AWS is updating its Developer Associate certification for a new era of cloud development. AI-assisted coding, AI security, containers, testing, and troubleshooting are taking on a larger role. Here is what candidates need to understand before choosing their exam version.
If you have been preparing for AWS Certified Developer – Associate DVA-C02, you may be wondering whether to finish your current preparation or move to the updated DVA-C03 exam. The answer depends on your progress, exam date, and the skills you want to develop.
AWS announced DVA-C03 to reflect how cloud application development is changing. Developers still need to build, deploy, secure, troubleshoot, and optimize applications. However, today's workflows increasingly involve AI-assisted development tools, managed AI services, automated testing, containerized applications, and stronger security controls.
The update does not replace traditional AWS development skills. It expands the exam to account for modern development practices. Services such as AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon API Gateway, AWS IAM, and deployment technologies remain relevant to understanding applications on AWS.
No. DVA-C03 is the new exam version of the existing AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification. The certification name remains the same. What changes is the exam blueprint, including domain weights and newly emphasized developer skills.
For candidates, the most important thing is understanding what has actually changed, rather than assuming that all previous study material is suddenly outdated.
AWS has established a clear transition between the two versions. Registration for the updated exam opened October 27, 2026. Candidates can continue taking DVA-C02 through November 30, 2026, while DVA-C03 exam delivery begins December 1, 2026.
No. Passing DVA-C02 before it is retired still earns the AWS Certified Developer – Associate credential. AWS certifications are generally valid for three years, subject to AWS's current recertification rules. A candidate who passes DVA-C02 is not automatically required to retake the exam when DVA-C03 begins.
This distinction matters for students who are already close to exam readiness. Taking an available exam version is not the same thing as earning an outdated or invalid certification.
Although the content objectives change, AWS has kept the basic examination format consistent.
| Exam Feature | DVA-C02 | DVA-C03 |
|---|---|---|
| Certification | AWS Certified Developer – Associate | AWS Certified Developer – Associate |
| Exam availability | Through Nov. 30, 2026 | Begins Dec. 1, 2026 |
| Duration | 130 minutes | 130 minutes |
| Total questions | 65 | 65 |
| Scored / unscored | 50 / 15 | 50 / 15 |
| Passing score | 720 / 1,000 | 720 / 1,000 |
| Exam fee | $150 USD | $150 USD |
| Question types | Multiple choice and multiple response | Multiple choice and multiple response |
| Number of domains | 4 | 4 |
| AI-assisted development | Emerging topics may appear in unscored questions | Explicitly included in the updated blueprint |
| AI service security | Emerging / pretest content | New dedicated security task |
| Containers | Existing deployment knowledge | Explicitly expanded ECR, ECS, EKS, and Fargate skills |
The exam fee is the standard listed USD price; applicable taxes or currency differences may affect checkout totals. Question counts include unscored questions.
The exam still targets developers working with AWS-based applications. Core topics such as development using AWS services, application security, deployment, troubleshooting, and optimization remain central. AWS also continues to recommend at least one year of hands-on AWS development experience and proficiency in a high-level programming language.
Students should therefore avoid abandoning the foundations they have already learned. The strongest approach is to understand which subjects carry forward and which additional skills need attention.
Both exams contain four domains. However, the weight assigned to each domain is changing, and the third domain is being renamed from Deployment to Testing and Deployment.
The largest percentage-point increase is in Domain 4. Troubleshooting and Optimization rises from 18% to 22% of scored exam content.
This reflects the importance of diagnosing application errors, investigating logging and monitoring data, identifying performance problems, and optimizing AWS workloads. DVA-C03 also explicitly includes AI-assisted troubleshooting and optimization workflows.
This does not mean candidates should ignore development or security. Development remains the largest domain, while Security remains 26% of the blueprint.
Instead, students should ensure troubleshooting receives adequate attention in their preparation.
AWS has published a detailed comparison of the two exam blueprints. The additions emphasize how developers use AI tools, secure AI integrations, manage container workloads, and support applications through testing and operational workflows.
DVA-C03 introduces Task 2.3, focused on identifying and mitigating security risks when applications use AI services. Candidates need familiarity with access management, private connectivity and data privacy, filtering harmful or sensitive inputs and outputs, prompt-injection protection, secure AI agent interactions, human approvals for sensitive actions, and avoiding exposure of sensitive data in logs.
Developers are expected to understand how AI-assisted tools can generate, review, refactor, and optimize application code. This includes intelligent code completion, automated reviews, and the ability to evaluate AI-generated suggestions rather than accepting them without verification.
New explicit skills cover building and managing container images using Amazon ECR, Dockerfiles, image tags, and lifecycle policies. DVA-C03 also highlights deploying containerized applications with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate, including deployment configurations and rolling updates.
The exam adds AI-assisted test generation, automated testing workflows, regression testing, test result analysis, deployment approvals, environment provisioning, and post-deployment validation. These capabilities complement existing AWS testing and deployment knowledge.
DVA-C03 explicitly adds using presigned URLs to provide secure, time-limited access to content, including scenarios involving Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront.
Candidates should understand how AWS AI-assisted tools can help analyze errors, suggest troubleshooting steps, identify bottlenecks, and recommend improvements in resource use or code efficiency. Developers still need the underlying knowledge to assess whether those recommendations are appropriate.
The exam does not expect candidates to design RAG architectures, select foundation models, master prompt engineering, or design comprehensive AI governance frameworks. Its emphasis is on developers using and securing AI capabilities as part of AWS application workflows.
Select a topic below to see how the updated exam changes the emphasis and what students should understand in practice.
A cloud application may send information to a managed AI service. Developers must understand how to control access, protect information sent to the service, and avoid exposing sensitive content through responses or monitoring logs.
Understand: IAM permissions for AI services, privacy controls, prompt-injection risks, tool-use authorization, human-in-the-loop approval and sensitive-data protection.
Developers should recognize how code becomes a container image, how images are managed in a registry, and how workloads are deployed or updated through AWS container services.
Understand: Dockerfiles, ECR, image lifecycle policies, ECS task definitions, EKS manifests, Fargate, and rolling deployments.
Automated testing helps reduce defects before deployment and identify regressions after changes. DVA-C03 incorporates AI-assisted testing into these workflows.
Understand: unit testing, AWS SAM testing, automated test generation, regression tests, CI/CD integration and post-deployment validation.
Developers must recognize application failures, inspect appropriate telemetry, and decide whether performance or reliability problems come from code, configuration, dependencies, or resource use.
Understand: logs, metrics, tracing, Lambda performance, debugging workflows, bottleneck analysis, and AI-assisted optimization.
AWS also reorganized existing skills. Some material moves between domains, while several related tasks are grouped into broader skills. This is important because a shorter list of objectives does not necessarily mean less knowledge is required.
| Subject | DVA-C02 Placement | DVA-C03 Placement |
|---|---|---|
| Unit testing with AWS SAM | Domain 1 | Domain 3 |
| Lambda performance tuning | Domain 1 | Domain 4 |
| Serialization and deserialization | Domain 1, Task 1.3 | Domain 1, Task 1.1 |
| API Gateway stages and custom domains | Domain 3, Task 3.4 | Domain 3, Task 3.1 |
| DynamoDB skills | Four separate skills | One comprehensive skill |
| Encryption and sensitive data | Two tasks | One consolidated task |
| Testing skills | Separate groups of skills | One consolidated testing task |
A candidate who already understands DynamoDB, application encryption, Lambda performance, and AWS SAM testing does not need to forget those concepts and start over.
Their job is to map existing knowledge to the new objectives and strengthen the genuinely expanded areas.
There is no universal answer. The decision depends on whether a candidate is ready before the old exam ends, whether an appointment is available, and how far along their AWS development knowledge already is.
Select one option for a practical recommendation.
If you are genuinely prepared and can secure an exam appointment on or before November 30, 2026, DVA-C02 remains a valid option. Passing earns the same Developer Associate certification. Do not rush an unprepared exam attempt solely because of the transition deadline.
It would be premature to claim that DVA-C03 is easier or harder for everyone. Its objectives have changed, and the new topics may be more familiar to some developers than others.
Someone experienced with container deployment and AI-assisted coding might find portions of DVA-C03 familiar. Someone who prepared only for the older blueprint may need additional work in AI service security, container orchestration, and automated development workflows.
The certification level remains Associate. What matters most is preparation aligned with the version the student actually plans to take.
Use this interactive checklist as a planning aid. It is not an official readiness test, but it highlights areas candidates should be able to discuss and apply.
Checklist selections remain on this page only. Checking every box does not guarantee exam readiness.
AWS developer certification preparation covers more than individual services. Students must connect application architecture, identity and permissions, deployment workflows, code behavior, monitoring, and troubleshooting decisions.
Instructor-led training can help candidates organize these topics and identify knowledge gaps before attempting the exam. ASM Educational Center provides AWS and related IT training for students who want structured instruction and guidance in developing their cloud technology skills.
Candidates should confirm that any course or preparation plan they choose covers the new DVA-C03 objectives, particularly the expanded AI and container content.
DVA-C03 is the updated exam version of AWS Certified Developer – Associate. It continues testing AWS application development, security, deployment, troubleshooting, and optimization while adding modern AI-assisted development and AI security topics.
DVA-C03 exam delivery begins on December 1, 2026. Registration opened October 27, 2026, according to AWS's official certification announcement.
The final day to take DVA-C02 is November 30, 2026. Candidates should verify appointment availability with the official AWS exam scheduling provider.
There is no reliable universal answer. The updated exam adds AI-related and container-related knowledge while changing domain weights. Candidates with different backgrounds may find different parts more challenging.
DVA-C03 includes 65 questions: 50 scored and 15 unscored. The exam allows 130 minutes and uses multiple-choice and multiple-response questions.
AWS lists a minimum passing scaled score of 720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000.
Candidates should understand using AI-assisted development tools, integrating managed AI services, and securing AI interactions. However, advanced prompt engineering, foundation model selection, RAG architecture design, and AI governance framework design are outside the target candidate's exam scope.
Yes. AWS developer fundamentals remain important. DVA-C03 reorganizes some DynamoDB skills and relocates Lambda performance tuning within the exam framework, rather than eliminating those concepts.
The updated blueprint explicitly includes building and managing container images with Amazon ECR and deploying containerized applications using services such as Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate.
No. A valid Developer Associate certification earned through DVA-C02 remains active according to its normal validity and recertification rules. AWS certifications generally remain valid for three years.
There is no mandatory prior AWS certification. However, AWS recommends at least one year of hands-on development experience with AWS and knowledge of a high-level programming language. Complete beginners may benefit from foundational cloud and programming knowledge first.
No. Developer Associate focuses on building, testing, deploying, securing, and debugging applications using AWS. Solutions Architect Associate focuses more on designing AWS solutions and architectures. They are distinct certification paths with different exam objectives.
ASM Educational Center offers structured AWS and IT certification training. Students can contact ASM to discuss available courses, their current experience, and the next steps that match their certification goals. Confirm DVA-C03-specific course coverage when inquiring.
The transition from DVA-C02 to DVA-C03 reflects an important change in modern cloud development. Developers are increasingly expected to work with AI-assisted tools, integrate services securely, deploy applications in different environments, and understand the operational impact of their code.
However, the fundamentals remain essential. AWS IAM, APIs, serverless application development, databases, deployment workflows, logging, troubleshooting, and optimization are still part of the developer's core knowledge.
Students already prepared for DVA-C02 should make a practical decision based on the remaining exam window. Students preparing for DVA-C03 should use the updated AWS exam guide and ensure their preparation addresses the newly emphasized skills.
ASM Educational Center offers instructor-led AWS and IT certification training. Whether you are building a cloud foundation or advancing your development skills, structured guidance can help you plan your next step.
Explore Training With ASMThis article uses AWS-published exam guides, the official DVA-C02 versus DVA-C03 comparison, and AWS certification transition announcements.
Exam information is accurate to the AWS documents reviewed for this article in November 2026. AWS may revise its exam guides and policies. Check official AWS resources before scheduling.