AWS Certified Developer — Associate (DVA-C02)

A documentation-first study guide. AWS writes the exam from its own documentation, so reading the docs is the highest-leverage thing you can do. This guide is a curated index into the canonical references, FAQs, and a selection of whitepapers — organised around the four exam domains, not around services.

Maps to the published AWS Certified Developer — Associate (DVA-C02) exam guide. Domain weights and task statements are quoted from that PDF.

About the exam

Current exam code: DVA-C02 (released February 2023; exam guide v2.1, published December 12, 2024). No DVA-C03 announcement as of July 2026.

Format: 65 questions (50 scored + 15 unscored) · 130 minutes · $150 USD · scaled score 100–1000, pass at 720.

The four domains:

  • Domain 1 — Development with AWS Services — 32%
  • Domain 2 — Security — 26%
  • Domain 3 — Deployment — 24%
  • Domain 4 — Troubleshooting and Optimization — 18%

Primary official sources (bookmark these):

Whitepapers worth reviewing:

Priority tiers: The published domain weights (32/26/24/18) tell you how the exam is balanced across the four domains, but they don't tell you that within each domain a handful of services account for most of the questions. Every section in this guide carries a tier badge based on triangulating the AWS exam guide, the experience reports of recent test takers, and the patterns that appear in the practice-exam community:

  • ★★★ Core Heavily tested. Multiple questions will lean on this. Spend hours, not minutes — if you don't know it well, you fail.
  • ★★ Important Reliably tested, usually one or two questions. Read every linked page in the section, do the FAQ, understand the comparison points. A few hours per topic.
  • ★ Light Known to appear, but typically as one distinguishing question or as wrong-answer distractors. Skim the docs, learn the one-line distinction, move on. Twenty minutes to an hour.

For an 8–12 week prep cycle the rough split that the data supports is about 60% of your time on Core topics, 30% on Important, and 10% on Light. The biggest single concentration of questions across the whole exam is the cluster around Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB + S3 + IAM + SQS/SNS + CodePipeline/CodeBuild/CodeDeploy — know those cold and you have the foundation of a pass.

How to use this guide:

  • Each section opens with a one-paragraph summary explaining what to focus on, then has up to three link sections: Core docs (user/developer guides — the canonical reference), FAQ (exam writers love edge cases from FAQs — do not skip), and Deeper reading (whitepapers, blog posts, re:Post articles).
  • If a link 404s, AWS has reorganised the docs. Search the page title to find the new location — the content almost always still exists.
  • The What's New feed is worth a weekly scan in the last month before your exam; the exam lags new features by ~12 months but recent launches are a good prompt to revisit older chapters.

Part I — Domain 1: Development with AWS Services (32%)

The largest domain by weight. This is the core developer skillset — building applications on compute, storage, and database services using AWS SDKs and APIs.

Chapter 1 — Serverless compute

Maps to Task Statement 1.2 — Develop code for AWS Lambda

Skills in:

  • Describe the access of private resources in VPCs from Lambda code
  • Configure Lambda functions by defining environment variables and parameters (for example, memory, concurrency, timeout, runtime, handler, layers, extensions, triggers, destinations)
  • Handle the event lifecycle and errors by using code (for example, Lambda Destinations, dead-letter queues)
  • Write and run test code by using AWS services and tools
  • Integrate Lambda functions with AWS services
  • Tune Lambda functions for optimal performance
  • Use Lambda functions to process and transform data in near real time

1.1 AWS Lambda ★★★ Core

Lambda is the most heavily tested service on the DVA-C02. Know the execution model (cold starts, concurrency, provisioned concurrency), handler patterns, environment variables, layers, permissions (execution role vs resource-based policies), and integration patterns with API Gateway, S3, SQS, DynamoDB Streams. Expect 8-12 questions directly or indirectly involving Lambda.

Core docs

FAQ

Deeper reading

1.2 Amazon API Gateway ★★★ Core

API Gateway is the front door for serverless applications. Know REST vs HTTP vs WebSocket APIs, integration types (Lambda proxy vs non-proxy, HTTP, Mock), stages and deployments, authorizers (IAM, Cognito, Lambda), throttling and quotas, and caching. Expect 3-5 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 2 — Traditional compute

Maps to Task Statement 1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

Skills in:

  • Describe architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography, orchestration, fanout)
  • Describe differences between stateful and stateless concepts
  • Describe differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components
  • Describe differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns
  • Create fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go)
  • Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
  • Write and run unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS SAM)
  • Write code to use messaging services
  • Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
  • Handle streaming data using AWS services
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to assist with development
  • Use Amazon EventBridge to implement event-driven patterns
  • Implement resilient application code for third-party service integrations (for example, retry logic, circuit breakers, error handling patterns)

2.1 Amazon EC2 for developers ★★ Important

While serverless dominates DVA-C02, you still need EC2 fundamentals. Know instance metadata service (IMDS v1 vs v2), user data scripts, IAM roles for EC2 (instance profiles), and how to retrieve credentials from the instance. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

2.2 AWS Elastic Beanstalk ★★ Important

Beanstalk is a PaaS. Know deployment policies (All at once, Rolling, Rolling with additional batch, Immutable, Traffic splitting), .ebextensions for customization, environment tiers (Web server vs Worker), and how to deploy Docker containers. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 3 — Data stores: NoSQL

Maps to Task Statement 1.3 — Use data stores in application development

Skills in:

  • Describe high-cardinality partition keys for balanced partition access
  • Describe database consistency models (for example, strongly consistent, eventually consistent)
  • Describe differences between query and scan operations
  • Define Amazon DynamoDB keys and indexing
  • Serialize and deserialize data to provide persistence to a data store
  • Use, manage, and maintain data stores
  • Manage data lifecycles
  • Use data caching services
  • Use specialized data stores based on access patterns (for example, Amazon OpenSearch Service)

3.1 Amazon DynamoDB ★★★ Core

DynamoDB is heavily tested. Know partition keys vs sort keys, query vs scan, secondary indexes (GSI vs LSI), provisioned vs on-demand capacity, DynamoDB Streams, and TTL. Understand conditional writes, optimistic locking with version numbers, transactions, and the DynamoDB SDK patterns (DocumentClient). Expect 5-8 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Deeper reading

3.2 Amazon ElastiCache ★★ Important

Know ElastiCache for caching patterns. Understand Redis vs Memcached, caching strategies (lazy loading, write-through), and common use cases (session stores, leaderboards). Know when to use ElastiCache vs DAX. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 4 — Data stores: Relational

Maps to Task Statement 1.3 — Use data stores in application development

Skills in:

  • Describe high-cardinality partition keys for balanced partition access
  • Describe database consistency models (for example, strongly consistent, eventually consistent)
  • Describe differences between query and scan operations
  • Define Amazon DynamoDB keys and indexing
  • Serialize and deserialize data to provide persistence to a data store
  • Use, manage, and maintain data stores
  • Manage data lifecycles
  • Use data caching services
  • Use specialized data stores based on access patterns (for example, Amazon OpenSearch Service)

4.1 Amazon RDS ★★ Important

Know RDS fundamentals from a developer perspective. Understand connection pooling (RDS Proxy), read replicas for read scaling, Multi-AZ for high availability, and IAM database authentication. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

4.2 Amazon Aurora ★ Light

Know Aurora's developer-relevant features: Aurora Serverless v2 for variable workloads, reader endpoints for read scaling, and Data API for serverless access without connection management. Usually appears as a comparison with RDS.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 5 — Object and file storage

Maps to Task Statement 1.3 — Use data stores in application development

Skills in:

  • Describe high-cardinality partition keys for balanced partition access
  • Describe database consistency models (for example, strongly consistent, eventually consistent)
  • Describe differences between query and scan operations
  • Define Amazon DynamoDB keys and indexing
  • Serialize and deserialize data to provide persistence to a data store
  • Use, manage, and maintain data stores
  • Manage data lifecycles
  • Use data caching services
  • Use specialized data stores based on access patterns (for example, Amazon OpenSearch Service)

5.1 Amazon S3 ★★★ Core

S3 fundamentals are tested across multiple domains. Know bucket policies vs ACLs, pre-signed URLs (for both upload and download), S3 event notifications, storage classes, versioning, encryption options (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C), and multipart uploads. Expect 3-5 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

5.2 Amazon EBS ★ Light

Know EBS basics for EC2 applications: volume types (gp3, io2, st1, sc1), snapshots, and encryption. Usually appears in context of EC2 workloads.

Core docs

FAQ

5.3 Amazon EFS ★ Light

Know EFS as shared file storage for multiple EC2 instances or Lambda functions. Understand mount targets, access points, and Lambda integration.

Core docs

FAQ

Part II — Domain 2: Security (26%)

Security is woven through everything. The exam tests your ability to implement authentication, authorisation, and encryption in application code.

Chapter 6 — Identity and access management

Maps to Task Statement 2.1 — Implement authentication and/or authorization for applications and AWS services

Skills in:

  • Use an identity provider to implement federated access (for example, Amazon Cognito, IAM)
  • Secure applications by using bearer tokens
  • Configure programmatic access to AWS
  • Make authenticated calls to AWS services
  • Assume an IAM role
  • Define permissions for IAM principals
  • Implement application-level authorization for fine-grained access control
  • Handle cross-service authentication in microservice architectures

6.1 IAM for developers ★★★ Core

Know IAM policies deeply — identity-based vs resource-based, policy evaluation logic, and the explicit deny → explicit allow → implicit deny order. Understand IAM roles for Lambda, EC2, and ECS. Know when to use STS AssumeRole. Expect 3-5 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

6.2 AWS STS ★★ Important

Know STS for temporary credentials. Understand AssumeRole, AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity (for mobile/web apps), and GetSessionToken. Know how Lambda and EC2 automatically retrieve temporary credentials.

Core docs

6.3 Amazon Cognito ★★★ Core

Cognito is heavily tested for user authentication. Know user pools (sign-up/sign-in, JWT tokens) vs identity pools (federated identities, temporary AWS credentials). Understand hosted UI, custom attributes, triggers (Lambda), and token handling. Expect 3-5 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 7 — Encryption and secrets

Maps to Task Statement 2.2 — Implement encryption by using AWS services

Skills in:

  • Define encryption at rest and in transit
  • Describe certificate management (for example, AWS Private CA)
  • Describe differences between client-side encryption and server-side encryption
  • Use encryption keys to encrypt or decrypt data
  • Generate certificates and SSH keys for development purposes
  • Use encryption across account boundaries
  • Enable and disable key rotation

7.1 AWS KMS ★★ Important

Know the difference between AWS managed keys, customer managed keys (CMKs), and data keys. Understand envelope encryption, key policies, and how KMS integrates with S3, DynamoDB, and Lambda environment variables. Expect 2-3 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

7.2 AWS Secrets Manager ★★ Important

Know when to use Secrets Manager (automatic rotation, RDS/Redshift/DocumentDB credentials) vs Parameter Store. Understand how to retrieve secrets in Lambda and the rotation Lambda pattern. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

7.3 AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store ★★ Important

Know Parameter Store for configuration and secrets. Understand parameter tiers (Standard vs Advanced), SecureString encryption with KMS, hierarchical parameters, and integration with Lambda. Often compared to Secrets Manager.

Core docs

Chapter 8 — Application security

Maps to Task Statement 2.3 — Manage sensitive data in application code

Skills in:

  • Describe data classification (for example, personally identifiable information [PII], protected health information [PHI])
  • Encrypt environment variables that contain sensitive data
  • Use secret management services to secure sensitive data
  • Sanitize sensitive data
  • Implement application-level data masking and sanitization
  • Implement data access patterns for multi-tenant applications

8.1 AWS WAF ★ Light

Know WAF basics for protecting web applications. Understand web ACLs, managed rule groups, rate-based rules, and integration with API Gateway, CloudFront, and ALB. Usually one question.

Core docs

FAQ

Part III — Domain 3: Deployment (24%)

CI/CD pipelines and deployment strategies. Know the AWS developer tools suite cold.

Chapter 9 — CI/CD services

Maps to Task Statement 3.1 — Prepare application artifacts to be deployed to AWS

Skills in:

  • Manage the dependencies of the code module (for example, environment variables, configuration files, container images) within the package
  • Organize files and a directory structure for application deployment
  • Use code repositories in deployment environments
  • Apply application requirements for resources (for example, memory, cores)
  • Prepare application configurations for specific environments (for example, by using AWS AppConfig)
Maps to Task Statement 3.4 — Deploy code by using AWS Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) services

Skills in:

  • Describe Lambda deployment packaging options
  • Describe API Gateway stages and custom domains
  • Update existing IaC templates (for example, AWS SAM templates, CloudFormation templates)
  • Manage application environments by using AWS services
  • Deploy an application version by using deployment strategies
  • Commit code to a repository to invoke build, test, and deployment actions
  • Use orchestrated workflows to deploy code to different environments
  • Perform application rollbacks by using existing deployment strategies
  • Use labels and branches for version and release management
  • Use existing runtime configurations to create dynamic deployments (for example, using staging variables from API Gateway in Lambda functions)
  • Configure deployment strategies (for example, blue/green, canary, rolling) for application releases

9.1 AWS CodePipeline ★★★ Core

CodePipeline orchestrates CI/CD. Know stages, actions, artifacts, and how to integrate source providers, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and third-party tools. Understand manual approval actions, cross-region deployments, and pipeline triggers. Expect 2-4 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

9.2 AWS CodeBuild ★★★ Core

CodeBuild runs your builds. Know buildspec.yml structure (phases, artifacts, cache), environment variables (plaintext vs Parameter Store vs Secrets Manager), build environment images, and how to store build output. Expect 2-3 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

9.3 AWS CodeDeploy ★★★ Core

CodeDeploy handles deployments to EC2, Lambda, and ECS. Know deployment configurations (AllAtOnce, HalfAtATime, OneAtATime, Canary, Linear), appspec.yml structure, lifecycle hooks, and rollback triggers. Expect 2-4 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

9.4 AWS CodeArtifact ★ Light

Know CodeArtifact for hosting private package repositories. Understand domains, repositories, upstream repositories, and integration with npm, pip, Maven, NuGet. Typically one question.

Core docs

Chapter 10 — Infrastructure as code

Maps to Task Statement 3.2 — Test applications in development environments

Skills in:

  • Test deployed code by using AWS services and tools
  • Write integration tests and mock APIs for external dependencies
  • Test applications by using development endpoints (for example, configuring stages in Amazon API Gateway)
  • Deploy application stack updates to existing environments (for example, deploying an AWS SAM template to a different staging environment)
  • Test event-driven applications
Maps to Task Statement 3.3 — Automate deployment testing

Skills in:

  • Create application test events (for example, JSON payloads for testing AWS Lambda, API Gateway, AWS SAM resources)
  • Deploy API resources to various environments
  • Create application environments that use approved versions for integration testing (for example, Lambda aliases, container image tags, AWS Amplify branches, AWS Copilot environments)
  • Implement and deploy infrastructure as code (IaC) templates (for example, AWS SAM templates, AWS CloudFormation templates)
  • Manage environments in individual AWS services (for example, differentiating between development, test, and production in API Gateway)
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to generate automated tests

10.1 AWS CloudFormation ★★ Important

Know CloudFormation basics: template structure (Resources, Parameters, Outputs, Mappings, Conditions), intrinsic functions (Ref, GetAtt, Sub, Join, If), and stack updates. Understand change sets, nested stacks, and cross-stack references. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

10.2 AWS SAM ★★ Important

SAM extends CloudFormation for serverless. Know the SAM template structure (Transform, Globals, resource types like AWS::Serverless::Function), sam build, sam deploy, and sam local for testing. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

10.3 AWS CDK ★★ Important

Know CDK as infrastructure as code using familiar programming languages (TypeScript, Python, Java, C#). Understand constructs (L1, L2, L3), stacks, apps, and how CDK synthesizes to CloudFormation. Expect 1 question.

Core docs

FAQ

10.4 AWS Amplify ★ Light

Know Amplify for full-stack web and mobile app development. Understand Amplify Hosting (CI/CD for frontends), Amplify Studio, and the Amplify libraries for authentication, API, and storage. Usually one question.

Core docs

FAQ

Part IV — Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%)

The smallest domain but tests real-world skills. Know your observability tools.

Chapter 11 — Monitoring and logging

Maps to Task Statement 4.1 — Assist in a root cause analysis

Skills in:

  • Debug code to identify defects
  • Interpret application metrics, logs, and traces
  • Query logs to find relevant data
  • Implement custom metrics (for example, Amazon CloudWatch embedded metric format [EMF])
  • Review application health by using dashboards and insights
  • Troubleshoot deployment failures by using service output logs
  • Debug service integration issues in applications
Maps to Task Statement 4.3 — Optimize applications by using AWS services and features

Skills in:

  • Define concurrency
  • Profile application performance
  • Determine minimum memory and compute power for an application
  • Use subscription filter policies to optimize messaging
  • Cache content based on request headers
  • Implement application-level caching to improve performance
  • Optimize application resource usage
  • Analyze application performance issues
  • Use application logs to identify performance bottlenecks

11.1 Amazon CloudWatch ★★★ Core

CloudWatch is essential for all troubleshooting. Know metrics vs logs vs alarms, log groups/streams, CloudWatch Logs Insights queries, metric filters, and embedded metric format. Understand Lambda logging patterns and structured logging. Expect 3-5 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

11.2 AWS X-Ray ★★ Important

X-Ray provides distributed tracing. Know segments, subsegments, annotations vs metadata, sampling rules, and the X-Ray SDK. Understand how to trace Lambda functions, API Gateway requests, and downstream services. Note: AWS is consolidating tracing into CloudWatch, where X-Ray traces now surface under CloudWatch Application Signals. Expect 2-3 questions.

Core docs

11.3 AWS CloudTrail ★★ Important

Know CloudTrail for API auditing and security analysis. Understand management events vs data events, trails, log file integrity validation, and CloudTrail Insights. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

11.4 Amazon Q Developer ★★ Important

Added to the exam in December 2024 (v2.1). Know what Amazon Q Developer does (AI-powered coding assistant), how it integrates with IDEs, and its capabilities for code generation, debugging, optimization, and automated test generation. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 12 — Configuration and management

Maps to Task Statement 4.2 — Instrument code for observability

Skills in:

  • Describe differences between logging, monitoring, and observability
  • Implement an effective logging strategy to record application behavior and state
  • Implement code that emits custom metrics
  • Add annotations for tracing services
  • Implement notification alerts for specific actions (for example, notifications about quota limits or deployment completions)
  • Implement tracing by using AWS services and tools
  • Implement structured logging for application events and user actions
  • Configure application health checks and readiness probes

12.1 AWS AppConfig ★ Light

Know AppConfig for dynamic configuration management. Understand deployment strategies, feature flags, configuration profiles, and validators. Often compared to Parameter Store and Secrets Manager.

Core docs

12.2 AWS Systems Manager ★ Light

Beyond Parameter Store, know Run Command for executing commands across EC2 fleets, Session Manager for secure shell access, and Patch Manager. Developer-relevant for managing application environments.

Core docs

FAQ

12.3 AWS CLI and SDKs ★★ Important

Know SDK credential resolution order (environment variables → shared credentials file → instance profile), pagination, waiters, and error handling patterns. Understand AWS CloudShell for browser-based CLI access.

Core docs

Chapter 13 — Messaging and event-driven architectures

Maps to Task Statement 1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

Skills in:

  • Describe architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography, orchestration, fanout)
  • Describe differences between stateful and stateless concepts
  • Describe differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components
  • Describe differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns
  • Create fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go)
  • Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
  • Write and run unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS SAM)
  • Write code to use messaging services
  • Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
  • Handle streaming data using AWS services
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to assist with development
  • Use Amazon EventBridge to implement event-driven patterns
  • Implement resilient application code for third-party service integrations (for example, retry logic, circuit breakers, error handling patterns)

13.1 Amazon SQS ★★★ Core

SQS is fundamental for decoupling. Know standard vs FIFO queues, visibility timeout, dead-letter queues, long polling, message attributes, and Lambda event source mappings with batch processing. Expect 3-4 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

13.2 Amazon SNS ★★ Important

SNS handles pub/sub messaging. Know topics, subscriptions (Lambda, SQS, HTTP, email, SMS), message filtering, and fan-out patterns with SQS. Understand FIFO topics. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

13.3 Amazon EventBridge ★★ Important

EventBridge is the modern event bus (added emphasis in v2.1). Know event patterns, rules, targets, and the difference from SNS. Understand scheduled rules, schema discovery, and event replay. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

13.4 AWS Step Functions ★★ Important

Step Functions orchestrates workflows. Know standard vs express workflows, state types (Task, Choice, Parallel, Map, Wait), error handling (Retry, Catch), and integration with Lambda. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

13.5 AWS AppSync ★★ Important

Know AppSync for managed GraphQL APIs. Understand resolvers, data sources (DynamoDB, Lambda, HTTP), real-time subscriptions, and caching. Often compared to API Gateway for GraphQL use cases.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 14 — Container services

Maps to Task Statement 1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

Skills in:

  • Describe architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography, orchestration, fanout)
  • Describe differences between stateful and stateless concepts
  • Describe differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components
  • Describe differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns
  • Create fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go)
  • Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
  • Write and run unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS SAM)
  • Write code to use messaging services
  • Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
  • Handle streaming data using AWS services
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to assist with development
  • Use Amazon EventBridge to implement event-driven patterns
  • Implement resilient application code for third-party service integrations (for example, retry logic, circuit breakers, error handling patterns)

14.1 Amazon ECS ★★ Important

Know ECS fundamentals: task definitions, services, clusters, and Fargate vs EC2 launch types. Understand task IAM roles, service discovery, and Blue/Green deployments with CodeDeploy. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

14.2 Amazon EKS ★ Light

Know EKS basics: managed Kubernetes control plane, node groups (EC2 vs Fargate), and IAM roles for service accounts (IRSA). Usually appears as a comparison with ECS.

Core docs

FAQ

14.3 Amazon ECR ★ Light

ECR stores Docker images. Know how to push/pull images, repository policies, lifecycle policies, image scanning, and cross-region replication. Usually appears alongside ECS/EKS questions.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 15 — Networking for developers

Maps to Task Statement 1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

Skills in:

  • Describe architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography, orchestration, fanout)
  • Describe differences between stateful and stateless concepts
  • Describe differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components
  • Describe differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns
  • Create fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go)
  • Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
  • Write and run unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS SAM)
  • Write code to use messaging services
  • Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
  • Handle streaming data using AWS services
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to assist with development
  • Use Amazon EventBridge to implement event-driven patterns
  • Implement resilient application code for third-party service integrations (for example, retry logic, circuit breakers, error handling patterns)

15.1 Amazon VPC essentials ★ Light

Know VPC basics relevant to developers: subnets (public vs private), security groups vs NACLs, NAT gateways for Lambda/Fargate in private subnets, and VPC endpoints for accessing AWS services privately.

Core docs

FAQ

15.2 Amazon CloudFront ★ Light

Know CloudFront basics for caching and content delivery. Understand origins (S3, ALB, custom), cache behaviors, Origin Access Control (OAC), and Lambda@Edge/CloudFront Functions for edge computing.

Core docs

FAQ

15.3 Elastic Load Balancing ★ Light

Know the three load balancer types: ALB (Layer 7, HTTP/HTTPS), NLB (Layer 4, TCP/UDP), and their use cases. Understand target groups, health checks, and sticky sessions.

Core docs

FAQ

15.4 Amazon Route 53 ★ Light

Know Route 53 basics: hosted zones, record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, Alias), and routing policies (simple, weighted, latency, failover). Usually one question.

Core docs

FAQ

Chapter 16 — Analytics and streaming

Maps to Task Statement 1.1 — Develop code for applications hosted on AWS

Skills in:

  • Describe architectural patterns (for example, event-driven, microservices, monolithic, choreography, orchestration, fanout)
  • Describe differences between stateful and stateless concepts
  • Describe differences between tightly coupled and loosely coupled components
  • Describe differences between synchronous and asynchronous patterns
  • Create fault-tolerant and resilient applications in a programming language (for example, Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go)
  • Create, extend, and maintain APIs (for example, response/request transformations, enforcing validation rules, overriding status codes)
  • Write and run unit tests in development environments (for example, using AWS SAM)
  • Write code to use messaging services
  • Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs and AWS SDKs
  • Handle streaming data using AWS services
  • Use Amazon Q Developer to assist with development
  • Use Amazon EventBridge to implement event-driven patterns
  • Implement resilient application code for third-party service integrations (for example, retry logic, circuit breakers, error handling patterns)

16.1 Amazon Kinesis ★★ Important

Know the difference between Kinesis Data Streams (real-time, shards, consumers, 24hr-365 day retention) vs Amazon Data Firehose (near-real-time, auto-scaling, delivery to S3/Redshift/OpenSearch). Understand Lambda integration. Expect 1-2 questions.

Core docs

FAQ

16.2 Amazon Athena ★ Light

Know Athena for serverless SQL queries on S3 data. Understand supported formats (Parquet, CSV, JSON), partitioning for performance, and integration with Glue Data Catalog.

Core docs

FAQ

16.3 Amazon OpenSearch Service ★ Light

Know OpenSearch for search and log analytics. Understand domains, index patterns, and common use cases (application logs, full-text search). Often paired with Amazon Data Firehose for log ingestion.

Core docs

FAQ