuGet, generic.

8. Amazon API Gateway

• REST API vs HTTP API vs WebSocket API: REST = full-featured (caching, usage plans, WAF, API keys), HTTP = cheap/fast (70% cheaper, no caching), WebSocket = duplex connections with Lambda backends.
• Authorization: IAM, Cognito user pools, Lambda authorizers (TOKEN or REQUEST type, with caching), API keys (identification only - NOT auth).
• Stages and stage variables: swap Lambda aliases per stage (dev/staging/prod) without redeploying.
• Throttling: account-level defaults (10K RPS region-wide), per-method throttling, usage plans per API key.
• Caching: stage-level, 0.5 GB to 237 GB, TTL up to 3600s; per-key caching based on method request parameters.

9. Messaging: SQS, SNS, EventBridge

• SQS Standard vs FIFO: Standard = unlimited TPS, at-least-once, best-effort ordering. FIFO = 300 TPS without batching / 3,000 with batching, exactly-once, strict order by MessageGroupId. MessageDeduplicationId for idempotency.
• Visibility timeout: default 30s, max 12 hours. ChangeMessageVisibility for long-running jobs. Too short -> duplicate processing; too long -> slow retries on crashes.
• Long polling: ReceiveMessageWaitTimeSeconds up to 20s; dramatically reduces empty-receive costs.
• Dead-letter queues: after maxReceiveCount; separate SQS queue; must have same type (Standard DLQ for Standard queue; FIFO DLQ for FIFO).
• SNS fan-out: one topic -> many subscribers (SQS, Lambda, HTTP/S, email, SMS, Kinesis Firehose). Message filtering with filter policies (JSON).
• EventBridge: default bus vs custom bus vs partner bus. Rules match events by pattern. Archive & replay. Schema registry. Pipes (point-to-point source -> target with optional enrichment).

10. AWS CodeDeploy Deep Dive + CodeGuru/CloudShell

• Blue/green for Lambda: CodeDeploy shifts traffic via alias weighted routing; pre/post hooks invoke validation Lambdas.
• Blue/green for ECS: CodeDeploy creates a second task set on a new target group; traffic shifts via ALB listener rule.
• CodeGuru Reviewer: ML-powered PR code review; CodeGuru Profiler: runtime performance insights.
• AWS CloudShell: browser-based shell with AWS CLI pre-installed; 1 GB /tmp, 1 GB persistent home per Region.

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Cost & Registration (2026)

How to register: Create an AWS Certification account at aws.amazon.com/certification/, then schedule with Pearson VUE (testing center or OnVUE online proctor). You need a government-issued photo ID that matches your Certification profile name exactly.

Recertification Strategy (2026)

AWS Associate certifications are valid for 3 years. You can recertify two ways:

1. Pass DVA-C02 again (the latest version at the time; AWS periodically rolls to new series codes like DVA-C03).
2. Pass a higher-tier AWS certification in the intervening 3 years - the new cert automatically renews any Associate-level certifications you hold. Common upgrade paths:
   • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02) - the natural next step for DVA-C02 holders.
   • AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) - if you have also held SAA.
   • Any Specialty (Security, Advanced Networking, Machine Learning Engineer Associate, etc.).

AWS does not offer a CEU/continuing-education credit system like some other vendors. Recertification is pass-an-exam only. Factor this into your career budget: either a ~$150 exam every 3 years or a natural progression to Pro/Specialty.

10-Week DVA-C02 Study Plan (For Working Developers)

This plan assumes 8-10 hours/week and ~1 year of prior AWS hands-on experience. Cut in half if you are a full-time student with more hours available.

Time Allocation (Match the Blueprint, Not Your Comfort Zone)

Recommended Resources (FREE-First, Then Paid)

Hands-On Labs Are Non-Negotiable

DVA-C02 tests implementation knowledge. Without hands-on time you cannot pass. Build these six labs in an AWS Free Tier account before test day:

1. Serverless REST API: API Gateway (REST) + Lambda (Python/Node) + DynamoDB + Cognito user pool auth.
2. S3 Static Site + Presigned Upload: S3 + CloudFront + a Lambda that issues presigned PUT URLs.
3. Event-driven pipeline: S3 PUT -> Lambda -> DynamoDB + SNS fan-out to SQS + DLQ.
4. Step Functions orchestration: a state machine with Map, Parallel, Retry, Catch, and a manual approval step via callback token.
5. CI/CD: CodeCommit (or GitHub) -> CodeBuild -> CodeDeploy Canary to Lambda alias via SAM pipeline template.
6. Observability stack: X-Ray + CloudWatch Logs (Logs Insights) + EMF metrics + CloudWatch alarm -> SNS.

If you have built all six, the exam's scenario items will read like your own system.

Test-Day Strategy

Before the exam:

• Confirm the name on your AWS Certification profile matches your government photo ID exactly.
• If online-proctored (OnVUE), run the Pearson VUE system test 24+ hours in advance; webcam, microphone, and bandwidth failures cost slots.
• Clear your workspace: no notes, no secondary monitors, no phone within reach. Proctor will require a 360-degree room scan.
• Sleep. Caffeine is fine if routine, skip if not.

During the exam:

• 130 minutes / 65 questions = exactly 2 minutes per question. Flag and move on if you spend 2.5 minutes.
• Read each question twice. Long scenarios often hide the actual ask in the last sentence ("most cost-effective," "least operational overhead," "highest availability").
• Eliminate first. On a 4-option question you can usually discard 2 obviously wrong answers; then pick the AWS-idiomatic one between the final two. Idiomatic = managed service, least code, least operational overhead, most loosely coupled.
• Multi-response questions tell you how many to choose ("Select TWO"). Choosing three is wrong - partial credit does not exist on DVA-C02.
• Skip the "help" button for the service short-name list - familiarize yourself beforehand.

After the exam:

• Provisional pass/fail appears on screen at the test center or at OnVUE session close.
• Official result + scaled score (0-1000; pass = 720) arrive within 5 business days via email.
• Skill-area breakdown appears on your AWS Certification account dashboard - "Meets competency," "Needs improvement" per domain.
• Digital badge is Credly-issued and shareable on LinkedIn within a day of passing.

Common Pitfalls That Sink First-Time Scores

1. Treating DVA-C02 like Solutions Architect Associate. Fewer VPC questions, far more "what does this boto3 call return" scenarios. Shift study time toward code-level service behavior.
2. Under-studying IAM policy evaluation. Explicit Deny > explicit Allow > implicit Deny, and resource-based + identity-based policies are evaluated together. Memorize the flowchart.
3. Confusing Cognito user pools and identity pools. User pool = who you are (authentication). Identity pool = what AWS APIs you can call (authorization via temp credentials).
4. Skipping X-Ray. At least 2-3 troubleshooting questions lean on annotations vs metadata, sampling, and subsegments.
5. Memorizing exact CloudFormation intrinsic functions. You will see Fn::Sub vs Fn::Join vs Fn::GetAtt in question stems and code snippets. Know how each behaves.
6. Ignoring Step Functions. It carries real weight in Domain 1 integration patterns; know Standard vs Express, Map state, Retry/Catch, and callback tokens.
7. Weak on Lambda concurrency. Reserved vs provisioned vs unreserved is a guaranteed scenario. Know which one prevents cold starts vs which one caps cost.
8. Not practicing timed. 130 minutes feels long until you hit a 400-word case-study scenario. Do at least two full-length timed mocks.
9. Trusting old DVA-C01 content. If a resource mentions "Amazon MQ is in scope" or "DAX is optional," it is pre-2023. Cross-check against the current Exam Guide in-scope list.
10. Studying out-of-scope services. Amazon Connect, Ground Station, Braket, IoT, Game services are NOT on DVA-C02. Check the Out-of-Scope list in the Exam Guide before wasting hours.

Career Value: AWS Developer Salary in 2026

AWS Certified Developer Associate is consistently ranked in the top 10 highest-paying IT certifications in every major salary survey (Global Knowledge, Skillsoft, Dice, PayScale).

Career Ladder

Intangibles that move the needle: AWS re:Invent networking, open-source contributions to AWS SDKs or CDK constructs, writing public post-mortems of your own AWS incidents.

How DVA-C02 Fits Into the Broader AWS Certification Path

The AWS-recommended serverless-developer path in 2026: CLF-C02 (optional) -> DVA-C02 -> DOP-C02.

Frequently Missed 2026 Details (That Competitor Guides Get Wrong)

• DVA-C02 requires no prerequisites - you can walk in cold. But 1 year of AWS dev experience is the target candidate description for a reason.
• Exam Guide revisions section (new in 2025-2026) lists exactly which services moved in/out of scope. Check the "Revisions" page before your final review week.
• Aurora DSQL (GA in 2024) is in-scope for Associate-level data-store discussions in the current exam guide.
• Response streaming from Lambda to API Gateway HTTP APIs / Function URLs is in-scope; older guides miss it.
• Lambda SnapStart for Java, Python, .NET - in-scope for cold-start mitigation.
• Bedrock is currently an out-of-scope service for DVA-C02 (verify in the exam guide in-scope list each time you study).
• ElastiCache Serverless (GA 2023) is in-scope for caching patterns.
• EventBridge Pipes (2023 GA) are explicitly in-scope and a common source of "point-to-point" scenario questions.
• CodeCommit closed to new customers in 2024 but remains in scope for existing deployment pipeline scenarios; questions may use CodeCommit in the stem regardless. Verify in the current exam guide before test day.

DVA-C02 vs SAA-C03: Which First?

Both are Associate-tier, both are $150, both are broadly similar in perceived difficulty. Pick based on your day job:

If you push code more than you push Terraform, take DVA-C02. If you draw architecture diagrams more than you write handlers, take SAA-C03.

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Official Sources Used

• AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam page (aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/)
• AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) Exam Guide PDF (d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-dev-associate/AWS-Certified-Developer-Associate_Exam-Guide.pdf)
• AWS Certification Exam Guides (docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/developer-associate-02/)
• AWS Training and Certification blog - "Demystifying your AWS Certification exam score"
• AWS Training and Certification blog - "Upgraded AWS Certification exam guides are now available"
• AWS Recertification Policy (aws.amazon.com/certification/policies/recertification/)
• AWS Service Developer Guides (Lambda, DynamoDB, IAM, S3, API Gateway, X-Ray, CloudFormation)
• Glassdoor, Built In, PayScale, ZipRecruiter, Dice 2026 salary references

Certification details, fees, and blueprint weights may be revised by AWS. Always confirm current requirements directly on aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate before scheduling.