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DVA-C02
DVA-C02 Amazon Web Services

Developer Associate

The course teaches developers how to build, secure, deploy, and troubleshoot applications using core AWS services, emphasizing best practices and real‑world patterns essential for the AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam.

130
Minutes
65
Questions
720/1000
Passing Score
$150
Exam Cost
11
Languages

Who Should Take This

It is designed for software engineers, full‑stack developers, or DevOps specialists who have at least one year of hands‑on experience with AWS and want to validate their ability to create reliable, secure cloud solutions. These professionals aim to advance their careers, earn a recognized credential, and confidently contribute to AWS‑based projects.

What's Covered

1 Develop code for applications hosted on AWS using AWS SDKs, APIs, and CLI, and implement application logic with AWS serverless and container services.
2 Implement authentication and authorization, encryption at rest and in transit, and manage sensitive data using AWS security services.
3 Prepare application artifacts for deployment, test applications in development environments, and automate deployment with CI/CD pipelines.
4 Assist in a root cause analysis, instrument code for observability, and optimize applications by using AWS services and features.

Exam Structure

Question Types

  • Multiple Choice
  • Multiple Response

Scoring Method

Scaled scoring from 100 to 1000, minimum passing score of 720

Delivery Method

Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored

Recertification

Recertify every 3 years by passing the current exam or earning a higher-level AWS certification.

What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI

Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats

Course Outline

75 learning goals
1 Domain 1: Development with AWS Services
4 topics

Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

  • Identify AWS compute hosting options for application code and explain when to use Lambda, ECS/Fargate, Elastic Beanstalk, or EC2-based deployments.
  • Implement idiomatic AWS SDK usage patterns including credential resolution, retry configuration, pagination, and waiters for reliable service integration.
  • Implement REST and WebSocket APIs using API Gateway with resource definitions, method integrations, request/response transformations, and stage deployments.
  • Analyze service integration choices and determine suitable asynchronous, synchronous, and event-driven communication patterns using SQS, SNS, EventBridge, and Step Functions.
  • Configure API Gateway stage-level caching with TTL and per-key invalidation, set method-level throttling limits, and associate API keys with usage plans to enforce rate and quota controls.

Develop code for AWS Lambda

  • Identify Lambda event source types and explain how synchronous invocations, asynchronous invocations, and event source mappings differ in trigger behavior and error handling.
  • Develop Lambda function handlers with proper event object parsing, context usage, dependency packaging, and Lambda layers for shared libraries.
  • Configure Lambda environment variables, VPC access, execution roles, resource-based policies, and dead-letter queue destinations for production readiness.
  • Optimize Lambda function performance by tuning memory allocation, timeout, reserved and provisioned concurrency, and cold-start mitigation strategies including SnapStart and keep-warm patterns.
  • Configure Lambda destinations for asynchronous invocation success and failure routing, and deploy container image-based Lambda functions using ECR repositories with optimized image layers.

Use data stores in application development

  • Identify AWS data store options and explain when to use DynamoDB, RDS, ElastiCache, S3, and Aurora based on data access patterns and consistency requirements.
  • Implement DynamoDB table design with partition keys, sort keys, global and local secondary indexes, and use query, scan, and batch operations with appropriate read/write capacity modes.
  • Implement S3 operations including object lifecycle policies, presigned URLs, multipart uploads, event notifications, and cross-region replication for application data management.
  • Implement caching strategies using ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached) and DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) with appropriate TTL, invalidation, and lazy-loading patterns.
  • Analyze data access patterns to determine consistency, performance, and cost tradeoffs across DynamoDB capacity modes, S3 storage classes, and caching tiers.
  • Implement DynamoDB Streams with Lambda triggers for change data capture, and use DynamoDB transactions (TransactWriteItems, TransactGetItems) to enforce multi-item atomic operations across tables.

Implement messaging and event-driven architectures

  • Identify AWS messaging services and explain the differences between SQS (standard vs FIFO), SNS (topics and subscriptions), EventBridge (event buses and rules), and Kinesis (data streams).
  • Implement SQS-based decoupled processing with visibility timeouts, dead-letter queues, long polling, message deduplication, and batch operations for reliable asynchronous workflows.
  • Implement fan-out and pub/sub patterns using SNS topic subscriptions with message filtering policies and EventBridge rules with input transformations for event routing.
  • Implement Step Functions state machines with task, choice, parallel, wait, and error-handling states to orchestrate multi-service workflows with retry and catch semantics.
  • Analyze event-driven architecture tradeoffs and select appropriate messaging patterns (point-to-point, fan-out, choreography, orchestration) based on ordering, exactly-once, and throughput requirements.
2 Domain 2: Security
4 topics

Implement authentication and authorization

  • Identify AWS identity services and explain the roles of IAM users, roles, policies, Cognito user pools, Cognito identity pools, and STS in application authentication and authorization flows.
  • Implement IAM policies with least-privilege access using identity-based policies, resource-based policies, permission boundaries, and condition keys for fine-grained access control.
  • Implement Cognito user pool authentication with sign-up/sign-in flows, JWT token validation, custom triggers (pre/post authentication Lambda), and hosted UI integration for application user management.
  • Implement cross-account access and temporary credentials using IAM role assumption, STS AssumeRole, and federated identity patterns for multi-account application architectures.
  • Implement API Gateway authorization using IAM authorization, Lambda authorizers (token and request-based), Cognito user pool authorizers, and API keys with usage plans.
  • Analyze access control failures and adjust identity policies to reduce privilege escalation, unintended resource exposure, and cross-account permission gaps.
  • Implement Cognito identity pools to exchange user pool tokens, social provider tokens, or SAML assertions for temporary AWS credentials with IAM role mapping rules for authenticated and unauthenticated access.

Implement encryption using AWS services

  • Identify AWS encryption services and explain KMS key types (symmetric, asymmetric, HMAC), key policies, grants, and the difference between AWS managed keys, customer managed keys, and data keys.
  • Implement envelope encryption using KMS GenerateDataKey for client-side encryption and configure server-side encryption options (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C) for S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and EBS.
  • Implement encryption in transit using ACM certificates, TLS termination at ALB/API Gateway, and enforce HTTPS-only policies for application communication channels.
  • Analyze encryption design decisions and select key management strategies that satisfy compliance, cost, and operational requirements across storage and transport layers.

Manage sensitive data in application code

  • Identify sensitive data categories (PII, PHI, credentials) and explain the security properties of Secrets Manager, Systems Manager Parameter Store (standard vs advanced, SecureString), and environment variables.
  • Implement secret management using Secrets Manager with automatic rotation, cross-account sharing, and Lambda rotation functions for database credentials and API keys.
  • Implement configuration management using SSM Parameter Store hierarchies with versioning, IAM-controlled access, and KMS-encrypted SecureString parameters for runtime configuration.
  • Analyze sensitive data exposure risks in logging, storage, and transport pathways and determine remediation strategies including log sanitization, encryption enforcement, and access auditing.

Secure application network and runtime environments

  • Identify VPC security controls and explain how security groups, NACLs, VPC endpoints (gateway and interface), and PrivateLink restrict network access for application resources.
  • Implement Lambda VPC configuration with subnet placement, security group assignment, and NAT gateway routing for functions that require access to VPC-internal resources and the internet.
  • Analyze network security configurations to identify misconfigured ingress/egress rules, missing VPC endpoints, and unnecessary internet exposure for application workloads.
  • Identify AWS WAF components including web ACLs, managed rule groups, rate-based rules, and IP set conditions, and explain how WAF integrates with API Gateway, ALB, and CloudFront to protect application endpoints.
3 Domain 3: Deployment
5 topics

Prepare application artifacts for deployment

  • Identify AWS packaging and artifact services and explain how ECR, S3 artifact buckets, Lambda deployment packages, and Lambda layers store and version deployment artifacts.
  • Implement infrastructure-as-code definitions using SAM templates and CloudFormation for serverless applications with resource definitions, parameter management, and cross-stack references.
  • Prepare deployment artifacts with deterministic builds, dependency locking, container image tagging, and environment-specific configuration management using parameter overrides and SSM references.
  • Analyze artifact packaging and versioning strategies to assess rollback safety, reproducibility, and environment parity across development, staging, and production.
  • Configure CodeArtifact repositories with upstream connections to public registries (npm, PyPI, Maven), authenticate build tools using authorization tokens, and integrate CodeArtifact into CodeBuild pipelines for secure dependency resolution.

Test applications in development environments

  • Identify AWS testing features and explain how Lambda aliases and versions, API Gateway stages, and Elastic Beanstalk environments support isolated testing without production impact.
  • Implement environment-appropriate testing workflows using sandbox accounts, mock service endpoints, local Lambda emulation (SAM CLI), and integration tests against deployed resources.
  • Analyze deployment-environment test failures using CloudWatch Logs, test result patterns, and environment configuration drift to determine corrective action.
  • Implement local serverless testing workflows using SAM CLI commands (sam local invoke, sam local start-api, sam local start-lambda) and use SAM Accelerate (sam sync) for rapid iterative deployment to cloud environments.

Automate deployment testing

  • Identify CI/CD concepts and explain how continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment differ in automation scope, quality gates, and approval requirements.
  • Implement CodeBuild projects with buildspec.yml definitions, build phases, environment variables, artifact outputs, and test report integration for automated build and test execution.
  • Automate quality gates within CI/CD pipelines using CodeBuild test reports, manual approval actions, and CloudWatch alarms to enforce release criteria before promotion.
  • Analyze automated test strategy coverage and optimize signal quality for fast, reliable deployment decisions with minimal false positives and false negatives.

Deploy code using AWS CI/CD services

  • Identify AWS deployment services and explain how CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline compose a complete CI/CD pipeline with source, build, test, and deploy stages.
  • Implement CodePipeline workflows with multi-stage pipelines, source triggers (CodeCommit, GitHub, S3), build actions, deployment actions, and cross-region/cross-account deployments.
  • Implement deployment strategies using CodeDeploy with in-place, blue/green, canary, and linear deployment configurations including appspec.yml hooks, rollback triggers, and traffic shifting.
  • Implement Lambda deployment strategies using aliases, weighted routing, CodeDeploy traffic shifting (canary/linear), and CloudFormation AutoPublishAlias for safe function updates.
  • Analyze deployment pipeline outcomes and tune release strategy for speed, reliability, rollback safety, and blast radius minimization across deployment targets.

Manage application configuration and environments

  • Implement Elastic Beanstalk application deployments with environment tiers (web/worker), platform selection, configuration files (.ebextensions), and environment cloning for deployment isolation.
  • Implement ECS/Fargate task definitions, service configurations, and container deployments with rolling updates, circuit breaker settings, and service discovery integration.
  • Analyze deployment platform tradeoffs between Lambda, ECS/Fargate, and Elastic Beanstalk based on workload characteristics, scaling requirements, and operational complexity.
4 Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization
3 topics

Assist in root cause analysis

  • Identify AWS observability services and explain how CloudWatch Logs, CloudWatch Metrics, CloudWatch Alarms, and X-Ray provide logging, monitoring, alerting, and distributed tracing capabilities.
  • Perform structured root cause analysis using CloudWatch Logs Insights queries, X-Ray service maps, trace timelines, and CloudWatch anomaly detection to isolate failure points.
  • Implement CloudWatch alarms with metric math, composite alarms, and anomaly detection bands to proactively detect and escalate application health degradation.
  • Analyze incident evidence from logs, metrics, traces, and event timelines to determine root cause, define remediation actions, and prevent recurring production defects.
  • Implement CloudWatch Logs Insights queries using fields, filter, stats, and parse commands to aggregate log data, and create metric filters with pattern syntax to extract custom CloudWatch metrics from application log streams.

Instrument code for observability

  • Identify X-Ray tracing concepts and explain how segments, subsegments, annotations, metadata, and sampling rules provide distributed trace visibility across service boundaries.
  • Instrument application code with X-Ray SDK to create custom subsegments, add searchable annotations, capture downstream HTTP calls, and integrate with Lambda active tracing.
  • Implement structured logging with correlation IDs, CloudWatch embedded metric format for custom metrics extraction, and log groups with retention and subscription filters.
  • Evaluate observability signal quality and refine instrumentation to improve troubleshooting speed, diagnostic confidence, and mean-time-to-resolution for production incidents.
  • Analyze X-Ray service maps and trace group filter expressions to identify latency bottlenecks, fault rates, and throttle patterns across distributed microservice call chains, and tune sampling rules to balance observability coverage against tracing costs.

Optimize applications using AWS services and features

  • Identify AWS optimization capabilities and explain how Auto Scaling, ElastiCache, CloudFront, S3 Transfer Acceleration, and DynamoDB auto-scaling improve application performance and cost efficiency.
  • Implement application-level caching with ElastiCache read-through, write-through, and cache-aside patterns including TTL management, eviction policies, and cache invalidation strategies.
  • Implement S3 performance optimization using multipart uploads, byte-range fetches, S3 Transfer Acceleration, and prefix-based parallelism for high-throughput data access patterns.
  • Analyze optimization opportunities across compute, storage, and messaging layers and prioritize changes that deliver the strongest performance, cost, and reliability improvements.

Hands-On Labs

25 labs ~555 min total Console Simulator

Practice in a simulated cloud console or Python code sandbox — no account needed. Each lab runs entirely in your browser.

Certification Benefits

Salary Impact

$137,000
Average Salary

Related Job Roles

Cloud Developer Software Engineer Backend Developer Full-Stack Developer DevOps Engineer

Industry Recognition

The AWS Developer Associate certification validates practical cloud development skills in high demand across the technology sector. Certified developers demonstrate proficiency with serverless architectures, CI/CD, and AWS-native development patterns that employers actively seek.

Scope

Included Topics

  • All domains and task statements in the AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) exam guide: Domain 1 Development with AWS Services (32%), Domain 2 Security (26%), Domain 3 Deployment (24%), and Domain 4 Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%).
  • Associate-level application development practices on AWS including service integration, Lambda-based implementation, secure coding controls, CI/CD deployment, observability, and runtime optimization.
  • Scenario-driven development decisions involving AWS SDK usage patterns, event-driven architecture components, and production operations readiness for cloud-native applications.
  • Key AWS services for developers: Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Step Functions, Cognito, IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, Systems Manager Parameter Store, CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodePipeline, SAM, CloudFormation, CloudWatch, X-Ray, ElastiCache, Kinesis, ECS/Fargate, Elastic Beanstalk.

Not Covered

  • Professional-level solution architecture governance and enterprise operating model design that exceed developer associate objectives.
  • Deep infrastructure administration and platform engineering responsibilities not centered on application developer workflows.
  • Transient service pricing details and short-lived promotional values that are not stable for durable domain specifications.
  • Non-AWS coding platform abstractions that do not map directly to DVA-C02 objective domains.
  • AWS CLI command-level syntax memorization and SDK version-specific API signatures.

Official Exam Page

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