The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam is a certification exam offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that validates a candidate’s expertise in developing and deploying cloud-based applications on AWS. It tests a candidate’s knowledge of various AWS services and tools for developing and deploying scalable, secure, and resilient cloud applications.
The test includes various subjects like essential AWS services such as EC2, S3, and RDS, along with AWS developer tools like AWS CloudFormation, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS CodeDeploy. Additionally, it evaluates your grasp of best practices in application development, encompassing aspects like security, scalability, and reliability.
AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Glossary
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): A collection of cloud-based computing services offered by Amazon.com.
- Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): A web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud, making it easy to create and manage virtual machines in the cloud.
- Simple Storage Service (S3): A cloud-based storage service that’s fast, scalable, and web-based, specifically designed for storing data online for backup and archiving purposes.
- Relational Database Service (RDS): A managed database service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.
- Elastic Beanstalk: A fully-managed service that makes it easy to deploy and run web applications in multiple programming languages, including Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, and Go.
- AWS Lambda: A computing service that executes your code when certain events occur and handles the necessary computing resources for that code automatically.
- Learning AWS CloudFormation: A service that assists you in designing and configuring your AWS resources, reducing the time spent on resource management and allowing you to concentrate more on your AWS-hosted applications.
- AWS CodeDeploy: A service that streamlines the deployment of code to various instances, encompassing Amazon EC2 instances as well as on-premises instances, through automation.
- Identity and Access Management (IAM): A service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources.
- Simple Notification Service (SNS): An adaptable, entirely managed messaging service that facilitates the separation of microservices and serverless applications through publish/subscribe (pub/sub) capabilities.
- Simple Queue Service (SQS): A fully-managed message queuing service that enables you to decouple and scale microservices, and serverless applications.
- Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): A service that automatically spreads incoming application traffic across numerous targets, located in one or more Availability Zones.
- DynamoDB: A fully-managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability.
AWS Certified Developer Associate Study Guide
Here are some official resources for the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam:
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate Exam Guide: This guide provides an overview of the exam and its objectives, as well as information on registration, preparation, and policies.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate Exam Readiness Workshop: This workshop provides an overview of the exam and its objectives, as well as hands-on exercises to help you prepare.
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate Exam Study Guide: This comprehensive study guide offers in-depth insights into the subjects covered in the examination, along with practice questions and supplementary materials.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Developer-Official-Study-Guide/dp/1119508193
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate Practice Exam: The purpose of this practice test is to assist you in evaluating your preparedness for the real exam and pinpointing any areas that may require concentrated study.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/training/sample-questions/developer-associate/
AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks to help you prepare for the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam:
- Understand the exam format and objectives: The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam consists of 65 multiple-choice questions that you must answer within 130 minutes. The exam covers a wide range of topics related to AWS development, including AWS core services, database technologies, deployment and security, and troubleshooting. Make sure you review the exam guide and study the objectives to ensure you have a solid understanding of what will be covered on the exam.
- Get hands-on experience with AWS: To do well on the exam, you need to have a good understanding of how to use AWS services and technologies. The best way to gain this experience is by working with AWS in a real-world setting.
- Next, take advantage of AWS training resources: AWS provides an array of training materials to help in your exam preparation, encompassing online courses, practice exams, and workshops. Make the most of these resources to expand your understanding and accumulate hands-on experience in AWS.
- Use practice exams to assess your knowledge: Practice exams are a great way to identify areas where you may need to focus your study. Take advantage of the official AWS practice exams, as well as any third-party practice exams that are available.
- Focus on the key concepts and best practices: While it’s important to have a good understanding of the technical details of AWS services and technologies, you also need to be familiar with best practices for development and deployment in the AWS environment.
- Read the questions carefully: The wording of exam questions can sometimes be tricky, so make sure you read each question carefully and understand what is being asked before you choose your answer.
Quick Cheat Sheet for AWS Certified Developer Associate
The extent of your preparation will directly impact your performance in the exam. This Cheat Sheet serves as your key to attaining the certification. Adhere to the outlined steps to excel in the exam and secure your success.
Review the Exam Objectives
The first step is to refer the exam objectives. You must visit the AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Guide to gain clarity about the exam course. Moreover, Familiarising with the course concepts is indeed essential before beginning on with your revisions. The AWS Certified Developer Associate Course covers the following 5 domains-
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
Quick Links to Learning Resources
Succeeding in the exam can be straightforward if you make informed choices regarding your study materials. The accuracy and dependability of the content you select will significantly influence your preparation and ultimate success in the exam. Therefore, be careful when picking your study resources. An array of resources is available for your selection. In this regard, we present you with quick links to highly recommended resources that are certain to enhance your revision efforts.
AWS Exam Readiness
AWS offers Exam Readiness for the AWS Certified Developer Associate Training in three different formats –
- Firstly, Classroom training – It is a physical or virtual classroom to train candidates with an AWS-accredited instructor
- Secondly, Free digital training – It is an online training platform for candidates to schedule their sessions at their convenience.
- Also, Free webinars – These webinars include presentations from AWS-accredited instructors. This is followed by a live Q&A session.
Online Training Course
Online Training Courses help you gain hands-on expertise. They provide knowledge on the fundamentals of identifying AWS service. Moreover, they help you learn the quirks of the syllabus. Some of the Courses offered are:
- AWS Technical Essentials
- Developing on AWS
- Advanced Developing on AWS
Books your go-to resource
AWS recommends some verified books for the ones seeking to take its certification exam. These books are designed to help you grasp a firm proficiency in AWS administration.
- Firstly, All in One AWS Certified Developer Associate Exam Guide
- Secondly, AWS for Developers for dummies
- Also, AWS Development Essentials
- Then, AWS Certified Developer Associate Guide: An Effective Guide for Developers
AWS Certified Developer Associate White Papers
The AWS team provides numerous whitepapers designed to augment your technical expertise. These whitepapers are created collaboratively by the AWS team, industry analysts, and various AWS partners.
Here is a list of some highly recommended whitepapers by AWS
- Firstly, Architecting for the Cloud: AWS Best Practices
- Secondly, AWS Security Best Practices
- Thirdly, Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes
- Subsequently, AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Moreover, Development and Test on AWS
- Further, Backup and Recovery Approaches Using AWS
- Also, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud Connectivity Options
Online Tutorials and Study Guide
The best way to enhance your knowledge is by referring Online Tutorials. These Tutorials provide in depth understanding about the exam and its concepts. Additionally, it also covers exam details and policies. Therefore learning with Online Tutorials will result in strengthening your preparation. Moreover, Study Guides will be your support throughout your journey towards the AWS exam. These guides will help you stay consistent and determined.
Evaluate yourself with Practice Test
Finally, AWS Certified Developer Associate Practice Exams or mock tests can be a valuable resource to support your exam preparation. These practice exams closely resemble the actual test in terms of format and content. The primary purpose of these practice tests is to simulate the real exam environment for candidates. Therefore, engaging with practice tests assists you in identifying your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. They enable you to pinpoint areas where you may need improvement. Most importantly, it’s advisable to take practice tests after you’ve covered the entire syllabus. This approach aids in evaluating your performance and boosting your confidence before the actual exam. Ready to evaluate yourself, try free official practice test here!
