DVA-C03 Exam Guide: Domains, Key Dates, Cost and a Six-Week Study Plan [2026 Guide]

DVA-C03 is the new version of the AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam, and it replaces DVA-C02. Registration opened on October 27, 2026, the first DVA-C03 exams run on December 1, 2026, and the last day to sit DVA-C02 is November 30, 2026. The format stays familiar: 65 questions, 130 minutes, a 150 dollar fee, and a pass score of 720 on the 100 to 1000 scale. The blueprint keeps the same four domains, but the content inside them moves: AI security becomes a named task, AI-assisted development runs through every domain, and containers join the tested scope. This DVA-C03 exam guide covers the dates, the domain weights, what content is new, who should still take DVA-C02, and how to prepare.

If you hold DVA-C02 study material, most of it still has value, because AWS consolidated the old skills into broader tasks rather than deleting them. What changes is where your study hours should go. Turn the plan in this guide into dated sessions with our free study timetable generator, and read the official sources linked throughout before you book, because dates near a version cutoff deserve a final check in the scheduler.

DVA-C03 Exam Guide at a Glance

DVA-C03 is the new AWS Certified Developer Associate exam, live from December 1, 2026. It keeps the same four domains, with 65 questions in 130 minutes, a 150 dollar fee and a 720 pass score. DVA-C02 ends on November 30, 2026.

Three changes matter most. First, security for AI services becomes a named task in Domain 2, and Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore enter the tested scope for the first time at Associate level. Second, AI-assisted development is no longer a side topic: AWS assesses it inside all four domains, from code generation to error analysis. Third, AWS consolidated the blueprint, so several long skill lists shrink into single broader skills, and container work with Amazon ECR, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate is now tested directly.

Key Dates for the DVA-C02 to DVA-C03 Switch

AWS published the timeline in its September 2026 certification update. The dates sit close together, so read them carefully if you are mid-preparation.

Date	What happens
October 27, 2026	DVA-C03 registration opens in all currently supported languages; 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; from this date the Developer Associate exam is DVA-C03

There is no overlap window and no grace period. A DVA-C02 booking must land on or before November 30, and a booking from December 1 onward is a DVA-C03 booking. If you pass DVA-C02 before the cutoff, your credential remains active through its original expiration date, per the AWS announcement, so a late DVA-C02 pass is not wasted.

DVA-C03 Exam Guide: The Four Domains and Their Weights

AWS kept the four-domain structure and adjusted the weights. Percentages describe the share of scored content, and scoring is compensatory: you pass the exam as a whole, not domain by domain.

DVA-C03 domain	Weight	What it tests
Domain 1: Development with AWS Services	30%	Writing and integrating application code with Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB and the AWS SDKs, event-driven design, containers, and AI-assisted code generation and review
Domain 2: Security	26%	IAM and application authentication, encryption, protection of sensitive data, and the new Task 2.3 on security for AI services and AI agents
Domain 3: Testing and Deployment	22%	CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies, automated testing and regression testing, and infrastructure as code
Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization	22%	Observability with logs, metrics and traces, error analysis, and performance and cost optimization of applications

Domain 1 still carries the exam

Development with AWS Services remains the largest domain at 30 percent. The core has not moved: Lambda functions, API Gateway APIs, DynamoDB data design, S3, SQS, SNS and EventBridge, all driven through the AWS SDKs. Two additions change how you prepare. Container management is now explicit, so you need to build and manage images with Amazon ECR and deploy containerized applications with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate. And DynamoDB, which DVA-C02 spread across four separate skills, is now one comprehensive skill, so expect broader scenario questions rather than narrow feature checks.

Domain 2 adds Task 2.3: AI security

Security holds at 26 percent, but its content shifts the most. The new Task 2.3 covers five AI security skills: access management for AI services, data privacy controls such as VPC endpoints and keeping inputs and outputs out of model training, content filtering and prompt injection protection, security for AI agent interactions such as tool-use authorization, session isolation and human-in-the-loop approval flows, and protection of sensitive content in monitoring logs. Around it, AWS consolidated 13 encryption and sensitive-data skills into 7 skills in a single task, so the classic material is still tested, just in fewer, wider questions.

Domains 3 and 4 reward pipeline and observability depth

Domain 3 is renamed Testing and Deployment at 22 percent. Testing skills were consolidated from 11 skills across two tasks into 5 skills in one task, and CI/CD coverage now includes automated deployment approvals. Domain 4, Troubleshooting and Optimization, also sits at 22 percent: observability skills shrink from 8 to 5 and optimization skills from 9 to 6, while AI-assisted error analysis and performance recommendations appear as assessed skills. Fewer, broader skills means scenario questions carry more weight than memorized feature lists.

What Is New in DVA-C03

The AWS announcement frames the update around how the developer role has changed. Developers now use AI-assisted tools to generate, review and optimize code, integrate managed AI services into applications, and secure AI agent interactions, and the exam now tests that workflow directly.

• AI-assisted development across all domains. Code generation and automated review in Domain 1, test automation and regression testing in Domain 3, automated deployment approvals in Domain 3, and error analysis and performance recommendations in Domain 4.
• New in-scope services. Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Q, Kiro, Amazon Data Firehose and AWS PrivateLink join the tested service list.
• Containers. Building and managing container images with Amazon ECR, and deploying containerized applications with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS and AWS Fargate.
• Consolidations. DynamoDB from 4 skills to 1, security for encryption and sensitive data from 13 skills to 7, testing from 11 skills to 5, observability from 8 skills to 5, and optimization from 9 skills to 6.

The out-of-scope list is just as useful. DVA-C03 does not test prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation design, AI model selection, Amazon SageMaker AI, or AI governance framework design. You secure and integrate AI services as a developer; you are not examined as the specialist who designs the AI system itself.

Exam Format, Cost and Scoring

DVA-C03 keeps the Associate format that candidates know. The exam has 65 questions in total: 50 scored questions and 15 unscored questions that AWS uses to evaluate future items, and the unscored questions are not identified during the exam. Question types are multiple choice and multiple response, and multiple response questions require every correct option for credit. Unanswered questions score as incorrect, and there is no penalty for guessing, so answer everything.

You get 130 minutes, and the fee is 150 dollars. Delivery is through Pearson VUE, at a test center or online with a proctor, in all currently supported languages. Results come back as a scaled score from 100 to 1000, and the minimum passing score is 720. Scoring is compensatory, which means a weak domain does not fail you on its own, but a very weak domain still drags the total down.

The official AWS Certified Developer – Associate page describes the target candidate as a developer with 1 or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications with AWS services, proficiency in at least one high-level programming language, and experience with AI-assisted development tools and CI/CD pipelines. There is no mandatory prerequisite certification, but candidates usually sit this exam after the Cloud Practitioner or alongside real project work.

DVA-C03 Exam Guide: Who Should Take DVA-C02, and Who Should Wait

The AWS announcement gives the same advice this guide gives. Take DVA-C02 by November 30 if you are already prepared and want the credential now; your certification remains active through its original expiration date. Wait for DVA-C03 if you want the credential to validate AI-assisted development skills and modern security practices for AI services. Our dedicated AWS DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02 guide walks through that decision in full, with the domain comparison side by side.

Take DVA-C02 if your preparation is nearly finished

If your practice scores on DVA-C02 material are already at passing level and your calendar allows a booking on or before November 30, finish on the version you prepared for. The credential is the same certification, and employers see the same title. Switching blueprints in the final weeks costs more than it gains, and the new AI security task has no DVA-C02 equivalent to revise from at short notice.

Wait for DVA-C03 if you are starting now

A preparation cycle that starts today will finish after December 1 for most candidates, which means the exam at the end of it is DVA-C03. Study the new blueprint from day one. In particular, build container deployments and Bedrock integration into your practice projects early, because both are new scope with no carry-over from a DVA-C02-only plan.

Architects have a parallel decision

The Professional exam changes two weeks earlier, with SAP-C03 delivery beginning November 17, 2026 and the last SAP-C02 day on November 16. If you are sequencing the two credentials, our SAP-C03 exam guide covers that transition with the same dates and domain detail.

A Six-Week DVA-C03 Study Plan

This plan assumes 8 to 10 study hours a week and working experience with at least one AWS application. It weights the weeks by the domain percentages, and it reserves the final week for timed practice under exam conditions: 65 questions in 130 minutes is exactly 2 minutes per question, so pacing is a skill to train, not a hope.

Week	Focus	Build or finish
Week 1	Domain 1 core: Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, SDKs, S3	Deploy a serverless CRUD API with a DynamoDB table
Week 2	Domain 1 events and containers: SQS, SNS, EventBridge, ECR, ECS on Fargate	Containerize an application, push the image to ECR and run it on Fargate
Week 3	Domain 2 foundations: IAM, Cognito, KMS encryption, Secrets Manager, sensitive data	Add authentication and encrypted storage to the week 1 API
Week 4	Domain 2 Task 2.3 AI security, then Domain 3 pipelines: CodePipeline, SAM, deployment strategies	Call Amazon Bedrock from your application behind a VPC endpoint, then ship it through a pipeline with an approval step
Week 5	Domains 3 and 4: testing strategies, canary deployments, X-Ray, CloudWatch, caching and optimization	Add tracing and a canary release, then write the rollback runbook
Week 6	Timed rehearsal: two full practice runs, weak-domain repair, booking	Two 130-minute practice exams, then book while the material is fresh

Compress the plan if you develop on AWS daily, and stretch week 4 if AI services are new territory for you. Do not cut week 6: Associate questions are shorter than Professional questions, but 65 of them in 130 minutes still punishes candidates who read slowly or skip the unscored-question reality that some items are experimental.

Week by Week: Weeks 1 and 2, Development and Containers

Week 1 covers the Domain 1 core, the base of the 30 percent domain. Study Lambda execution and configuration, API Gateway design, DynamoDB data modeling as the single consolidated skill now frames it, and SDK usage patterns such as credential chains and retry behavior. For the build, deploy a small CRUD API end to end. The checkpoint: you can explain every service choice in the build and trace one request through it without notes.

Week 2 finishes Domain 1 with events and containers. Study SQS, SNS and EventBridge patterns, then the new container scope: image builds and Amazon ECR repositories, task definitions and services on Amazon ECS, the basics of Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate as the serverless compute option. For the build, containerize the week 1 application or a small worker, push the image to ECR and run it on Fargate behind a queue. The checkpoint: a message placed on the queue produces a running task and a visible log line.

Week by Week: Weeks 3 and 4, Security and Deployment

Week 3 turns to Domain 2 foundations. Study IAM policies and roles for applications, Amazon Cognito for user authentication, KMS encryption in transit and at rest, and Secrets Manager and Parameter Store for sensitive configuration. For the build, add authentication and encrypted storage to the week 1 API. At the checkpoint, no credential or secret appears in your code, your logs, or your repository history.

Week 4 is the new material. Study Task 2.3 end to end: access management for AI services, data privacy controls including VPC endpoints and training opt-outs, content filtering and prompt injection protection, agent interaction security with tool-use authorization, session isolation and human-in-the-loop approvals, and log hygiene for sensitive content. Then start Domain 3: CodePipeline stages, AWS SAM and CloudFormation deployments, and deployment strategies. For the build, call Amazon Bedrock from your application through a VPC endpoint and ship the change through a pipeline with a manual approval step. The checkpoint: you can state, for one Bedrock call, exactly which identity called it, which data stayed private, and which guardrails applied.

Week by Week: Weeks 5 and 6, Testing, Troubleshooting and Rehearsal

Week 5 pairs the rest of Domain 3 with Domain 4. Cover testing strategies at unit, integration and end-to-end level, canary and linear deployments with automatic rollback, and then observability: structured logging, CloudWatch metrics and alarms, and AWS X-Ray tracing. Finish with optimization: caching layers, Lambda memory and concurrency tuning, and cost awareness for the services you deploy. For the build, add tracing and a canary release to your application and write the rollback runbook. Your checkpoint is a trace you can follow from API request to database write, with the slow segment identified.

Week 6 is timed rehearsal and booking. Sit two full practice runs under exam conditions: 65 questions in 130 minutes. Afterwards, review every wrong answer against the domain it came from. Then spend the remaining sessions repairing your weakest domain instead of re-reading your strongest one. Finally, book the real exam while the pacing is fresh. The checkpoint: your second practice run finishes with time to spare and a passing score with margin.

What DVA-C03 Does Not Test

The official announcement lists the knowledge that is out of scope, and the list saves real study time. DVA-C03 does not test prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation design, AI model selection, Amazon SageMaker AI, or AI governance framework design. You integrate AI services into applications and secure that integration; the design of the AI system itself belongs to other certifications.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does DVA-C03 become available?

Registration opened on October 27, 2026, and general availability begins on December 1, 2026, in all currently supported languages. DVA-C02 remains available until November 30, 2026.

What is the DVA-C03 pass score?

The minimum passing score is 720 on the scaled range of 100 to 1000, per the AWS announcement. Scoring is compensatory across the four domains, so no single domain can fail you on its own.

How much does DVA-C03 cost, and how long is the exam?

The fee is 150 dollars, and the exam runs 130 minutes with 65 questions: 50 scored and 15 unscored. Delivery is through Pearson VUE, at a test center or online with a proctor.

Does a DVA-C02 certification expire when DVA-C03 launches?

No. Per the AWS announcement, a credential earned on DVA-C02 remains active through its original expiration date. The launch changes which exam new candidates sit, not the validity of credentials already earned.

Is DVA-C03 harder than DVA-C02?

It tests a broader developer workflow rather than a strictly harder one. The core services are the same, but the blueprint adds AI security, AI-assisted development skills and container deployments, and it consolidates many narrow skills into broader scenario questions. Candidates who already use AI coding tools and ship containers will find it fair; candidates revising from old notes will find gaps exactly where the new tasks sit.

Related AWS Certification Guides

DVA-C03 is one of three AWS exams changing in the same season. Start with AWS Certification Changes 2026, the announcement roundup for SAP-C03, DVA-C03 and the MLA-C02 beta, with every key date in one place. For the Professional-level transition, read the SAP-C03 exam guide, and for the version decision in full, read AWS DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02.

Sources

Dates, domain weights, format, price, pass score, the new skills and the out-of-scope list in this guide come from the AWS Training and Certification announcement, Certification updates from AWS Training and Certification: September 2026, and the official AWS Certified Developer – Associate page. Confirm the dates on the official page before you book, because AWS controls the final schedule.