AWS DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02: Should You Take the Old Exam or Wait? [2026 Guide]

DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02: The Short Answer

If you can be exam ready before November 30, 2026, take DVA-C02 and finish now. If you are just starting, or you want your certification to cover AI-assisted development and security for AI services, wait for DVA-C03. Either route earns the same certification, AWS Certified Developer Associate, and a DVA-C02 pass stays valid through its original expiration date. The choice is about timing and study material, not about which credential is better.

DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02: DVA-C02 ends November 30, 2026. DVA-C03 registration opens October 27, 2026, and the new exam starts December 1, 2026. The new version keeps four domains, adds AI security and AI-assisted development, and costs the same 150 US dollars.

This guide compares the two versions side by side, then gives you a decision framework and a study plan for whichever route you pick. For the wider picture across all three AWS exams changing this season, see our AWS certification changes 2026 guide, which covers SAP-C03 and MLA-C02 as well.

DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02 Timeline: The Dates That Decide It

Every part of this decision comes back to four dates published by AWS Training and Certification in September 2026.

Date	What happens
October 27, 2026	DVA-C03 registration opens in all currently supported languages, and the full DVA-C03 exam guide is published
November 30, 2026	Last day to take DVA-C02
December 1, 2026	DVA-C03 general availability begins
After December 1, 2026	Only DVA-C03 is available for new Developer Associate candidates

As of the writing of this guide, DVA-C03 registration is not yet open, and the full DVA-C03 exam guide with detailed task statements is not yet published. AWS has said both arrive on October 27, 2026. If you are reading this after that date, check the official AWS certification page for the full guide before you finalize your study plan, since the guide may add detail beyond the September announcement.

One caution near the cutoff: if you plan to sit DVA-C02 in the final week of November, confirm the live booking calendar in your AWS Certification account rather than relying on any single article. Test center seats fill up, and a plan that depends on a November 30 seat is a plan with no slack.

What Changes in DVA-C03

The headline is reassuring: this is an update, not a rebuild. The certification name is unchanged, the four domain families are unchanged, and the core development skills carry over. What changes is emphasis. AWS states that AI-assisted development is now a core competency for developers, not an optional add-on, and the new exam reflects how developers actually work today.

The four domains, old versus new

Domain	DVA-C02 weight	DVA-C03 weight	What changed
Development with AWS Services	32%	30%	Still the largest domain; adds AI-assisted code generation and review
Security	26%	26%	Unchanged weight; adds a new AI security task
Deployment (DVA-C02) / Testing and Deployment (DVA-C03)	24%	22%	Renamed to reflect testing; adds test automation and CI/CD approval workflows
Troubleshooting and Optimization	18%	22%	Larger share; adds error analysis and performance recommendations from AI-assisted tooling

DVA-C02 weights are per the current DVA-C02 exam guide. DVA-C03 weights are per the AWS September 2026 announcement. Confirm both against the full DVA-C03 guide when it publishes on October 27, 2026.

The new AI security task

DVA-C03 adds Task 2.3 on AI security, with five skills: access management for AI services, data privacy controls including VPC endpoints and making sure inputs and outputs are not used to train AI models, content filtering and prompt injection protection, AI agent interaction security such as tool-use authorization, session isolation, and human-in-the-loop approval flows, and protecting sensitive content in monitoring logs. This is the single biggest new topic, and it is worth dedicated study time even if you are strong on traditional IAM and encryption.

AI-assisted development across all domains

AI-assisted development threads through every DVA-C03 domain rather than sitting in one corner. In Domain 1 it shows up as code generation and automated review. Domain 3 brings test automation, regression testing, and CI/CD workflow support including automated deployment approvals. Domain 4 brings error analysis, troubleshooting suggestions, and performance optimization recommendations. The practical point: you need to know how to use AI-assisted tools well and where their output must be checked, not just how to write code by hand.

Containers and new services in scope

Container management gets explicit coverage in DVA-C03: building and managing container images with Amazon ECR, and deploying containerized applications with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate. New services in scope include Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Q, Kiro, Amazon Data Firehose, and AWS PrivateLink. If your current preparation skips containers, that gap matters more for DVA-C03 than it did for DVA-C02.

What DVA-C03 deliberately leaves out

AWS lists five topics as out of scope for DVA-C03: prompt engineering, RAG design, AI model selection, Amazon SageMaker AI, and AI governance framework design. This matters because it stops the new exam from becoming an AI specialist exam. You are still being tested as a developer who uses AI-assisted tools and managed AI services, not as someone who designs AI systems from scratch. Do not spend study weeks on model selection or governance frameworks for this exam.

Consolidations that simplify revision

AWS also merged several skill areas in DVA-C03: DynamoDB goes from 4 separate skills to 1 comprehensive skill, security topics on encryption and sensitive data go from 13 skills across 2 tasks to 7 skills in 1 task, testing goes from 11 skills across 2 tasks to 5 skills in 1 task, observability goes from 8 skills to 5, and optimization goes from 9 skills to 6.

DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02: The Decision Framework

Use the table below honestly. The wrong choice here is rarely fatal, since both routes lead to the same certification, but the wrong choice costs weeks and a 150 dollar fee.

Your situation	Best choice	Why
You score well on full DVA-C02 practice tests today, or you will within 3 weeks	Take DVA-C02 before November 30	Mature study material, known domain weights, and you finish before the cutoff with slack
You have a DVA-C02 exam date already booked in November	Keep it, and prepare for DVA-C02	Switching now wastes preparation and risks a seat you may not get back
You are starting from zero, or you need more than 5 weeks to be ready	Wait for DVA-C03	You cannot realistically be ready before November 30, and DVA-C03 matches current developer work
Your job or target role already uses AI-assisted development, Bedrock, or containers daily	Wait for DVA-C03	The new exam validates those skills, and the credential will read as current for longer
Your employer set a deadline, or a job application needs the certification this year	Take DVA-C02 if you can be ready in time; otherwise book DVA-C03 for December	Either way, set the date first and work backward, since open-ended preparation drifts
You already hold DVA-C02 and want the newest version too	You may take DVA-C03 later	AWS does not allow retaking the same exam for two years after a pass, but a new exam version with a new code is eligible

Two Traps to Avoid Before You Decide

Two traps deserve a warning. First, do not book DVA-C02 for late November as a “trial run” unless you accept that a fail leaves you only 14 days before you can retake, which pushes you past the cutoff and into DVA-C03 anyway. Second, do not wait for DVA-C03 simply because it is newer if you are already prepared. Newer is not better when the credential is identical and the old exam has better practice material today.

Study Plan: If You Take DVA-C02 Before November 30

This is a 4 week plan for someone who already has basic AWS experience. If you have less than that, the honest move is the DVA-C03 plan below.

Week 1: Development with AWS Services. Build and deploy a serverless application end to end: Lambda behind API Gateway, DynamoDB for storage, SQS for queuing, and SDK calls from code you write yourself. This domain carries the most weight, and hands-on work beats reading here.

Week 2: Security. Drill IAM roles and policies, KMS encryption, Secrets Manager versus Parameter Store, and Cognito user pools and identity pools. Write policies, break them in a test account, and fix them.

Week 3: Deployment and troubleshooting. Build a CI/CD pipeline with CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy, practice blue/green and canary deployments, then debug broken deployments with CloudWatch Logs and X-Ray. Troubleshooting is the smallest DVA-C02 domain, but it is where unprepared candidates lose easy marks.

Week 4: Practice tests and weak spots. Take two full timed practice tests under exam conditions, 65 questions in 130 minutes. Review every wrong answer by domain, and spend the final days only on your two weakest domains. Book your exam for a date with at least a few days of slack before November 30.

Study Plan: If You Wait for DVA-C03

Your timeline starts December 1, 2026, so use November to build the skills that are new or heavier in DVA-C03 while the full guide is fresh.

Step 1: Read the full DVA-C03 guide on October 27. Check the domain weights and task statements against the September announcement in this post. If anything moved, adjust your plan before you buy practice material, since early third-party material may still describe DVA-C02.

Step 2: Learn AI security properly. Study access management for AI services, data privacy controls, content filtering and prompt injection protection, and agent interaction security including human-in-the-loop approvals. Build a small Bedrock-based application and secure it end to end rather than memorizing definitions.

Step 3: Get fluent with containers. Build an image with ECR, run it on ECS and Fargate, and work through one EKS deployment. Containers are explicit in DVA-C03, and candidates who only know Lambda will feel the difference.

Step 4: Practice AI-assisted workflows. Use Amazon Q or Kiro for code generation and review, then check the output critically: security issues, wrong service choices, and invented parameters. The exam rewards developers who treat AI output as a draft to verify, not an answer to accept.

Step 5: Book December, then practice under time pressure. DVA-C03 keeps the DVA-C02 format on the announced details: 65 questions in 130 minutes, with a passing score of 720 out of 1,000. Confirm the format in the full guide at booking, since the September announcement is the source for these figures and the guide is the final word.

Cost, Retakes, and Booking Rules

According to AWS, the DVA-C03 exam costs 150 US dollars, the same as the current Developer Associate fee, with delivery through Pearson VUE at a test center or by online proctoring. Taxes and exchange rates can change the amount you actually pay, so check the price shown at booking.

According to AWS Training FAQs, if you fail an exam you must wait 14 calendar days before you can retake it, you pay the full fee for each attempt, and there is no limit on attempts. Once you pass an exam you cannot retake the same exam for two years, but you remain eligible to take a new version with a new exam code, which is why a DVA-C02 holder may later sit DVA-C03. You can cancel or reschedule free of charge up to 24 hours before your appointment; inside that window you cannot change it, and missing the appointment forfeits the fee.

AWS Associate certifications are valid for three years from the pass date, after which renewal is required. That means a DVA-C02 pass in November 2026 and a DVA-C03 pass in December 2026 both run for three years from their own pass dates, and neither version shortens the other. AWS states that a DVA-C02 credential remains active through its original expiration date after the version change.

Mistakes to Avoid

Studying DVA-C02 material for a DVA-C03 sitting. The core overlaps, but AI security, containers, and the renamed Testing and Deployment domain will catch you out. Match your material to the code you booked.

Treating DVA-C03 as an AI exam. Prompt engineering, RAG design, AI model selection, SageMaker AI, and AI governance design are out of scope. Time spent there is time stolen from Lambda, DynamoDB, IAM, and CI/CD.

Booking November 30 with no backup. Seats, illness, and technical problems all happen. A November 30 booking with no earlier fallback is a single point of failure.

Ignoring the unscored questions. Of the 65 questions, 50 are scored and 15 are unscored, and you cannot tell which is which. Answer every question, and never leave one blank because it looks unfamiliar. There is no penalty for guessing.

One-Page Revision Box

DVA-C02 last day: November 30, 2026. DVA-C03 registration opens: October 27, 2026. DVA-C03 starts: December 1, 2026. Format: 65 questions, 130 minutes, 150 US dollars, pass 720 out of 1,000, Pearson VUE test center or online. DVA-C03 domains: Development with AWS Services 30%, Security 26%, Testing and Deployment 22%, Troubleshooting and Optimization 22%. New in DVA-C03: AI security task, AI-assisted development in every domain, containers with ECR, ECS, EKS, and Fargate, plus Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Q, Kiro, Data Firehose, and PrivateLink. Out of scope: prompt engineering, RAG design, AI model selection, SageMaker AI, AI governance design. Rule of thumb: ready before November 30, take DVA-C02; starting now, wait for DVA-C03; same certification either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is DVA-C03 harder than DVA-C02?

Not in any way AWS has stated. The format, price, and passing score announced for DVA-C03 match DVA-C02, and the credential is the same. DVA-C03 feels harder only if your preparation ignores AI security and containers, which are its main additions.

Will my DVA-C02 certification lose value after December 1, 2026?

No. AWS states that your credential remains active through its original expiration date. Employers see AWS Certified Developer Associate, not the version code, on the digital badge.

Can I switch my booked DVA-C02 exam to DVA-C03?

There is no version-switch button to assume. Cancel or reschedule free of charge up to 24 hours before your appointment through your AWS Certification account, then book the version you want, subject to seat availability. Confirm the exact steps in your booking account, since policies are applied at booking time.

Do I need another AWS certification first?

No prerequisite certification is required for Developer Associate. AWS recommends 1 or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications using AWS services, proficiency in at least one high-level programming language, and experience with AI-assisted development tools and CI/CD pipelines.

Which languages will DVA-C03 be offered in?

AWS states DVA-C03 will be available in all languages currently supported at launch. The current Developer Associate languages are English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Latin America). Confirm your language in the booking system before you pay.

Sources

AWS Training and Certification, “Certification updates from AWS Training and Certification: September 2026”: aws.amazon.com/blogs/training-and-certification/september-2026-new-offerings/. The AWS Certified Developer Associate certification page: aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/. For retakes, rescheduling, and cancellations, see the AWS Training FAQs: aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/.