One of the prime stepping stones for any AWS expert or developer is to learn how to write and deploy cloud-based apps and implement cloud-based initiatives. Also, those IT professionals who wish to kick-start their career in AWS need to gain an in-depth understanding of core AWS services.
Speaking of which, the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam covers all the nuances of AWS cloud architecture design, development, and deployment in detail. This blog talks about all the features of the DVA-C02 certification exam, why you should consider becoming an AWS certified developer associate, the learning outcomes, prerequisites, domains, exam materials, and so on.
So let’s dive in!
Latest Updates:
The AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification exam has undergone changes & was updated on February 28, 2023. The final opportunity to take the current version of the exam is on February 27, 2023. For more information, please visit the official AWS website. Getting Updated from DVA-C01 to DVA-Co2.
Get the updated Exam Guide (DVA-C02)
AWS Certified Developer Associate certification overview
The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam, or the DVA-C02 certification, validates your expertise in leveraging AWS and basic AWS architecture best practices to develop, implement, and debug cloud-based applications. This certification helps you master the basic AWS skills to write and set up cloud-based apps and deploy cloud initiatives without any hassles. The DVA-C02 certification helps developers:
- Define core AWS services and AWS architecture best practices.
- Describe proficiency in using AWS to implement and debug cloud apps.
Apart from this, you will also get the ability to:
- Demonstrate AWS services like application lifecycle management, AWS shared responsibility model, using containers in development, etc.
- Identify primary features of AWS services.
- Use AWS service APIs, SDKs and AWS CLIs to write an app.
- Apply fundamental knowledge of cloud-native apps to write code.
- Debug and handle code modules.
What are the skills you will learn from the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam?
The DVA-C02 certification exam imparts innumerable knowledge and skills related to AWS services, app deployment, and AWS architecture practices. You will get an in-depth knowledge of:
- AWS architecture
- Security
- CI/CD and development tools
- Developing integrations
- Command-Line interfaces
- Debugging on AWS
Apart from this, the list of learning outcomes includes other AWS service-related concepts like:
Containers:
- Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR)
- Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Services (Amazon EKS)
- Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
Compute:
- Amazon EC2
- AWS Lambda
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Developer Tools:
- AWS CodeArtifact
- AWS CodeBuild
- AWS CodePipeline
- AWS CodeStar
- AWS Fault Injection Simulator
- AWS CodeDeploy
- Amazon CodeGuru
- AWS X-Ray
- AWS CodeCommit
Also Learn: A detailed guide on how to run Kubernetes on AWS
Database:
- Amazon DynamoDB
- Amazon RDS
- Amazon ElastiCache
Networking and Content Delivery:
- Amazon API Gateway
- Elastic Load Balancing
- Amazon CloudFront
Management and Governance:
- AWS CloudFormation
- Amazon CloudWatch
Storage:
Security, Identity, and Compliance:
- Amazon Cognito
- AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Additionally, you will gain domain expertise on numerous out-of-scope AWS features and services. This AWS non-exhaustive list is not directly included in the exam concepts but helps an AWS-certified developer associate in the long run. The list involves:
- AWS Application
- Amazon Polly
- Amazon AppStream 2.0
- AWS Shield Standard
- AWS Device Farm
- AWS Managed Services
- Amazon Mobile Analytics
- AWS Service Catalog
- Discovery Service
- Amazon Lex
- AWS WAF
- Amazon Chime
- Amazon Elastic Transcoder
- Amazon Connect
Who should take the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam?
The DVA-C02 certification may be a correct career milestone for professionals having a strong base in IT and knowing how to map on-prem to the cloud. You also need hands-on experience with a programming language, cloud services, and AWS infrastructure.
In addition, if you:
- Want to prove your skills in the AWS environment
- Are a web developer and want to validate your cloud computing knowledge
- Enjoy designing applications and communicating code
- Want to escalate from implementing web apps to production
- Want to start your career as an AWS-certified developer associate or junior developer
Then this certification is just the right step for you.
Why should you take the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam?
For one reason, AWS is a widely adopted cloud infrastructure by almost all organizations across industries. So any AWS certification naturally becomes the hot-take and the most relevant industry skill for any IT professional. So is the case with the DVA-C02 exam.
As AWS transforms and evolves, more companies will increase their hiring and training in AWS-related services and trust the knowledge impact of this universally accepted certification. Thus, qualifying for the AWS Developer Associate exam will advance your career and let you soar.
Moreover, the DVA-C02 exam allows you to dive deeper into services like Elastic Beanstalk, SQS, SNS, etc. It teaches you how to leverage these services using SDKs and APIs. Other than this, the certification will help you enhance your resume and make yourself more visible to recruiters. You become a sought-after specialist who can solve all AWS architecture and cloud app-related problems and become a useful asset to your organization.
Apart from this, other prominent benefits include:
- Demonstrating exceptional AWS skills to implement and design real-time business solutions.
- A future-proof career in cloud ecosystems.
- Get hired from top companies like IBM, Wipro, Infosys, etc.
- Secure a salary as high as $159,000 on average.
Pre-requisites for the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam
To be eligible for the DVA-C02 certification exam, you need:
- More than one year’s experience working in a developer role
- In-depth knowledge in one high-level programming language
- Experience working with AWS technologies or cloud services
- Knowledge of mapping on-prem to cloud infrastructures
- Knowledge of application lifecycle handling
- Skills to write code for serverless apps
- Skills to use containers in the development process
Along with this, you will also find a non-exhaustive list of out-of-scope but recommended prior knowledge of the following mission-critical actions:
- Create apps, and use the AWS service APIs, CLI, and software development kits (SDKs).
- List the essential components of AWS services.
- To deploy apps on AWS, use a CI/CD pipeline.
- Utilize and engage with AWS services.
- Write code using a fundamental understanding of cloud-native applications.
- Use IAM roles when writing code to adhere to AWS security best practices.
- Create, keep up with, and fix code modules on AWS.
Domains for the DVA-C02 AWS Certified Developer Associate exam
The DVA-C02 certification exam captures 5 domains and has specific weight in the certification exam. Here’s a glance at the exam breakup:
| Domain | Weightage |
| Development with AWS Services | 32% |
| Security | 26% |
| Deployment | 24% |
| Troubleshooting and Optimization | 18% |
All these domains are divided into myriad subtopics that cover:
Developing with AWS services
– Write code for serverless apps
– Convert functional needs into app design
– Install app design into app code
– Use APIs, SDKs and AWS CLIs to write codes and make apps interact with other AWS services.
Security
– Conduct authentic calls to AWS services
– Use AWS services to implement encryption
– Deploy authorization and app authentication
Deployment
– Use existing CI/CD pipelines, processes, and patterns to write code in AWS
– Use Elastic Beanstalk to deploy apps
– Prepare app implementation package for AWS
– Install serverless applications
Refactoring (Must be removed)
– Make the best use of AWS services and features by optimizing apps
– Run apps on AWS by migrating existing app codes
- Troubleshooting and Optimization
– Write codes to make them monitorable
– Conduct root cause analysis to identify faults found during production or testing
Study materials to refer to for the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam
AWS offers countless resources and study materials to prepare for the DVA-C02 exam. You have guides, practice papers, and training programs to kickstart your preparation for the certification exam.
AWS skill builder
For starters, you can subscribe to the AWS skill builder and access the updated and latest resources and documentation for a better understanding of AWS services and architecture practices.
AWS digital training
Next, you will find free digital training and classroom sessions, capturing various subtopics and nuances of AWS services. These training sessions are self-paced and four hours of video lectures focusing on the essentials of AWS solutions and cloud infrastructure. The sessions include:
- AWS Technical Essentials
- Introducing AWS Beanstalk
- Introducing containers
- Serverless development
- Introducing Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Primer
- Getting started with AWS DevOps
- Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Primer
- Developing on AWS
Whitepapers
Third, you can check out whitepapers covering the fundamentals of AWS architecture best practices and concepts related to microservices in the AWS environment. The material includes:
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Optimize enterprise economics with serverless architecture
- Operating containerized microservices on AWS
- Practice continuous delivery and continuous integration on AWS
- Green/Blue implementations on AWS
- Microservices on AWS
- Using AWS Lambda for serverless architectures
FAQs
Similarly, you can go through many AWS FAQ resources and get a comprehensive view of the out-of-scope AWS skills mentioned in the DVA-C02 exam objectives. The FAQ list includes:
- Amazon SQS
- AWS key management service
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon API gateway
- Amazon DynamoDB
- Amazon Elastic Beanstalk
- Amazon ElasticCache
- AWS IAM
- Amazon Kinesis
AWS exam review
Lastly, you have the AWS exam review section to help you know the ins and outs of the AWS certified developer associate exam. You can get a demo experience of the certification exam and set clear expectations for your performance. The exam resources cover:
- AWS certified developer associate exam guide
- AWS certified developer associate official practice question set
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate Sample Questions
- Exam Readiness: AWS Certified Developer – Associate (Webinar)
- Exam Readiness: AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Preparing for the DVA-C02: AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam
The long list of prior requirements and detailed syllabus might make the DVA-C02 exam questions look overwhelming and hard. But you have no reason to worry. With a proper prep plan up your sleeve, you can ace the exam without struggling. Chart out a smart preparation strategy with these few quick steps:
- Download the AWS certified developer associate exam guide to delve deeper into the exam objectives and domains.
- Prepare a calendar and make sure to allot accurate hours to each subtopic. Don’t leave any headings or subtopics, and treat all concepts equally.
- The exam demands work experience in IT, AWS technologies, developer roles, cloud services and detailed knowledge of at least one programming language. If you don’t have the required hands-on, ensure you get all the practical skills before applying for the exam.
- Similarly, ensure you are hands-on with the recommended out-of-scope skills on AWS solutions and technologies mentioned in the exam guide. You can start with AWS FAQs and whitepapers to get a better hold of those topics.
- Coming to the theoretical syllabus, in addition to digital training and classroom sessions, you can also check out YouTube videos like AWS Developer Associate Exam Preparation and AWS Services.
- Once you finish getting well-versed with all the prior required and recommended skills and domain knowledge, it’s time to put your theory into practice. Go through AWS sample papers, official practice questions, and exam dumps and analyze your prep level. Note the gaps, relearn to fill in them, and then attempt the questions again.
Once you feel fully prepared and see no errors on paper, register for the DVA-C02 exam, ace it and add a milestone to your credentials.
Top Companies hiring AWS Certified Developer Associate
- TVS Next
- WovVTech
- NeuraFlash
- Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited
- Dark Bears
- Autodesk
- Accenture
- Aveva
- QServices Inc.,
- [x]cube LABS
Salary for AWS Certified Developer – Associate
FAQs
Do I need to know JSON for the DVA-C02 exam?
No. A basic understanding of any one programming language would be sufficient to be eligible for the DVA-C02 exam.
Can a non-technical person or fresher appear for the DVA-C02 exam?
Yes, any non-technical or a fresher with a tech background can become an AWS certified developer associate. However, you need to have some experience working with AWS technologies or cloud environments.
What is the validity of the DVA-C02 certification?
The DVA-C02 certification will be valid for 3 years from the date of publication.
Summary
Hope this blog helps you understand the AWS certified developer associate exam can jump-start your career as an AWS developer. But to excel in this industry-relevant certification, you would need updated and organized resources.
Whizlabs brings you a complete DVA-C02 training package to help enhance and boost your preparation. You will find practice tests with over 500+ unique questions, video lectures designed by subject-matter experts, an AWS sandbox to play around and understand the AWS cloud environment, and 85+ hands-on labs to increase your practical exposure to the recommended DVA-C02 exam skills.
Do you need any guidance on your AWS Developer Associate exam, feel free to connect with us!
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