DVA-C03 cheat sheet
Last-minute reference for the updated AWS Developer - Associate exam. Exam facts and the “new” list come from the DVA-C03 exam guide on docs.aws.amazon.com; service numbers come from service documentation that applies to both DVA-C02 and DVA-C03.
Exam facts
| Questions | 65 (50 scored, 15 unscored) |
| Time | 130 minutes |
| Passing score | 720 / 1000 |
| Price | 150 USD |
| In use from | 1 December 2026 (DVA-C02 ends 30 November) |
Domain weights
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Development with AWS Services | 30% |
| Security | 26% |
| Testing and Deployment | 22% |
| Troubleshooting and Optimization | 22% |
What AWS says is new
| Change | Where it shows up |
|---|---|
| AI security, new Task 2.3 | Access to AI services, private connectivity, content filtering and prompt injection, agent tool authorisation, sensitive data in logs |
| AI-assisted development | Domains 1, 3 and 4: code generation and review, managed AI services, test generation, CI/CD approvals, error analysis, optimisation hints |
| Containers | ECR images and tagging, ECS task definitions, EKS manifests, Fargate |
| Presigned URLs | S3 and CloudFront, Task 2.1 |
| Out of scope | Choosing models, prompt engineering, RAG design, AI governance, SageMaker AI, Strands Agents |
Service numbers worth knowing
Quotas change; confirm in the current documentation (“check current limits”).
| Service | Fact |
|---|---|
| Lambda | Timeout 900 s; memory 128 to 10,240 MB (CPU scales with memory); /tmp 512 to 10,240 MB |
| Lambda payload | 6 MB synchronous, 1 MB asynchronous; zip 50 MB upload, 250 MB unzipped; 5 layers; image up to 10 GB |
| Lambda concurrency | 1,000 per Region by default; reserved caps one function, provisioned removes cold starts |
| DynamoDB | Item up to 400 KB; 1 RCU = one 4 KB strongly consistent read (half for eventual, double for transactional); 1 WCU = one 1 KB write |
| SQS | Visibility timeout 30 s default, 12 h max; retention 4 days default, 14 max; message 1 MiB; batch of 10 |
| API Gateway | Account throttle 10,000 requests per second with 5,000 burst by default; check current limits for cache TTL and integration timeout |
| KMS | Direct encrypt is limited to 4 KB; larger data uses a data key (envelope encryption) |
Pick the service
| Requirement | Answer |
|---|---|
| Decouple, one consumer, retries and a dead-letter queue | SQS |
| Fan out one event to many subscribers | SNS (with SQS per consumer) |
| Route events by content, SaaS or schedule sources | EventBridge |
| Strict ordering and deduplication | SQS FIFO with a message group ID |
| Read-heavy key lookups, microsecond latency | DAX in front of DynamoDB |
| Application needs AWS access from compute | IAM role, never embedded keys |
| Cross-account access to one bucket or queue | Resource policy plus caller permission |
| Rotate database credentials | Secrets Manager; Parameter Store for plain config |
| Trace a request across services | X-Ray; logs and metrics stay in CloudWatch |
Deployment types
| Target | CodeDeploy options |
|---|---|
| Lambda | Canary, linear, all-at-once (shifting alias weights) |
| ECS | Blue/green with traffic shifting |
| EC2 | In-place or blue/green |
Roll back on a CloudWatch alarm. Use alias weights for Lambda, not new function names.
Traps
- Throttling is not a bug to fix in code. Retry with exponential backoff and jitter; raise capacity only if the limit is sustained.
- Eventually consistent is the default read on DynamoDB. A stale read after a write means ask for strongly consistent.
- Scan is wrong when you know the key. Query on a key or an index.
- Message returns to the queue if processing outlives the visibility timeout; set it above the function timeout.
- A role on the function beats keys in environment variables. Encrypt anything sensitive that must be stored.
- AI features get least privilege too. Scope the role, use private endpoints, and keep sensitive content out of logs.
Night-before checklist
- Four domains, Security at 26% with the new AI task
- SQS versus SNS versus EventBridge, cold
- RCU and WCU arithmetic
- Envelope encryption and role versus resource policy
- Canary versus linear versus blue/green
Plan the rest with the study plan and try the sample questions.