What does it cost?
The DVA-C03 exam costs $150.
Exam fee
$150
Source: AWS exam page
AWS exam
DVA-C03 Exam facts
AWS Certified Developer - Associate
- Questions
- 65
- Minutes
- 130
- Exam fee
- $150
- Passing score
- 720
Independent: not affiliated with AWS. These exam facts are free; the study bundle adds a study guide and two practice exams.
Short answer
DVA-C03 is the updated exam for the AWS Certified Developer - Associate certification, for developers who build, deploy and debug applications on AWS. The exam has 65 questions in 130 minutes, costs $150 and takes 720 of 1,000 to pass.
Sources: exam page, exam guide
Published AWS facts for DVA-C03 on one page. Last updated
Study bundle
Prepare for DVA-C03
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Your receipt has a license key. Enter it at overqual.com/download for the three PDFs, stamped with your email and order number. They are yours to keep.
Try 5 free sample questions first See 3 pages inside
- A 65-page study guide: every exam domain, weighted like the exam
- Two practice exams: 130 original questions, every answer explained
- Every bundle includes 6 months of access: download the PDFs, and any new editions, until 6 months after your purchase date.
Edition 1.0, October 2026
How many questions and how long?
The DVA-C03 exam has 65 questions in 130 minutes. Question types: multiple choice or multiple response.
Source: AWS exam page
The exam
- Questions
- 65
- Time
- 130 minutes
- Languages
- English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America)
What score do you need to pass?
The DVA-C03 passing score is 720, on a scale of 100-1,000.
100-719
720+ PASS
Source: AWS exam guide
What does the exam cover?
The DVA-C03 exam covers four domains, weighted 30% / 26% / 22% / 22%.
Source: AWS exam guide
D130%
Development with AWS Services
D226%
Security
D322%
Testing and Deployment
D422%
Troubleshooting and Optimization
Development with AWS Services
- 1.1Develop code for applications hosted on AWS
- 1.2Develop code for AWS Lambda
- 1.3Use data stores in application development
Security
- 2.1Implement authentication and authorization
- 2.2Implement encryption and manage sensitive data
- 2.3Mitigate the security risks of AI services
Testing and Deployment
- 3.1Prepare application artifacts for deployment
- 3.2Implement and automate application testing
- 3.3Deploy code with AWS CI/CD services
Troubleshooting and Optimization
- 4.1Assist in a root cause analysis
- 4.2Apply logging, monitoring and observability
- 4.3Optimize applications with AWS services
Inside the study bundle
Study guide chapters
Ten chapters. Chapters 3 to 7 cover the four exam domains, weighted like the exam.
- 01 What the exam is p. 3
- 02 The developer's AWS landscape p. 9
- 03 Development I: patterns, SDKs, APIs and Lambda p. 15
- 04 Development II: data stores, messaging and AI services p. 24
- 05 Security, including AI security p. 34
- 06 Testing and deployment p. 42
- 07 Troubleshooting and optimization p. 49
- 08 Final review p. 56
- 09 Sources p. 63
- 10 Edition and updates p. 65
Look inside the study guide
Three pages of the Edition 1.0 study guide: the contents and the first two pages of a chapter.
What is free here, and what is in the bundle?
The exam facts and 5 sample questions are free on this site. The study guide chapters and the two practice exams are in the bundle.
| Item | Free on this site | In the bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Exam facts and change log | Yes, with links to the AWS sources | Chapter 1 of the study guide sums up the exam's format and scoring. |
| 5 sample questions | Yes | No. None of the 5 appear in the practice exams. |
| Domain chapters and final review | No | Yes, in the study guide |
| Two practice exams with answer keys | No | Yes, 130 questions with an explanation for every answer |
Questions before you buy
Is this official?
No, the DVA-C03 bundle is not official. Overqual is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by AWS.
Does it include real exam questions?
No, the DVA-C03 bundle contains no exam questions, and every practice question is original.
How is the DVA-C03 bundle different from AWS's free materials?
AWS's free pages set out what the DVA-C03 exam covers. The DVA-C03 bundle adds a 65-page study guide that covers every exam domain, and two practice exams with 130 original questions, every answer explained. When AWS revises the exam, a new edition follows if the changes warrant it, included while your access lasts.
How do I get updates?
Updates to the DVA-C03 bundle arrive as new editions. Every bundle includes 6 months of access: download the PDFs, and any new editions, until 6 months after your purchase date. Download each new edition at overqual.com/download with the license key from your receipt email. The change log on the exam facts page says what changed.
Can I get a refund?
No. Sales of the DVA-C03 bundle are final, because downloaded PDFs cannot be returned. Read the free exam facts and try the 5 free sample questions first. If a download fails or you paid twice by mistake, contact Overqual to have the download fixed or the second payment refunded.
How does DVA-C03 differ from DVA-C02?
Mostly in its AI content. DVA-C03 keeps the four domains and the format of DVA-C02 (65 questions, 130 minutes, $150, 720 to pass), reweighted to 30/26/22/22 from 32/26/24/18. Its exam guide adds Task 2.3, AI security, five AI-assisted development skills in Domains 1, 3 and 4, and container image and orchestration skills, and moves Lambda performance tuning to Domain 4; the exam facts page lists every change with its source. Source: AWS comparison page.
Does DVA-C03 include hands-on labs?
No lab items are listed for DVA-C03. The exam guide names two response types, multiple choice and multiple response, and counts 50 scored and 15 unscored questions; the AWS certification page gives 130 minutes. Sources: AWS exam guide, AWS certification page.
Should I take DVA-C02 now or wait for DVA-C03?
DVA-C02 can be taken until Nov 30, 2026, and DVA-C03 is in use from Dec 1, 2026. The DVA-C03 exam guide says registration opens Dec 1, 2026; AWS's September announcement had said October 27, 2026. AWS has announced no DVA-C03 beta, and both versions lead to the AWS Certified Developer - Associate certification, which is valid for 3 years. The announcement says to take DVA-C02 by Nov 30, 2026 if you are already prepared and want to earn the certification now, and to wait for DVA-C03 if you want the certification to validate AI-assisted development skills and security practices for AI services. Sources: AWS exam guide, AWS announcement.
Ready for DVA-C03?
Three PDFs, 116 pages: the study guide and two practice exams.
Which AWS services are in scope?
The DVA-C03 exam guide lists the services below as in scope, a list AWS calls non-exhaustive. Against DVA-C02 it adds Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Kiro, Amazon Quick, Amazon Data Firehose and AWS PrivateLink, among others, and no longer names AWS AppSync or Amazon Q Developer.
Source: AWS in-scope services page
Compute, containers and serverless
- AWS Lambda
- Amazon EC2
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk
- Amazon ECR
- Amazon ECS
- Amazon EKS
Data, messaging and integration
- Amazon DynamoDB
- Amazon S3
- Amazon S3 Glacier
- Amazon RDS
- Amazon Aurora
- Amazon ElastiCache
- Amazon OpenSearch Service
- Amazon Athena
- Amazon Kinesis
- Amazon Data Firehose
- Amazon SQS
- Amazon SNS
- Amazon EventBridge
- AWS Step Functions
- Amazon API Gateway
- Amazon EBS
- Amazon EFS
Security and networking
- Amazon Cognito
- IAM
- AWS KMS
- AWS Secrets Manager
- AWS STS
- AWS Certificate Manager
- AWS Private CA
- AWS WAF
- AWS PrivateLink
- Amazon VPC
- Amazon CloudFront
- Elastic Load Balancing
- Amazon Route 53
Developer tools, deployment, observability and AI
- AWS CLI
- AWS CloudShell
- AWS Amplify
- AWS CodeArtifact
- AWS CodeBuild
- AWS CodeDeploy
- AWS CodePipeline
- AWS CloudFormation
- AWS CDK
- AWS SAM
- AWS AppConfig
- AWS Systems Manager
- Amazon CloudWatch
- Amazon CloudWatch Logs
- AWS CloudTrail
- AWS X-Ray
- Amazon Bedrock
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore
- Amazon Quick
- Kiro
Out of scope
Designing architectures, CI/CD pipelines, ETL pipelines or networks; administering IAM users and groups or servers; selecting foundation models, engineering prompts and designing RAG; designing AI safety frameworks, implementing guardrails and AI governance. Services such as Amazon SageMaker AI, Strands Agents and Amazon Quick Sight are on the out-of-scope list.
How is it delivered?
The DVA-C03 exam is proctored, at a Pearson VUE test center or online.
- Delivery
- Proctored, at a Pearson VUE test center or online
- Languages
- English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America)
- Prerequisites
- None
- Validity
- 3 years
- Retakes
- 14 calendar days between attempts; no limit on exam attempts; the full registration fee for each attempt
Source: AWS exam page
What are the key dates?
The dates AWS has published for DVA-C03.
- Nov 30, 2026
- DVA-C02 retires
- Dec 1, 2026
- Registration opens
- Dec 1, 2026
- General availability
Sources: AWS exam guide, AWS comparison page
Fact sheet
Show the 31 factsHide the facts
- Questions
- 65 Source: AWS exam page
- Time
- 130 minutes Source: AWS exam page
- Fee
- $150 Source: AWS exam page
- Passing score
- 720 Source: AWS exam guide
- Score range
- 100-1,000 Source: AWS exam guide
- Question types
- Multiple choice or multiple response Source: AWS exam page
- Languages
- English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America) Source: AWS exam page
- Delivery
- Proctored, at a Pearson VUE test center or online Source: AWS exam page
- Validity
- 3 years Source: AWS exam page
- Prerequisites
- None Source: AWS page
- Retakes
- 14 calendar days between attempts; no limit on exam attempts; the full registration fee for each attempt Source: AWS page
- General availability
- Dec 1, 2026 Source: AWS page
- Domain weights
- D1 30% / D2 26% / D3 22% / D4 22% Source: AWS exam guide
- Scored and unscored questions
- 50 scored, 15 unscored Source: AWS exam guide
- Scoring model
- Pass or fail; compensatory, with no minimum score per section Source: AWS exam guide
- Exam domains
- Four: Development with AWS Services 30%, Security 26%, Testing and Deployment 22%, Troubleshooting and Optimization 22% Source: AWS exam guide
- Tasks and skills
- 12 tasks, three per domain; 72 skills (18, 19, 19 and 16 by domain) Source: AWS exam guide
- New task
- Task 2.3, AI security, 5 skills Source: AWS page
- AI-assisted development
- Five skills: generate, review and optimize code (1.1.9); generate tests and automate testing workflows (3.2.5); support CI/CD workflows (3.3.9); analyze errors (4.1.5); find optimization opportunities (4.3.6) Source: AWS exam guide
- Container coverage
- Building and managing container images with Amazon ECR; deploying containerized applications with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate Source: AWS page
- In-scope list changes
- Added since DVA-C02: Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Kiro, Amazon Quick, Amazon Data Firehose, AWS PrivateLink, AWS Certificate Manager, AWS Private CA, AWS SAM, Amazon S3 Glacier, Amazon CloudWatch Logs; no longer listed: AWS AppSync, Amazon Q Developer Source: AWS page
- Out-of-scope job tasks
- Designing architectures, CI/CD pipelines, ETL pipelines and networking; administering IAM users and groups, servers and operating systems; selecting foundation models, engineering prompts and designing RAG; designing AI safety frameworks, implementing guardrails and AI governance Source: AWS exam guide
- Out-of-scope services
- Amazon SageMaker AI, Strands Agents, Amazon Polly, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Quick Sight, AWS Shield, AWS Snow Family, AWS Storage Gateway, AWS Transfer Family and others Source: AWS page
- Skill consolidation
- DynamoDB 4 skills to 1; security (encryption and sensitive data) 13 skills in 2 tasks to 7 skills in 1 task; testing 11 skills in 2 tasks to 5 skills in 1 task; observability 8 skills to 5; optimization 9 skills to 6 Source: AWS page
- Hands-on labs
- No lab or other item type is listed; the exam guide names two response types, multiple choice and multiple response Source: AWS exam guide
- Results
- Within five business days, in the AWS Certification Account under Exam History Source: AWS page
- Retake after a pass
- Not for two years Source: AWS page
- English as a second language
- A 30-minute extension on request for non-native English speakers taking an exam in English; requested once, before registering Source: AWS page
- Reschedule and cancel
- Up to 24 hours before the appointment; each appointment can be rescheduled twice; a cancellation inside 24 hours forfeits the fee Source: AWS page
- Discount on the next exam
- 50% off the next AWS Certification exam once you earn one AWS Certification Source: AWS exam page
- Service names on the exam
- Official short names such as 'Amazon SNS'; the exam's Help feature lists each short name with its full name Source: AWS page
What has changed, and when?
Changes to the exam and to the products it covers, newest first.
- AWS published the DVA-C03 exam guide: 12 tasks, 72 skills; registration opens Dec 1, 2026. AWS exam guide
- AWS announced DVA-C03: registration opens Oct 27, 2026 and GA delivery Dec 1; DVA-C02 can be taken until Nov 30. AWS page
- DVA-C02 exam guide version 2.1 added 18 skills and Amazon Q Developer, and removed AWS Copilot and Amazon CodeGuru. AWS page
To watch AWS directly, check the exam page.