As a technical professional, you’re likely considering becoming an AWS Certified Developer Associate to demonstrate your expertise in developing and deploying cloud-based applications on AWS. The DVA-C01 exam covers a range of topics, including AWS services and their integration, security and compliance, and troubleshooting. To pass the DVA-C01 exam, you must achieve a minimum passing score of 720 out of a possible 1000 points. This score is calculated based on a scaled score methodology, which takes into account the difficulty level of the questions answered correctly.
To prepare for the DVA-C01 exam, it’s important to have a solid understanding of AWS services and their integration. This includes knowledge of AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon RDS, and Amazon S3. Additionally, you should have a strong understanding of security and compliance best practices on AWS, as well as troubleshooting techniques.
To ensure you’re ready to tackle the DVA-C01, consider taking practice exams and using AWS training resources, such as AWS documentation, whitepapers, and hands-on labs. By doing so, you’ll be well-prepared to earn your AWS Certified Developer Associate certification and demonstrate your expertise in developing and deploying cloud-based applications on AWS.
Exam Format
The exam is designed to test a candidate’s knowledge and skills in developing and deploying AWS applications. The following is an overview of the exam pattern and types of questions asked in the DVA-C01 exam:
- Exam Type: Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and multiple-response questions
- Number of Questions: 65 questions
- Duration: 130 minutes
- Passing Score: 720 out of 1000 points
- Exam Cost: $150 USD
Types of Questions Asked
- Deployment and Security: These questions test a candidate’s knowledge of AWS security practices and deployment models. Examples of such questions may include:
- Which AWS service would you use to encrypt data at rest?
- What are the best practices for securing a web application on AWS?
- Which AWS service would you use to implement access control for AWS resources?
- How can you secure communication between an EC2 instance and an RDS database?
- What are the best practices for protecting an AWS account from security threats?
- AWS Services and Architecture: These questions test a candidate’s knowledge of AWS services and their integration with different architectures. Examples of such questions may include:
- Which AWS service would you use to monitor the performance of an EC2 instance?
- What are the steps involved in deploying a serverless application on AWS?
- Which AWS service would you use to store and manage unstructured data?
- How can you design an architecture that ensures high availability and fault tolerance of your AWS resources?
- What are the key differences between an EC2 instance and an ECS container?
- Development and Troubleshooting: These questions test a candidate’s skills in developing and troubleshooting AWS applications. Examples of such questions may include:
- Which AWS service would you use to deploy a Java application?
- How would you troubleshoot an application that is failing to connect to an RDS database?
- Which AWS service would you use to deploy a Python application?
- How can you troubleshoot a slow-performing Lambda function?
- What are the steps involved in deploying a Docker container on AWS Elastic Beanstalk?
- AWS Cost Optimization: These questions test a candidate’s knowledge of AWS cost optimization practices. Examples of such questions may include:
- How can you optimize the cost of an AWS Lambda function?
- What are the cost optimization strategies for an AWS Elastic Beanstalk application?
- How can you use AWS Auto Scaling to optimize your infrastructure cost?
- What are the best practices for optimizing your AWS S3 cost?
- What are the cost optimization strategies for an AWS DynamoDB table?
- Cloud-based Application Programming: These questions test a candidate’s knowledge of cloud-based application programming. Examples of such questions may include:
- How can you use AWS Lambda to process data from an S3 bucket?
- Which AWS service would you use to create a scalable and fault-tolerant web application?
- How can you use AWS API Gateway to create a RESTful API for your application?
- Which AWS service would you use to process and analyze large volumes of data in real time?
- How can you use AWS CloudFormation to deploy and manage your infrastructure as code?
In summary, the DVA-C01 exam tests a candidate’s knowledge and skills in developing and deploying AWS applications, with a focus on security, architecture, development, troubleshooting, cost optimization, and cloud-based application programming.
AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Course Outline
Going over your exam outline is a great approach to start your preparation. It serves as a teaching tool that establishes the norm for what you may expect to happen during the course. It also allows you to perform all of the lengthy training in several sets. If you’ve gone through your course plan thoroughly, you’ll be able to arrange everything effectively.
We’ve included all of the exam topics along with their weighting in the exam’s overall score. This will assist you in efficiently splitting your focus among the numerous topics. The following is the schedule for the AWS Certified Developer Associate Course:
AWS Certified Developer Associate (DVA-C02) updated course outline.
Domain 1: Development with AWS Services
Task statement 1: Develop code for applications hosted on AWS.
Knowledge of:
- Architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography,
orchestration, fanout) (AWS Documentation: What is an Event-Driven Architecture?) - Idempotency (AWS Documentation: Ensuring idempotency)
- Differences between stateful and stateless concepts (AWS Documentation: Stateful or Stateless)
- Differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components (AWS Documentation: Loosely Coupled Scenarios, Tightly Coupled Scenarios)
- Fault-tolerant design patterns (for example, retries with exponential backoff and jitter, deadletter queues) (AWS Documentation: Building well-architected serverless applications, Timeouts, retries, and backoff with jitter)
- Differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns (AWS Documentation: Synchronous and Asynchronous Express Workflows)
Skills in:
- Creating fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Lambda?, Resilience in AWS Lambda)
- Creating, extending, and maintaining APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes) (AWS Documentation: Use a mapping template to override an API’s request, Amazon API Gateway concepts)
- Writing and running unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS Serverless Application Model [AWS SAM]) (AWS Documentation: Build and Test a Serverless Application, Getting started with AWS SAM)
- Writing code to use messaging services (AWS Documentation: Creating an example messaging application)
- Writing code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
- Handling data streaming by using AWS services
Task Statement 2: Develop code for AWS Lambda.
Knowledge of:
- Event source mapping (AWS Documentation: Lambda event source mappings)
- Stateless applications
- Unit testing
- Event-driven architecture (AWS Documentation: What is an Event-Driven Architecture?)
- Scalability
- The access of private resources in VPCs from Lambda code (AWS Documentation: Configuring a Lambda function to access resources in a VPC)
Skills in:
- Configuring Lambda functions by defining environment variables and parameters (for example, memory, concurrency, timeout, runtime, handler, layers, extensions, triggers, destinations) (AWS Documentation: Configuring Lambda function options, Using AWS Lambda environment variables, Configuring AWS Lambda functions)
- Handling the event lifecycle and errors by using code (for example, Lambda Destinations, dead-letter queues) (AWS Documentation: Amazon SQS dead-letter queues, Using Lambda with Amazon SQS)
- Writing and running test code by using AWS services and tools (AWS Documentation: Developer Tools)
- Integrating Lambda functions with AWS services (AWS Documentation: Using AWS Lambda with other services)
- Tuning Lambda functions for optimal performance (AWS Documentation: Profiling functions with AWS Lambda Power Tuning)
Task Statement 3: Use data stores in application development.
Knowledge of:
- Relational and non-relational databases (AWS Documentation: What is NoSQL?, Relational (SQL) or NoSQL)
- Create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations (AWS Documentation: Performing Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations)
- High-cardinality partition keys for balanced partition access
- Cloud storage options (for example, file, object, databases) (AWS Documentation: Storage)
- Database consistency models (for example, strongly consistent, eventually consistent) (AWS Documentation: Read consistency, Consistency Model)
- Differences between query and scan operations (AWS Documentation: Best practices for querying and scanning data)
- Amazon DynamoDB keys and indexing
- Caching strategies (for example, write-through, read-through, lazy loading, TTL) (AWS Documentation: Caching strategies)
- Amazon S3 tiers and lifecycle management (AWS Documentation: Managing your storage lifecycle)
- Differences between ephemeral and persistent data storage patterns (AWS Documentation: Comparing your on-premises storage patterns with AWS Storage services)
Skills in:
- Serializing and deserializing data to provide persistence to a data store
- Using, managing, and maintaining data stores
- Managing data lifecycles
- Using data caching services
Domain 2: Security
Task Statement 1: Implement authentication and/or authorization for applications and AWS services.
Knowledge of:
- Identity federation (for example, Security Assertion Markup Language [SAML], OpenID Connect [OIDC], Amazon Cognito) (AWS Documentation: SAML identity providers (identity pools))
- Bearer tokens (for example, JSON Web Token [JWT], OAuth, AWS Security Token Service [AWS STS]) (AWS Documentation: Using bearer tokens)
- The comparison of user pools and identity pools in Amazon Cognito (AWS Documentation: What is Amazon Cognito?)
- Resource-based policies, service policies, and principal policies (AWS Documentation: Identity-based policies and resource-based policies, How IAM roles differ from resource-based policies)
- Role-based access control (RBAC) (AWS Documentation: Role-based access control)
- Application authorization that uses ACLs (AWS Documentation: Access control list (ACL) overview)
- The principle of least privilege (AWS Documentation: Security best practices in IAM)
- Differences between AWS managed policies and customer-managed policies (AWS Documentation: Managed policies and inline policies)
- Identity and access management (IAM) (AWS Documentation: What is IAM?)
Skills in:
- Using an identity provider to implement federated access (for example, Amazon Cognito, AWS Identity and Access Management [IAM])
- Securing applications by using bearer tokens
- Configuring programmatic access to AWS
- Making authenticated calls to AWS services
- Assuming an IAM role
- Defining permissions for principals
Task Statement 2: Implement encryption by using AWS services.
Knowledge of:
- Encryption at rest and in transit (AWS Documentation: Encrypting Data-at-Rest and -in-Transit)
- Certificate management (for example, AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Private CA?, Requesting a private PKI certificate)
- Key protection (for example, key rotation) (AWS Documentation: Rotating AWS KMS keys)
- Differences between client-side encryption and server-side encryption (AWS Documentation: Client-side and server-side encryption)
- Differences between AWS managed and customer-managed AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) keys (AWS Documentation: AWS KMS concepts, Basic concepts)
Skills in:
- Using encryption keys to encrypt or decrypt data
- Generating certificates and SSH keys for development purposes
- Using encryption across account boundaries
- Enabling and disabling key rotation
Task Statement 3: Manage sensitive data in application code.
Knowledge of:
- Data classification (for example, personally identifiable information [PII], protected health information [PHI]) (AWS Documentation: Personally identifiable information (PII))
- Environment variables (AWS Documentation: Environment variables to configure the AWS CLI)
- Secrets management (for example, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store) (AWS Documentation: Referencing AWS Secrets Manager secrets from Parameter Store parameters, AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store)
- Secure credential handling (AWS Documentation: AWS security credentials)
Skills in:
- Encrypting environment variables that contain sensitive data
- Using secret management services to secure sensitive data
- Sanitizing sensitive data
Domain 3: Deployment
Task Statement 1: Prepare application artifacts to be deployed to AWS.
Knowledge of:
- Ways to access application configuration data (for example, AWS AppConfig, Secrets Manager, Parameter Store) (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store)
- Lambda deployment packaging, layers, and configuration options (AWS Documentation: Lambda deployment packages, Creating and sharing Lambda layers)
- Git-based version control tools (for example, Git, AWS CodeCommit) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS CodeCommit?, Getting started with Git and AWS CodeCommit)
- Container images
Skills in:
- Managing the dependencies of the code module (for example, environment variables, configuration files, container images) within the package
- Organizing files and a directory structure for application deployment
- Using code repositories in deployment environments
- Applying application requirements for resources (for example, memory, cores)
Task Statement 2: Test applications in development environments.
Knowledge of:
- Features in AWS services that perform application deployment (AWS Documentation: AWS Deployment Services, Overview of Deployment Options on AWS)
- Integration testing that uses mock endpoints (AWS Documentation: Set up mock integrations in API Gateway)
- Lambda versions and aliases (AWS Documentation: Lambda function aliases)
Skills in:
- Testing deployed code by using AWS services and tools
- Performing mock integration for APIs and resolving integration dependencies
- Testing applications by using development endpoints (for example, configuring stages in Amazon API Gateway)
- Deploying application stack updates to existing environments (for example, deploying an AWS SAM template to a different staging environment)
Task Statement 3: Automate deployment testing.
Knowledge of:
- API Gateway stages (AWS Documentation: Setting up a stage using the API Gateway console)
- Branches and actions in the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflow (AWS Documentation: CI/CD on AWS)
- Automated software testing (for example, unit testing, mock testing) (AWS Documentation: Integrating with automated tests)
Skills in:
- Creating application test events (for example, JSON payloads for testing Lambda, API Gateway, AWS SAM resources)
- Deploying API resources to various environments
- Creating application environments that use approved versions for integration testing (for example, Lambda aliases, container image tags, AWS Amplify branches, AWS Copilot environments)
- Implementing and deploying infrastructure as code (IaC) templates (for example, AWS SAM templates, AWS CloudFormation templates)
- Managing environments in individual AWS services (for example, differentiating between development, test, and production in API Gateway)
Task Statement 4: Deploy code by using AWS CI/CD services.
Knowledge of:
- Git-based version control tools (for example, Git, AWS CodeCommit) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS CodeCommit?, Getting started with Git and AWS CodeCommit)
- Manual and automated approvals in AWS CodePipeline (AWS Documentation: Manage approval actions in CodePipeline)
- Access application configurations from AWS AppConfig and Secrets Manager (AWS Documentation: AWS AppConfig integration with AWS Secrets Manager)
- CI/CD workflows that use AWS services (AWS Documentation: CI/CD on AWS)
- Application deployment that uses AWS services and tools (for example, CloudFormation, AWS Cloud Development Kit [AWS CDK], AWS SAM, AWS CodeArtifact, Copilot, Amplify, Lambda)
- Lambda deployment packaging options (AWS Documentation: Lambda deployment packages)
- API Gateway stages and custom domains (AWS Documentation: Setting up custom domain names for REST APIs)
- Deployment strategies (for example, canary, blue/green, rolling) (AWS Documentation: Rolling Deployments)
Skills in:
- Updating existing IaC templates (for example, AWS SAM templates, CloudFormation templates)
- Managing application environments by using AWS services
- Deploying an application version by using deployment strategies
- Committing code to a repository to invoke build, test, and deployment actions
- Using orchestrated workflows to deploy code to different environments
- Performing application rollbacks by using existing deployment strategies
- Using labels and branches for version and release management
- Using existing runtime configurations to create dynamic deployments (for example, using staging variables from API Gateway in Lambda functions)
Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization
Task Statement 1: Assist in a root cause analysis.
Knowledge of:
- Logging and monitoring systems (AWS Documentation: Designing and implementing logging and monitoring)
- Languages for log queries (for example, Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights) (AWS Documentation: CloudWatch Logs Insights query syntax, Analyzing log data with CloudWatch Logs Insights)
- Data visualizations (AWS Documentation: Data visualization)
- Code analysis tools
- Common HTTP error codes (AWS Documentation: Supported status codes for custom response, Common Errors)
- Common exceptions generated by SDKs (AWS Documentation: Exception handling for the AWS SDK for Java 2.x)
- Service maps in AWS X-Ray (AWS Documentation: Using the service map)
Skills in:
- Debugging code to identify defects
- Interpreting application metrics, logs, and traces
- Querying logs to find relevant data
- Implementing custom metrics (for example, CloudWatch embedded metric format [EMF])
- Reviewing application health by using dashboards and insights
- Troubleshooting deployment failures by using service output logs
Task Statement 2: Instrument code for observability.
Knowledge of:
- Distributed tracing (AWS Documentation: AWS X-Ray, What is AWS X-Ray?)
- Differences between logging, monitoring, and observability (AWS Documentation: Monitoring and observability)
- Structured logging (AWS Documentation: Centralized and structured logging)
- Application metrics (for example, custom, embedded, built-in) (AWS Documentation: Publishing custom metrics)
Skills in:
- Implementing an effective logging strategy to record application behavior and state
- Implementing code that emits custom metrics
- Adding annotations for tracing services
- Implementing notification alerts for specific actions (for example, notifications about quota
limits or deployment completions) - Implementing tracing by using AWS services and tools
Task Statement 3: Optimize applications by using AWS services and features.
Knowledge of:
- Caching
- Concurrency (AWS Documentation: Configuring reserved concurrency)
- Messaging services (for example, Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon SQS], Amazon Simple Notification Service [Amazon SNS]) (AWS Documentation: Fanout to Amazon SQS queues, Sending Amazon SNS messages to an Amazon SQS queue in a different account, What is Amazon Simple Queue Service?)
Skills in:
- Profiling application performance
- Determining minimum memory and compute power for an application
- Using subscription filter policies to optimize messaging
- Caching content based on request headers
Preparing for the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam
Choosing the right study material is the most important stage in preparing for any exam. Only your choice of AWS Certified Developer Associate Study Material will determine your test success. Furthermore, the syllabus is highly important for any professional test; having a thorough grasp of the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Syllabus is quite helpful since it offers a clear picture of the exam. The official site of the exam is the best place to gather preparation materials.
- Official AWS Certification Exam Guide: The official exam guide provides information about the exam structure, topics covered, and sample questions. It is available on the AWS website.
- AWS Training and Certification: AWS offers online training courses, practice exams, and certification exams for its services. You can access these resources on the AWS website.
- Practice exams: Several third-party websites offer practice exams that simulate the actual exam. These practice exams can help you identify areas where you need to improve and give you an idea of what to expect on the actual exam.
- AWS documentation: AWS provides extensive documentation on its services, including developer tools and services. Reading through the documentation can help you understand the concepts and services covered on the exam.
- AWS whitepapers: AWS provides whitepapers that cover various topics related to its services. Reading through these whitepapers can help you gain a deeper understanding of the services covered on the exam.
- AWS re: Invent videos: AWS re: Invent is an annual conference where AWS announces new services and features. The conference also features sessions and workshops on various topics related to AWS. Watching the session videos can help you learn about new services and features and gain a deeper understanding of existing services.
- AWS Classroom Training: AWS offers classroom training delivered by AWS-accredited instructors. The training is available in-person or virtually and covers a variety of AWS services and topics. You can find the course schedules and locations on the AWS website.
- AWS Bootcamps: AWS Bootcamps are intensive, hands-on training courses designed to help you learn specific AWS skills in a short amount of time. Bootcamps are available for various AWS services and are delivered by AWS-accredited instructors. You can find the boot camp schedules and locations on the AWS website.
- AWS Training Partners: AWS Training Partners are authorized training providers that offer instructor-led training on AWS services and technologies. These training partners offer courses in various formats, including classroom, virtual, and on-site training.
- AWS GameDays: AWS GameDays are immersive, team-based events designed to help you learn how to solve real-world problems using AWS services. GameDays are led by AWS solutions architects and are available in various formats, including in-person and virtual events.
- AWS Summits: AWS Summits are free, one-day events designed to help you learn about AWS services and technologies. The events feature keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and hands-on labs, and are led by AWS experts.
- Online communities: Online communities such as the AWS subreddit and AWS forums can be valuable resources for exam preparation. You can ask questions, get answers, and learn from others who are preparing for the exam.
Remember to practice and review the concepts regularly to gain a good understanding of the topics covered in the exam. Best of luck with your exam preparation!
Experts Corner
The DVA-C01 exam for the AWS Certified Developer Associate certification is an important step for those looking to advance their career in cloud computing. This exam focuses on the development and deployment of applications on the AWS platform and covers a wide range of topics, including AWS services, security, and troubleshooting. To prepare for the exam, it is important to have a strong understanding of programming languages, as well as experience with AWS services such as AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS CloudFormation. In addition, it is recommended to review the exam guide and take practice exams to ensure that you are fully prepared for the exam.
Passing the DVA-C01 exam demonstrates your expertise in developing and deploying applications on AWS, and can open up many career opportunities in the cloud computing industry. With the increasing demand for cloud-based solutions, becoming an AWS Certified Developer Associate can give you a competitive edge in the job market.
Overall, the DVA-C01 exam is a challenging but rewarding experience that can help you take your cloud computing career to the next level. By putting in the time and effort to prepare for the exam, you can gain the knowledge and skills needed to excel in this exciting and rapidly growing field.
