# AWS Developer – Associate (DVA-C02)
Independent preparation for AWS Certified Developer – Associate — the blueprint, 52 study points across two note pages, the SDK and deployment behaviour the exam tests, and the DVA-C02 to DVA-C03 transition dates.
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DVA-C02 65 items · 130 min Pass 720/1000 $150 Associate
**The exam for people who ship code onto AWS.** DVA-C02 validates that you can develop, deploy, secure and debug applications built on AWS services: writing against the SDKs, wiring up Lambda and DynamoDB and the messaging services, running a CI/CD pipeline, handling credentials correctly, and reading the error when it goes wrong. It is the most code-adjacent of the three associate exams, though you never write a full program in it.
:::caution[Version change in progress]
AWS is refreshing this credential. **DVA-C03 registration opens 27 October 2026**, and **DVA-C02 can be taken until 1 December 2026**. If you are booking, decide deliberately which version you are sitting — the notes here are written against DVA-C02, and the service-level knowledge carries over, but check the DVA-C03 exam guide for blueprint changes before you rely on the weightings below.
:::
:::caution[Unofficial preparation]
Independent study material, not affiliated with or endorsed by AWS, containing no official exam questions. Verify every figure on this page against the current [Developer – Associate exam guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/developer-associate-02/developer-associate-02.html) before booking.
:::
## The blueprint
| # | Domain | Weight | Items (approx.) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Development with AWS Services | **32%** | ~16 |
| 2 | Security | 26% | ~13 |
| 3 | Deployment | 24% | ~12 |
| 4 | Troubleshooting and Optimization | 18% | ~9 |
Development and security together are **58%** of the paper. The security domain here is not the architect's security domain: it is IAM roles for compute, temporary credentials, encryption in the SDK, secrets handling and authentication for APIs — security as a developer meets it.
## Exam mechanics
- **65 items, 130 minutes.** **50 scored**, 15 unscored pretest items mixed in unmarked.
- **Scaled 100–1,000, pass at 720**, compensatory across domains.
- Multiple choice and multiple response, all-or-nothing credit on multiple response.
- Unanswered items score as incorrect; there is no guessing penalty.
- Stems frequently quote an error message or a limit. Knowing exact numbers — timeouts, sizes, retry behaviour — pays on this exam more than on the other two associates.
## The two note pages
| # | Page | Study points | Covers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Platform notes](/aws/developer-associate/notes/01-course-notes/) | 27 | VPC and IP addressing, Security Groups and NACLs, gateways and endpoints, EBS, Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS/SNS/Kinesis |
| 2 | [Exam Q&A](/aws/developer-associate/notes/02-exam-qa/) | 25 | Worked answers on EC2/EBS/ECS, RDS, S3, CloudFormation, CI/CD and CodePipeline, Elastic Beanstalk, monitoring, auto scaling |
**52 study points in total.** Page 1 builds the platform model; page 2 is written in the shape the exam asks its questions, so it doubles as a self-test.
## Numbers this exam actually asks for
Developer items are unusually specific. These are the limits and behaviours that recur:
| Thing | What to remember |
| --- | --- |
| Lambda layers | Up to **5** per function; function code plus all layers ≤ **250 MB** unzipped |
| Lambda cold starts | More memory buys proportionally more CPU at init; Provisioned Concurrency removes the start entirely |
| STS credentials | 15 minutes to 12 hours; the SDK credential chain refreshes automatically — hardcoding is the usual root cause of "expired" bugs |
| SQS visibility timeout | Too short and a slow consumer causes duplicate processing; after `maxReceiveCount`, the message goes to the DLQ |
| DynamoDB indexes | GSI for a different partition key, LSI for a different sort key on the same partition — LSIs must exist at table creation |
| S3 multipart upload | Required in practice for very large objects; single `PutObject` tops out and is fragile over long uploads |
| KMS direct encryption | Small payloads only — larger data uses envelope encryption with a data key |
| Elastic Beanstalk policies | All-at-once, rolling, rolling with additional batch, **immutable**, blue/green — immutable builds a fresh fleet for instant rollback |
| CloudFormation | `DeletionPolicy: Snapshot` keeps a database alive past stack deletion; change sets show you the diff before you apply it |
| CodeBuild | Reads `buildspec.yml` from the source root unless you override it |
## A three-week plan
[Platform notes](/aws/developer-associate/notes/01-course-notes/) across three sessions. Write a Lambda that reads DynamoDB with an execution role — no access keys anywhere.
[Exam Q&A](/aws/developer-associate/notes/02-exam-qa/). Run one CodePipeline end to end and break it on purpose to read the failure.
The [practice exam](/aws/practice-exam/) timed, then work every explanation. Its serverless and security items map closely onto this blueprint.
Retries, pagination, the credential chain and error shapes are exam content. Ten minutes in the SDK reference beats an hour of video.
## Where to go next
- Compare all five tracks on the [certification tracks page](/aws/certifications/).
- [Solutions Architect – Associate](/aws/solutions-architect/) shares most of this service surface from the design side.
- Sweep the [services glossary](/aws/services-glossary/) for anything you cannot define in one sentence.