DVA-C03 vs DVA-C02: what changes
According to the AWS exam guide’s comparison page, DVA-C03 adds a new AI security task (Task 2.3), adds AI-assisted development skills in Domains 1, 3 and 4, adds container image and orchestration skills and presigned URLs, moves some topics between domains and consolidates several skill groups, including DynamoDB and security. The four domains remain, with weights of 30/26/22/22 against 32/26/24/18 on DVA-C02, and Deployment becomes Testing and Deployment. DVA-C02 can be taken until 30 November 2026; the guide lists DVA-C03 as in use beginning 1 December 2026. This page follows the DVA-C03 exam guide and the published DVA-C02 guide.
What AWS says is added
| Change | What AWS says |
|---|---|
| AI security | A new Task 2.3 (identify and mitigate security risks of using and integrating AI services) with five skills: request and manage access to AI services, data privacy controls (VPC endpoints, keeping inputs and outputs out of model training), filtering and controlling model inputs and outputs (content filtering, PII/PHI redaction, denied topics, prompt injection protection), AI agent interaction security (tool-use authorisation, session isolation, human-in-the-loop approval), and protecting sensitive content in monitoring logs |
| AI-assisted development and AI services | Skills 1.1.9 and 1.1.10: AI-assisted code generation and review, and integrating managed AWS AI services into applications (Domain 1). Skills 3.2.5 and 3.3.9: AI tools for test generation and for CI/CD, such as automated deployment approvals (Domain 3). Skills 4.1.5 and 4.3.6: AI tools for error analysis and for finding optimisation opportunities (Domain 4) |
| Containers | Skill 3.1.2, building and managing container images (ECR, Dockerfiles, tagging, lifecycle policies), and skill 3.3.2, deploying containerised applications with ECS task definitions, EKS manifests and Fargate launch types |
| Presigned URLs | Skill 2.1.4, secure time-limited access with S3 and CloudFront, listed as added content |
| In-scope services to note | The guide’s in-scope list includes Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Quick, Kiro, Amazon Data Firehose, AWS PrivateLink, plus containers (Amazon ECR, ECS, EKS). The guide does not mark which entries are new |
| Consolidation | DynamoDB: 4 skills into 1. Security (encryption and sensitive data): 13 skills across 2 tasks into 7 skills in 1 task. Testing: 11 skills across 2 tasks into 5 skills in 1 task. Observability: 8 into 5. Optimization: 9 into 6. AWS says this does not reduce emphasis on those skills |
| Out of scope (job tasks) | Selecting foundation models, engineering prompts, designing RAG architectures, designing AI safety frameworks, implementing guardrails and AI governance, designing ETL pipelines, plus the DVA-C02 list (designing architectures, designing and creating CI/CD pipelines, administering IAM users and groups, servers and operating systems, designing networking) |
| Out of scope (services) | Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Polly, Amazon Rekognition and Strands Agents among the AI services; also Amazon QuickSight, Amazon Connect, AWS Shield, Snow Family and others |
Topics that moved
AWS says these keep their scope but are tested in a different place:
| Topic | DVA-C02 | DVA-C03 |
|---|---|---|
| Unit testing with AWS SAM | Task 1.1 | Task 3.2 |
| Lambda function performance tuning | Task 1.2 | Task 4.3 |
| Serialising and deserialising data | Task 1.3 | Task 1.1 |
| API Gateway stages and custom domains | Task 3.4 | Task 3.1 |
The out-of-scope list matters as much as the additions. The guide excludes choosing models, engineering prompts and designing RAG, so the exam is about a developer using and securing AI features and AI-assisted tools in application work, not about choosing or building models. If you are weighing AI-focused credentials, the AWS AI certification path compares them.
Domain weights: DVA-C03 against DVA-C02
| Domain | DVA-C02 (outgoing guide) | DVA-C03 (exam guide) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development with AWS Services | 32% | 30% | -2 |
| Security | 26% | 26% | 0 |
| Deployment / Testing and Deployment | 24% | 22% | -2 |
| Troubleshooting and Optimization | 18% | 22% | +4 |
Troubleshooting and Optimization gains the most weight. AWS also places AI-supported error analysis and optimisation recommendations in that domain. Both sets of percentages are shares of scored content. See the domain pages for development, security, testing and deployment and troubleshooting and optimization.
Format and dates
The exam guide is published (checked 30 October 2026), and the domain pages here follow its task statements. The format is on the exam format page: 65 questions, 130 minutes, 150 USD, passing score 720. On registration, AWS pages differ: the training blog post of 27 October 2026 says it is open, while a note on the exam guide says it opens December 1, 2026.
The outgoing structure: DVA-C02
For comparison only, AWS’s published guide for the outgoing DVA-C02 divides the scored content as in the table above, and lists out-of-scope job tasks such as designing architectures, designing and creating CI/CD pipelines, administering IAM users and groups, administering servers and operating systems, and designing AWS networking infrastructure. It also mentions AI-assisted development and AI security under “emerging topics”, which might appear only as unscored pretest questions. In DVA-C03 these are task statements.
What stays the same in practice
AWS says the consolidations do not decrease the emphasis on essential skills. The DVA-C03 guide still describes the same job: developing, testing, deploying and debugging applications on AWS. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, IAM, KMS, CodeDeploy and CodePipeline, CloudWatch and X-Ray are all in the DVA-C03 in-scope list and remain the foundation for either version. The study plan leans on those and adds the new areas.
Which exam to take
| Situation | What AWS’s dates mean |
|---|---|
| Ready for DVA-C02 and able to sit it on or before 30 November 2026 | You can take DVA-C02; AWS says the credential stays active through its original expiration date |
| Want the exam that includes AI-assisted development and AI security | DVA-C03, in use from 1 December 2026 per the exam guide; check your AWS account for booking dates |
| Hold an active DVA-C02 | It remains valid for its three years; renewal is covered on the renewal page |
| Fail DVA-C02 close to the cutoff | The 14-day retake wait may push a retake past 30 November, after which the only version is DVA-C03 |
The last point is a practical consequence of dates, not an AWS statement: a failed attempt on 20 November cannot be retaken until 4 December, after DVA-C02 is gone.
Neither choice is wrong. The version that fits is the one that matches your preparation and your deadline. Study material written for C02 stays useful for most of the content, and the gaps are the additions in the tables above.
Keeping this page accurate
AWS says guide revisions are published at least one month before they take effect on the exam, so check the guide’s revisions section before you book. The exam changes page explains how to follow them.