How to Pass AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam?

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AWS Certified Developer Associate

The AWS Developer Associate certification is designed for developers who have some experience with AWS and want to validate their expertise in developing and maintaining applications on the AWS platform. It is an excellent way to demonstrate your proficiency in AWS services, deployment, and debugging. However, passing the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam is not easy. The examination is all-encompassing, delving into an extensive array of subjects such as AWS core services, databases, security, and deployment. Consequently, it demands a robust grasp of AWS services, concepts, and optimal practices.

As more and more companies move towards cloud computing, there is an increasing demand for professionals with AWS certification. Among the many certifications offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam is one of the most popular and sought-after certifications in the industry.

To help aspiring developers pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam, this blog will provide tips, strategies, and resources to help you prepare and pass the exam. We will cover the exam format, the topics covered, and the essential skills and knowledge you need to succeed. We will also provide study resources, practice exams, and exam-taking strategies to help you maximize your chances of passing the exam. Irrespective of whether you possess ample experience in development or are embarking on the initial stages of your career, this article holds a treasure trove of valuable insights and information aimed at bolstering your triumph in the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam. So, let’s get started!

Glossary for AWS Developer Associate Terminology

  1. AWS (Amazon Web Services) – A cloud computing platform offering an extensive array of services, encompassing computing, storage, databases, analytics, security, and more.
  2. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) – A web service affording resizable cloud-based computing capacity, enabling effortless creation and management of on-demand virtual machines (VMs).
  3. Simple Storage Service (S3) – A scalable cloud storage solution facilitating global data storage and retrieval. It guarantees high durability and availability.
  4. Relational Database Service (RDS) – A fully managed database service providing an intuitive interface for developing, handling, and expanding relational databases within the cloud.
  5. DynamoDB – A fully managed NoSQL database service delivering fast, predictable performance and effortless scalability.
  6. Lambda – A serverless computing service empowering users to execute code without the need for server provisioning or management. It supports diverse programming languages and boasts significant scalability.
  7. Elastic Beanstalk – A user-friendly platform for deploying and expanding web applications and services, crafted in popular languages like Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, and Go.
  8. Simple Queue Service (SQS) – A completely managed message queuing service, enabling decoupling and scalability for microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications.
  9. Simple Notification Service (SNS) – A fully managed publish/subscribe messaging solution, facilitating the dispatch and receipt of notifications, SMS messages, and emails.
  10. CloudFormation – A service offering a shared language for outlining and provisioning cloud infrastructure resources. It streamlines the creation of templates for automated AWS resource deployment.
  11. API Gateway – A fully managed service simplifying API creation, publishing, and management across any scale. It features caching, throttling, and monitoring for optimized API performance.
  12. Elastic Container Service (ECS) – A scalable, high-performance container orchestration service compatible with Docker containers, simplifying the administration of containerized apps in the cloud.
  13. Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) – A completely managed Kubernetes service streamlining the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications via Kubernetes on AWS.
  14. Identity and Access Management (IAM) – A service granting centralized control over AWS resources by configuring users, groups, roles, and their associated permissions for resource access.
  15. CloudWatch – A monitoring service offering insight into cloud resources and applications through metric, log, and event collection and tracking.
  16. Simple Workflow Service (SWF) – A fully managed workflow solution supporting the development of applications with parallel and sequential steps, human tasks, and time limits.
  17. Route 53 – A resilient, expandable domain name system (DNS) web service permitting users to manage domain names and direct internet traffic to AWS resources.
  18. Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) – A logically isolated segment of the AWS Cloud, enabling users to launch resources within a customized virtual network.
  19. Kinesis – A platform catering to the streaming and analysis of real-time data at scale. It facilitates the ingestion and processing of extensive data from various sources such as websites, social media, and sensors.
  20. CloudFront – A content delivery network (CDN) service ensuring secure and low-latency distribution of data, videos, applications, and APIs to global audiences.

Exam Preparation Resources for AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

Here are some useful exam preparation resources for the AWS Certified Developer Associate certification:

Expert tips to pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

Here are some expert tips to help you pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam:

  1. Understand the AWS Architecture: You should have a clear understanding of the AWS architecture, including the different services and how they work together.
  2. Learn the Programming Languages: You should have a strong grasp of at least one programming language, such as Python, JavaScript, or Java, and understand how it can be used in the AWS environment.
  3. Learn AWS Services: You should have a deep understanding of the different AWS services, including EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, API Gateway, and more.
  4. Understand Security: You should be familiar with AWS security best practices, including IAM, VPCs, and security groups.
  5. Practice with Exam Questions: To get a feel for the exam, you should practice with sample exam questions. This will help you identify any areas where you may need to study further.
  6. Take Advantage of AWS Training: AWS offers a range of training resources, including online courses, whitepapers, and webinars. Take advantage of these resources to deepen your understanding of AWS.
  7. Use AWS Documentation: AWS has extensive documentation that provides detailed information about all of its services. Use this documentation to reinforce your understanding of the services.
  8. Join AWS Communities: Join AWS communities, such as AWS User Groups and AWS Developer Forums, to network with other developers and get insights from their experiences.
  9. Schedule the Exam: Once you feel confident, schedule your exam. This will help you focus your study efforts and give you a deadline to work towards.
  10. Manage your Time: During the exam, make sure you manage your time carefully. The exam is timed, so you need to allocate your time wisely to ensure you answer all of the questions.

Why Amazon Web Services (AWS)?

Many organizations have their own cloud services that have resulted in a big competition with other cloud services to be on top. Amazon Web Services (AWS) comes under the top cloud services with having a good impact on individuals and companies globally.

AWS service includes features like Data encryption and various access controls which provide data security over the cloud. Also AWS has the ability to host dynamic websites to run various web and application servers. It also includes hybrid abilities to work with.

AWS has three certification levels starting from Associate level to Professional level. AWS Certified Developer Associate is one of the basic AWS certification Architecture.

Overview of AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam

The AWS Developer Associate Certification (DVA-C01) exam is strategically devised to assess your competence in deploying, crafting, and troubleshooting cloud-based applications utilizing AWS and its fundamental architecture. This certification examination equips candidates with the capability to cultivate a profound comprehension of AWS’s core services and to establish excellence in AWS architecture methodologies.

Exam Overview

AWS Developer Associate exam is designed to candidates having an advanced experience in developing and maintaining AWS applications. This certification will examine you knowledge on deploying, debugging and developing cloud based applications.

Exam Details for AWS Certified Developer Associate

Exam NameAWS Certified Developer Associate
Exam CodeDVA-C01
Exam Duration130 minutes
Exam Cost$150 USD
Exam QuestionsMultiple Choice and Multiple Response Questions
Exam ScoringScaled score from 100 to 1000
Passing Score70% – 75%
Exam LanguageEnglish, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese
Exam Eligibility1. Experience of 1 or more years in developing AWS application.
2. Knowledge in one advance level programming language.
3. Ability to write code for serverless applications

Course Structure of AWS Certified Developer Associate

 There are five domains covered in AWS Certified Developer Associate Course Outline. These are:

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:

Skills in:

Task Statement 2: Develop code for AWS Lambda.

Knowledge of:

Skills in:

Task Statement 3: Use data stores in application development.

Knowledge of:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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

Exam Prerequisites

 AWS Certified Developer Associate Prerequisites are:

  • It is necessary to have more than 1 year hands on experience in maintaining and developing AWS based applications.
  • You should have proficiency in at least one advanced level programming language with knowledge in AWS core services.
  • You should know how to write code for serverless applications and how to use AWS service API’s, SDK’s and AWS CLI to write applications.

 Exam Structure

AWS Developer Associate certification Exam questions are in has MCQ type format. Exam has been divided into two types –

  • Multiple choice questions, in this you only have select one correct option out of four options.
  • Multiple response questions, in this there can be multiple correct answers from the options given.

Exam Scoring

  • For AWS Developer Associate exam you have to select one or more best suitable answers based on the type of questions.
  • Questions which are not answered will be marked as incorrect.
  • There can also be some content in the exam which hasn’t assigned any score or no score will be given on that.

Exam Result

  • The scoring for the exam is presented on a scale ranging from 100 to 1000 points.
  • To successfully pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam, a score within the range of 70% to 75% is required.
  • The certification does not entail separate passing criteria for individual sections; the emphasis remains on achieving an overall passing score.
  • Each section featured in this exam possesses distinct weightage, resulting in varying numbers of questions allocated to each section.
  • The AWS Developer Associate Exam adheres to a binary pass or fail outcome. Moreover, you can anticipate the exam results to be dispatched via email within five business days following the examination.
  • Scoring within the exam is anchored in the minimal standards established by AWS professionals, adhering to robust guidelines and best practices.

Exam Retake Policy

If you wish to undergo a reattempt of the AWS Developer Associate certification exam, a mandatory waiting period of 14 days must be observed before a subsequent trial. You retain the privilege of taking the exam multiple times until certification achievement is realized. It’s important to note that a complete fee payment is requisite for each endeavor made towards the exam.

 Exam Objective: AWS Certified Developer Associate

 Candidates giving this exam are validated using the following structure,

  • Uses of AWS services and understand the cloud native applications to write code.
  • Knowledge in maintaining and debugging code modules on AWS.
  • Understanding the AWS core services, its use and having best practice in AWS architecture.
  • Using AWS security best practice which includes IAM roles to write codes.

Exam Registration Process

Steps to registration for AWS Developer Associate Exam –

  • You need to sign in to aws.training.
  • Click on Certification on the top.
  • Then click on AWS Certification account, Schedule new exam.
  • Check for the exam you want to take and click schedule at Pearson VUI button or PSI.

How to prepare for AWS Certified Developer Associate exam?

The readiness for the AWS Developer Associate exam can be facilitated through a variety of freely accessible resources, both in digital and physical formats. These resources play a pivotal role in your study process, enabling a deeper grasp of your proficiencies and capabilities within the AWS domain. To support your exam success, the following is a guide tailored for the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam:

Reference Books

There are many reference books which are available for AWS Developer Associate exam and some of them are,

  • Firstly, All in One AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Guide
  • Secondly, AWS for Developers for dummies
  • Thirdly, AWS Development Essentials
  • Also, AWS Certified Developer Associate Guide: An Effective Guide for Developers

Exam Course Provider

Exploring online sources allows you to access a wealth of exam-related information and insights for the AWS Developer Associate certification. Numerous websites offer comprehensive online training courses, furnishing complete guidance throughout the curriculum. These platforms provide valuable assistance throughout your learning journey, including:

  • Udemy
  • Pluralsight
  • Simplilearn

Exam Q&A

You can also refer various websites and discussion forums offering quality information and topic details related to the certification such as,

  • Answers.com
  • Quora
  • Stackoverflow

Exam Practice Test

In preparation for the exam, incorporating practice test questions can significantly enhance your readiness. Various online platforms provide practice test resources that serve to assess your proficiency and comprehension of AWS Developer Associate concepts. While practice sets can be found on Amazon, it’s important to note that they might not encompass the entire scope of topics. Alternatively, at Testprep Training, you can access practice sets for AWS Developer Associate in two distinct manners:

AWS Certified Developer Associate Training

A multitude of complimentary training resources for the Developer Associate exam is extended by AWS and can be found at https://aws.amazon.com/training/. These training modules necessitate registration but come at no financial charge. AWS also provides access to diverse learning libraries that facilitate an in-depth understanding of their services. Moreover, the AWS APN partner program is available to assist in expediting your business’s growth on the AWS platform.

Testprep Training offer AWS Developer Associate Free Tutorial and Free Practice Test to improve your chances to qualify AWS Developer Associate Exam.

Developer Learning Path in AWS

AWS has formulated a developer-oriented learning pathway meticulously tailored for software developers harboring a strong inclination toward crafting cloud-based applications on the AWS platform. This learning trajectory is geared towards enhancing your technical acumen and propelling you toward advanced proficiency.

How to prepare for AWS Developer Associate Exam?

As you gear up for the AWS certification exam, the process entails not only studying but also establishing a structured study regimen. Successfully obtaining this certification serves as a gateway to fresh avenues and advanced certifications within the professional realm. To navigate this journey effectively and achieve certification success, consider the following steps:

Step 1 – Create a Blue Print for Exam Preparation

Before embarking on your exam preparation journey, it’s advisable to delve into research surrounding AWS concepts and the intricacies of the exam structure. Following this, devise a chart that delineates your proficiency levels in various topics, highlighting both your strongest and weakest areas. To systematically bolster your skills and ensure an effective approach, formulate an AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Blueprint and proceed in alignment with this strategic roadmap.

Step 2 – Understanding AWS Concepts

This aspect holds significant importance in the certification journey, as it necessitates the validation of your skills and comprehension by grasping the concepts instead of resorting to rote memorization. Acquiring practical experience with AWS services and applications becomes imperative for a more profound understanding of the subjects.

Step 3 – Look for Preparation Material for AWS Developer Associate Exam

Numerous online platforms offer practice tests and training resources tailored to aid in achieving success in the AWS certification exam. Some of these platforms even furnish complimentary question practice sets. Moreover, they extend a trial period without cost, allowing users to assess the training materials before committing to a full purchase. For individuals inclined towards independent study, the option of acquiring AWS reference books to facilitate exam preparation is also available.

Step 4 – Practice, Practice and Practice !

After thoroughly engaging with the learning materials, the subsequent phase involves directing your attention towards active practice. The key to self-assessment lies in AWS Certified Developer Associate Practice Exams, serving as an essential gauge of your understanding. Consistent daily practice is recommended to facilitate a deeper grasp of the concepts. By engaging in continuous practice, you can efficiently pinpoint your areas of weakness, thereby honing in on them and solidifying your command over proficient areas. It’s advisable to formulate a structured study plan that incorporates both theoretical study and regular question practice. Such a regimen expedites topic coverage while allocating ample time for focused practice.

Step 5 – Take the exam

After successfully covering the syllabus, dedicate yourself to a series of mock tests, honing your skills through consistent practice leading up to the exam day. When facing the actual exam, meticulously read and comprehend the requirements, embarking on the test with unwavering confidence.

Best of Luck for the exam!!

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