AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02)
Developer – Associate covers building, deploying, securing and debugging applications that run on AWS. It is the associate exam for people who write code: heavy on SDKs and service APIs, IAM from the application's point of view, CI/CD pipelines, and reading failure symptoms back to a cause. It assumes you are comfortable in at least one high-level programming language.
- 65
- Questions
- 130 min
- Duration
- 720 on a 100–1000 scaled
- Passing score
- US$150
- Exam cost
50 scored, 15 unscored
score
confirm current local pricing on aws.amazon.com
Exam facts reviewed July 2026 · Independent study resource, not affiliated with Amazon Web Services
Who should take it
Software engineers already building on AWS, and backend or platform developers who want the credential that matches what they actually do day to day. AWS recommends a year or more developing and maintaining AWS applications, plus proficiency in a high-level language and familiarity with application lifecycle management.
Skills measured
Domains and weightings as published by Amazon Web Services. Full objectives →
- 32%Development with AWS Services
- 26%Security
- 24%Deployment
- 18%Troubleshooting and Optimization
What’s inside
What you get on Kwizza for this certification — free, no account needed to start.
- 316
- Practice questions
- 3
- Full exams
- 4
- Domains covered
- Free
- Cost
weighted to the official blueprint
every answer explained
Prepare with Kwizza
- Free practice exam — full-length, weighted to the official blueprint, every answer explained
- Study guide — domain-by-domain focus areas, common mistakes, exam-day tips
- Exam objectives — the official domains, unpacked
- Sample questions — real items from our bank, with answers and explanations
- How our exams are made — the quality pipeline behind every question
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to write code during the exam?
- No — it is entirely multiple choice and multiple response. But questions show code and configuration snippets and expect you to read them, so the exam is much harder without real programming experience.
- What score do I need to pass?
- 720 on a scaled range of 100–1000, with compensatory scoring — you must pass overall, not each domain individually. The scale is not a straight percentage of questions correct, so treat practice-exam percentages as an approximation.
- Which language should I know?
- Any high-level language is fine. The exam does not target a specific SDK — questions are framed so that the concept, not the syntax, is what is being tested.
- Should I take Solutions Architect – Associate first?
- Neither requires the other. Take the one matching your work: Architect if you choose and combine services, Developer if you build on them. Many people do both, and the security and deployment material overlaps.
- How long does the certification last?
- Three years. Recertify by passing the current version, or automatically by earning a higher-level AWS certification.
Related certifications
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — The same level, from the design-and-selection side
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) — The foundational exam if AWS itself is still new