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AWS DVA-C02 Exam Questions
December 1, 2026 is the last day anyone can sit DVA-C02. AWS has already named the replacement, DVA-C03, with registration opening on October 27, which leaves about five weeks where both exist. The other thing worth knowing is how this one is marked. Sixty-five questions arrive and only 50 of them count, with 15 unscored pretest items mixed in and nothing on the screen to tell them apart. Working DVA-C02 exam questions across all four domains is the sensible response to that. Booked before December, and the deadline plans your weeks for you. Not booked, and the real question is whether to sit this version or wait for the next.
| Exam name | AWS Certified Developer - Associate |
| Exam code | DVA-C02 |
| Certification | AWS Certified Developer Associate, Amazon Associate |
| Time allowed | 130 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 on a scale of 100 to 1000, scored compensatorily across the whole exam rather than domain by domain |
| Recommended experience | One or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications on AWS. No prerequisites. |
| Exam cost | USD 150 |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centre, or online proctored |
| Retake policy | 14 calendar days between attempts, with no limit on how many and the full fee payable each time. A passed exam cannot be retaken for two years. |
| Certification validity | Three years. Recertify by passing the current version, or by earning AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional. |
| Exam retirement | Last day to sit DVA-C02 is December 1, 2026. DVA-C03 registration opens October 27, 2026. |
| Practice questions in our bank | 600 |
| Questions on the real exam | 65 |
DVA-C02 Exam Practice Questions
Written to the DVA-C02 guide rather than the DVA-C03 one that replaces it in December.
A company has an application that stores data in Amazon RDS instances. The application periodically experiences surges of high traffic that cause performance problems.
During periods of peak traffic, a developer notices a reduction in query speed in all database queries.
The team's technical lead determines that a multi-threaded and scalable caching solution should be used to offload the heavy read traffic. The solution needs to improve performance.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST complexity?
Correct Answer: D
Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached is a fully managed, multithreaded, and scalable in-memory key-value store that can be used to cache frequently accessed data and improve application performance1. By using Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached, the developer can reduce the load on the main database and handle high traffic surges more efficiently.
To use Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached, the developer needs to create a cache cluster with one or more nodes, and configure the application to store and retrieve data from the cache cluster2.The developer can use any of the supported Memcached clients to interact with the cache cluster3.The developer can also use Auto Discovery to dynamically discover and connect to all cache nodes in a cluster4.
Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached is compatible with the Memcached protocol, which means that the developer can use existing tools and libraries that work with Memcached1. Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached also supports data partitioning, which allows the developer to distribute data among multiple nodes and scale out the cache cluster as needed.
Using Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached is a simple and effective solution that meets the requirements with the least complexity. The developer does not need to change the database schema, migrate data to a different service, or use a different caching model. The developer can leverage the existing Memcached ecosystem and easily integrate it with the application.
A developer at a company recently created a serverless application to process and show data from business reports. The application's user interface (UI) allows users to select and start processing the files. The Ul displays a message when the result is available to view. The application uses AWS Step Functions with AWS Lambda functions to process the files. The developer used Amazon API Gateway and Lambda functions to create an API to support the UI.
The company's Ul team reports that the request to process a file is often returning timeout errors because of the see or complexity of the files. The Ul team wants the API to provide an immediate response so that the Ul can deploy a message while the files are being processed. The backend process that is invoked by the API needs to send an email message when the report processing is complete.
What should the developer do to configure the API to meet these requirements?
Correct Answer: A
This solution allows the API to invoke the Lambda function asynchronously, which means that the API will return an immediate response without waiting for the function to complete. The X-Amz-Invocation-Type header specifies the invocation type of the Lambda function, and setting it to 'Event' means that the function will be invoked asynchronously. The function can then use Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to send an email message when the report processing is complete.
A company has a social media application that receives large amounts of traffic User posts and interactions are continuously updated in an Amazon RDS database The data changes frequently, and the data types can be complex The application must serve read requests with minimal latency
The application's current architecture struggles to deliver these rapid data updates efficiently The company needs a solution to improve the application's performance.
Which solution will meet these requirements'?
Correct Answer: D
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis:An in-memory data store known for extremely low latency, ideal for caching frequently accessed, complex data.
Write-Through Caching:Ensures that data is always consistent between the cache and the database. Writes go to both Redis and RDS.
Performance Gains:Redis handles reads with minimal latency, offloading the RDS database and improving the application's responsiveness.
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis Documentation:https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/red-ug/
Caching Strategies:https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/red-ug/Strategies.html
A developer wants to use an Amazon CloudFront distribution to deliver a web application to users. Users will access the application through the internet.
The developer needs to create an SSL/TLS certificate to use with the CloudFront distribution. The developer wants to minimize operational overhead by ensuring that the certificate is renewed automatically.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
Correct Answer: C
The best answer is to request a public certificate in AWS Certificate Manager and validate it with DNS. ACM manages public certificate renewal automatically when validation remains in place, which minimizes operational overhead. DNS validation is preferable to email validation because it does not require manual approval emails during renewal workflows. IAM server certificates are legacy-style certificate storage and do not provide the same managed lifecycle experience as ACM. Imported certificates are not automatically renewed by ACM because ACM does not control their issuance lifecycle. For CloudFront, AWS recommends ACM certificates, and CloudFront certificates must be requested or imported in the US East (N. Virginia) Region, although the option's key point is ACM public certificate with DNS validation. (AWS Documentation)
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A developer is designing a serverless application for a game in which users register and log in through a web browser The application makes requests on behalf of users to a set of AWS Lambda functions that run behind an Amazon API Gateway HTTP API
The developer needs to implement a solution to register and log in users on the application's sign-in page. The solution must minimize operational overhead and must minimize ongoing management of user identities.
Which solution will meet these requirements'?
Correct Answer: A
Amazon Cognito User Pools:A managed user directory service, simplifying user registration and login.
Social Identity Providers:Cognito supports integration with external providers (e.g., Google, Facebook), reducing development effort.
IAM Roles for Authorization:Cognito-managed IAM roles grant fine-grained access to AWS resources (like Lambda functions).
Operational Overhead:Cognito minimizes the need to manage user identities and credentials independently.
Amazon Cognito Documentationhttps://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/
Cognito User Pools for Web Applications:https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/cognito-user-pools-app-integration.html
DVA-C02 Exam Domains and Weightings
Four domains, running from 32% down to 18%, so the spread is wide enough to plan around. What each one asks of a developer is below, with the percentages taken from the AWS exam guide.
Development with AWS Services
32%The largest domain, and the one that assumes you have written code against AWS rather than read about it. Working with the SDKs, the CLI and service APIs, building applications that behave when a call fails, and knowing which service a described requirement is really asking for. Retries, idempotency and pagination turn up here as habits rather than trivia.
Security
26%A quarter of the paper, and it is developer security rather than architect security. Securing application code and the data it touches, handling credentials without embedding them, choosing where a secret lives, and applying least privilege to the role your function actually runs as. The questions tend to hand you a working design and ask what is wrong with how it authenticates.
Deployment
24%Getting the thing out, repeatedly and without ceremony. Packaging, then CI and CD workflows across the AWS deployment services, with the differences between deployment strategies mattering more than the buttons. Expect to be asked what a given rollout does when a new version misbehaves, since that is where the strategies actually diverge.
Troubleshooting and Optimization
18%The smallest domain and the one that reads most like the job. Something is failing or something is slow, and the question is which signal tells you which. Logs, metrics and traces are the raw material, and optimisation covers both cost and latency, so the right answer sometimes makes an application cheaper rather than faster.
Official Revisions by AWS
December 1, 2026 — : Final day to sit DVA-C02. After this the current version cannot be booked or taken.
October 27, 2026 — : Registration opens for DVA-C03, the updated version of this exam.
Checked 2026 — : The DVA-C02 exam guide still carries the four domains above at 32, 26, 24 and 18%, and AWS notes the exam now reaches emerging topics including AI-assisted development tooling.
Source: AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) exam guide. Our question bank is updated to match each revision.
What the DVA-C02 Exam Really Tests, and How
This is a developer's paper and it behaves like one. Questions hand you code that almost works, a permission that is slightly too broad, or a deployment that half succeeded, and ask what you would change. Recalling what a service does gets you into the room. Knowing how it fails, retries and charges you is what the marks are actually for.
Calling a service and surviving the answer
Tested via: scenario-based multiple-choice and multiple-response questionsDevelopment with AWS Services is 32% of the exam and most of it is API behaviour rather than syntax. Throttling and exponential backoff, idempotency when a retry arrives twice, pagination on a list call that returns more than you expected, and the difference between an SDK's built-in retry and one you write yourself. The questions usually describe a symptom in production and expect the client-side habit that would have prevented it.
Where a credential is allowed to live
Tested via: scenario-based multiple-choice questionsSecurity carries 26% and the recurring shape is a design that works but should not. A key in an environment variable, a role broader than the function needs, a bucket policy doing what an IAM policy should. Secrets Manager against Parameter Store, encryption at rest against in transit, and temporary credentials against long-lived ones are the choices behind most of these, and the wrong answers are usually the ones that would run perfectly well.
What a rollout does when the new version is bad
Tested via: scenario-based multiple-choice questionsDeployment is 24%, and the strategies only differ in the moment something breaks. All-at-once, rolling, blue/green and canary are indistinguishable on a good day and completely different on a bad one, which is precisely when the exam describes them. Packaging, artefacts and the CI and CD services around them supply the rest, along with what a pipeline should do automatically when a stage fails. Rollback is the word that decides several of these questions.
Which signal tells you what is wrong
Tested via: scenario-based multiple-choice questionsTroubleshooting and Optimization is the smallest domain at 18% and the closest to daily work. A log line, a metric, a trace and an alarm each answer a different question, and the exam is interested in which one you would reach for given a described failure. Optimisation runs alongside it and covers cost as well as latency, so the best answer occasionally makes something cheaper rather than quicker. Cost questions are the ones candidates least expect to meet in a developer exam.
Choosing the service the requirement actually needs
Tested via: scenario-based multiple-choice questionsThis one is spread across the whole paper rather than living in a single domain. A queue against a topic against a stream, a document store against a relational one, a container against a function. Each pair looks interchangeable until a constraint appears in the question, usually ordering, durability, cold start or cost. The reason it feels like the hardest part is that both options in front of you would work.
How to Pass the DVA-C02 Exam on Your First Attempt
The deadline is doing most of the arithmetic here. A failure costs USD 150 and 14 calendar days before you can sit again, and with DVA-C02 gone after December 1 there is a limited number of attempts left in the calendar regardless of what AWS allows.
- Count backwards from December 1. Work out how many 14 day gaps fit between now and then, and let that decide how soon the first attempt should be rather than how ready you feel.
- Take a full 65 cold. Development with AWS Services alone is a third of the paper, and no syllabus reading reveals whether your API habits are exam-shaped. A first run does, while there is still room to act on it.
- Read every miss back into the AWS documentation. Match the question to its domain and task statement, then read the service page and its limits. Our questions carry no written explanations, so the reasoning has to come from AWS.
- Write something small rather than reading more. A function with retries, a pipeline with a canary stage, a secret pulled at runtime. Three afternoons of that covers ground three chapters cannot.
What to Look for in DVA-C02 Practice Questions
and Why Prefer Pass4Success Practice Material
There is a version change in progress, which makes currency a specific question rather than a general one. Material sold for this exam over the next few months may be aimed at DVA-C02 or at DVA-C03, and the two are not interchangeable if you are sitting the older paper before December.
Written for the version you are actually sitting
With DVA-C03 registration opening in October, question sets will start moving to it while people are still taking DVA-C02. A set that has already moved is not wrong, it is simply for a different exam.
✓ Ours: the bank is reviewed on a regular cycle against the DVA-C02 guide and against how the exam is being tested, and the last review date is shown in the table above so the version it tracks is never a guess.
Something to read before paying
Associate-level AWS exams attract more practice material than any other certification family, and volume has never been a proxy for accuracy. A handful of questions settles it faster than any description.
✓ Ours: a free demo of both formats before any purchase. The samples above are drawn from the same bank as the full set.
Somewhere to revise and somewhere to rehearse
Reading a domain at your own pace and holding attention through 65 questions in 130 minutes ask different things, and the second is the one people underestimate on a two-hour paper.
✓ Ours: one purchase covers the PDF and the practice test, which runs browser-based or as a Windows desktop version.
Enough depth in the domain that carries a third of the marks
Development with AWS Services is 32%, and it is the domain where thin material shows first, because writing a good API-behaviour question takes more than reading a service page.
✓ Ours: 600 DVA-C02 exam questions across all four domains.
A price measured against USD 150 and a shrinking window
AWS charges the full fee for every attempt and there are only so many 14 day gaps left before the exam retires. That combination, rather than any competitor's price, is what preparation is worth measuring against.
✓ Ours: USD 69 against a full USD 150 charged on every attempt, with the exam retiring soon and only a handful of 14-day retake windows left, getting it right the first time matters more than the price difference alone.
DVA-C02 Exam Discussion: What Recent Candidates Say
Timing against the December deadline dominates the recent comments. Under that runs the older argument about how much of this exam you can pass by reading. Add yours once you have sat it.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the DVA-C02 exam retire?
December 1, 2026 is the last day DVA-C02 can be taken. AWS opens registration for the replacement, DVA-C03, on October 27, 2026, so there is a short overlap when both are bookable. If you are preparing now, the question is whether your target date falls before or after that boundary, because the study material differs.
How many questions are on the DVA-C02 exam and how long do you get?
DVA-C02 has 65 questions and a 130 minute limit. Only 50 of those questions are scored. The other 15 are unscored pretest items AWS uses to trial future questions, and nothing on screen identifies them, so every question has to be answered as though it counts.
What is the passing score for the DVA-C02 exam?
The passing score is 720 on a scale of 100 to 1000. AWS scores the exam compensatorily, meaning you need to clear the bar overall rather than pass each domain separately. A weak domain can therefore be carried by strong ones, which is not true of every certification exam.
How much does the DVA-C02 exam cost?
The exam costs USD 150. AWS charges the full registration fee for every attempt, and there is no discount on a retake. With a 14 day wait between attempts and the exam retiring on December 1, 2026, the practical cost of a failed attempt late in the year is higher than the fee alone.
What does the DVA-C02 exam cover?
DVA-C02 covers four domains. Development with AWS Services is the largest at 32%, covering SDKs, APIs and building applications that behave under failure. Security takes 26%, deployment 24%, and troubleshooting and optimization 18%. AWS also notes the exam now reaches emerging topics, including AI-assisted development tooling.
How much experience do I need before taking the DVA-C02 exam?
AWS recommends one or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications on AWS. There are no formal prerequisites, so the exam can be booked without any. The recommendation is best read as a description of what the questions assume, particularly around retries, idempotency and how services behave when a call fails.
Should I take DVA-C02 or wait for DVA-C03?
That depends on when you can be ready. DVA-C02 can be sat until December 1, 2026, and passing it earns the same AWS Certified Developer - Associate certification that DVA-C03 will. If your realistic date is November or earlier, the current version has settled material behind it. If it is later, preparing for DVA-C03 avoids studying twice.
Can I retake the DVA-C02 exam if I fail?
Yes, after 14 calendar days. AWS sets no limit on the number of attempts, but the full fee is payable each time, and the retirement date caps how many attempts are realistically available. AWS also blocks retaking an exam you have already passed for two years.
How long is the AWS Certified Developer - Associate certification valid?
It stays valid for three years from the date you pass. AWS recertifies it either by passing the current version of the same exam or by earning AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional, which renews the associate credential underneath it. Letting it lapse means sitting the exam again.
What are the most common mistakes on the DVA-C02 exam?
Studying services rather than their failure behaviour is the costly one, because the questions describe things going wrong rather than working. The second is treating deployment strategies as interchangeable, when they only differ during a bad release. The third is leaving security to the end, since it carries 26% and is written from a developer's angle rather than an architect's.
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This page tracks the DVA-C02 exam guide, and it does so on a stated end date rather than indefinitely, since AWS withdraws the exam on December 1, 2026. Until then the four domains and their weightings are re-read against the published guide at each review. The bank keeps its own cycle in between, because AWS adds and renames services faster than it revises an exam guide.