There are several elements that must be focused on in order to acquire the credential of AWS Certified Developer Associate. Passing the AWS Developer Associate Exam is the first and most crucial step. This exam might take up to two months to prepare for. However, passing the test is not tough if you have the necessary abilities, experience, and study materials.
Then, comes the preparation for the exam part. This requires knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS), appropriate exam resources, the ability to comprehend exam requirements, and the selection of appropriate training courses. So, with these resources in mind, we’ll focus on the areas that are essential to help you earn this role.
Who is AWS Developer Associate?
Someone who has one or more years of hands-on experience in creating and managing an AWS-based application qualifies as an AWS Developer Associate. They have the ability to demonstrate an understanding of essential AWS services, usage, and best practices for AWS architecture. Furthermore, they are skilled in leveraging AWS to create, deploy, and debug cloud-based applications.
Additionally, their major purpose is to improve an organization’s use of AWS services, which encompasses everything from content distribution and code authoring to data storage. The AWS Developer will often construct or maintain the mobile hub, as well as supervise the implementation of different features such as push notifications and user authentication.
Moving on to the exam part!
The major thing to focus on becoming AWS Developer Associate is to pass the AWS Exam. So, what will it take to pass the exam? Let’s find out!
AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Details
The AWS Certified Developer Associate (DVA-C01) exam is for those who work in the developer field. You must, however, have at least one year of experience developing and maintaining AWS-based applications. Further, the suggested knowledge for this exam covers:
- Firstly, advanced knowledge of at least one high-level programming language and understanding of application lifecycle management.
- Secondly, the ability to write code for serverless applications and understanding of using containers in the development process.
- Then, skills of:
- Using the AWS service APIs, CLI, and software development kits (SDKs) for writing applications
- Identifying key features of AWS services and understanding the AWS shared responsibility model
- Using a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline for deploying applications on AWS
- After that, using and interacting with AWS services
- Implementing a basic understanding of cloud-native applications for writing code
- Next, using AWS security best practices for writing code. For example:
- using IAM roles rather than secret and access keys in the code
- Lastly, authoring, maintaining, and debugging code modules on AWS
Format of the Exam:
The AWS Developer Associate exam is an intermediate-level exam with 65 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions. There will be a time restriction of 130 minutes for finishing the exam. The exam costs $150 and is accessible in the following languages: English, French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America).
Now that we have understood the exam requirements, it’s time to learn the preparation method to pass the exam and gain experience to earn the role of an AWS Developer Associate!
Preparing for the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam
Developers who want to expand their understanding of databases, containers, and full-stack development should take this exam. This exam, on the other hand, effectively analyzes your knowledge of web app authentication, computing, such as running apps on virtual servers, running serverless applications, caching for scaling and performance, and various types of storage. If you wish to further your developer career, this exam is for you. Coming on to the preparation, the first and most important to begin with is the exam guide. Let’s understand it!
1. Understanding the Developer Associated Exam Guide
The AWS Exam Guide covers a broad range of topics that are both current and relevant. It covers exam weightings, test domains, and exam objectives. To have a better knowledge of the subject, each section must be read. Start with the most difficult topics and, after you’ve mastered them, you’ll be able to set your learning progress for the remaining topics. The domains are as follows:
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
2. Exploring the exam areas using AWS exam readiness
This course will help you understand the better way of preparing for the exam by looking at the exam’s topic areas, relating them to AWS development, and focusing on specific topics. You’ll practice answering sample test questions in each topic area and learn how to examine the topics being assessed so you don’t make any mistakes.
Intended Audience
This course is for:
- Developers preparing to take the AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam
Course Objectives
This course teaches you the process of:
- Understanding the exam structure and question types
- Discovering questions that relate to AWS development concepts
- Using an exam question for interpreting the ideas being tested
3. Working on skills using AWS Developer Training
AWS has provided an advantage by offering developer-level training courses to help better understand the concepts. This includes:
• AWS Technical Essentials
The most important AWS services and solutions are covered in AWS Technical Essentials. This course covers the fundamental AWS principles of computing, database, storage, networking, monitoring, and security. You will begin working with AWS after receiving hands-on instruction. Moreover, this also covers the fundamentals you’ll need to better understand AWS services so you can make well-informed judgments regarding solutions that meet your goals. Throughout the course, you’ll also learn how to create, compare, and use highly available, fault-tolerant, scalable, and cost-effective cloud systems.
• Introduction to AWS Elastic Beanstalk
AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a cloud-based solution that allows you to quickly deploy your programs. In this session, the various components of the AWS Elastic Beanstalk solution will be reviewed briefly, and the service will be demonstrated.
• Introduction to Containers
This is an introductory course for those who have never worked with containers before. This will teach you about containerization’s history and concepts, as well as an overview of the various technologies used in the container ecosystem and the role of containers in microservice architectures.
• Introduction to Serverless Development
This course will teach you the basics of serverless computing so you can start creating serverless apps. You’ll also learn how to adapt server-based development best practices for serverless development, as well as how to change your development processes to accommodate serverless application development.
• Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Primer
This course goes beyond the principles of containerization and its benefits to focus on the Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS). However, you’ll learn how to install containers on AWS using Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), as well as other AWS services like the Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). You’ll also learn about some of the most common microservices applications.
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Primer
The basics of Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service are covered in this course. You’ll learn how to use EKS and other services to set up containers on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Moreover, you’ll also learn about EKS’s communication and management processes.
• Getting Started with DevOps on AWS
This course is for technical learners in the development and operations domains who wish to master the foundations of DevOps on Amazon Web Services. Through discussions, interactive material, and demonstrations, you will learn about the culture, practices, and technology used in a DevOps setting. Further, you’ll also learn about Amazon Web Services (AWS) approaches for rapidly creating and delivering secure apps.
• Developing on AWS
This course will show you how to use the AWS SDK to construct secure and scalable cloud apps. Here, you may learn how to use code to interact with AWS and learn about key concepts, best practices, and troubleshooting strategies. Further, you will also learn about:
- Firstly, AWS SDK and developer credentials configuration for Java, C#/.NET, and Python
- Secondly, using the AWS SDK for interacting with AWS services and developing solutions
- Then, service authentication using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Lastly, using Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon DynamoDB as data stores
4. Get familiar with the AWS Whitepapers
Using the AWS whitepapers relevant for the Developer Associate exam, you will learn about AWS services and best practices using:
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery on AWS
- Microservices on AWS
- Serverless Architectures with AWS Lambda
- Optimizing Enterprise Economics with Serverless Architectures
- Running Containerized Microservices on AWS
- Blue/Green Deployments on AWS
5. For Assistance Enroll in Online Courses
You’ll need a thorough grasp of creating and managing AWS-based apps to become an AWS Developer Associate. Moreover, it is necessary to have proficiency in at least one high-level programming language and have a basic grasp of application lifecycle management, as well as the ability to write code for serverless apps and the use of containers in the development process. However, you can do this by enrolling in an online training course. That is to say, taking the online course will help you study for the test by giving expert-level assistance in resolving any problems or questions you may have.
Further, below are a few online course providers who can help you become well-versed and equipped with in-depth knowledge so that you can pass the test.
- Udemy
- Testprep Training
- Simplilearn
- Cloudguru
6. Use Practice tests for strong revision
Practice exams can help you determine how long each question will take you to answer and how well you grasp each topic. Furthermore, practice exams can assist you in focusing on single-domain subjects, which is a smart step to start while preparing for a test. After you’ve mastered the domain, start taking full-length practice exams to improve your revision skills. So, start by taking a sample AWS Developer Associate exam test to discover more about your strengths and weaknesses.
7. Schedule and take the exam
To register for the exam, create an AWS training and certification account, which will allow you to manage your exam, certification history, digital badges, certificate download, and certificate benefits, among other things. AWS certifications may now be completed from the convenience of your own home; simply select Pearson VUE when scheduling the exam.
Further, after taking the exam:
Begin working on developer-oriented projects. Alternatively, you might begin working on your own projects, putting the skills and knowledge you’ve gained to use. This may be used as both an assignment to assess your abilities and a means to display your abilities to the company during the interview. Furthermore, this will assist you in obtaining a well-paying job in a reputable organization.
According to a report, AWS Developers in India earn around ₹528,322 per year. It starts at ₹200,000 per year and can rise to ₹1,500,000 per year.
Related to the job, some of the top companies hiring for the AWS Developer Associate role include:
- JP Morgan
- Genpact
- Wipro
- Concentrix
- Qualcomm
- Infosys
Final Words
The developer sector will expand rapidly in the future years. Passing the AWS Developer Associate exam is the best approach to increase your job security and earn a higher salary. As a result, you must focus on all of the critical areas in order to increase your preparation. Lastly, for a step-by-step preparation, create a study plan, grasp test patterns using the information provided above, and pass the exam.
