DVA-C02 Retires November 30, 2026: What Changes in DVA-C03

Key dates

The AWS comparison of DVA-C02 and DVA-C03 describes DVA-C02 as "in use until November 30, 2026" and DVA-C03 as "in use beginning December 1, 2026". The AWS Training and Certification blog update from 1 September 2026 says the same about the DVA-C02 cutoff and the DVA-C03 start.

One point differs between AWS pages. The blog post says registration for DVA-C03 opens on October 27, 2026. A note on the DVA-C03 exam guide says registration for the updated version opens December 1, 2026. Check your exam delivery account for the date that applies to you before you plan around either one.

AWS also states in the guide that exam guide revisions are published at least one month before changes are reflected on the exam.

What stays the same

• The target candidate still has one or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications on AWS, per the DVA-C03 guide.
• The format is unchanged on paper: 50 scored questions plus 15 unscored questions, multiple choice and multiple response, and a scaled score of 100 to 1,000 with a minimum passing score of 720. The DVA-C02 guide gives the same figures.
• Scoring is compensatory in both versions. You do not need to pass each section, only the exam overall.
• Duration is 130 minutes, per the AWS certification page. The fee shown there is 150 USD.
• Security is 26% in both versions.

Domain weights: DVA-C02 vs DVA-C03

Source: AWS side-by-side comparison. Three domains keep their names, and Domain 3 is renamed to include testing. Troubleshooting and Optimization gains four points, the largest move, while Development and Deployment each lose two.

What is new in DVA-C03

A new AI security task

AWS lists a new Task 2.3, "Identify and mitigate security risks associated with using and integrating AI services into application development", with five skills (comparison page):

• Request and manage access to AI services.
• Use data privacy controls to send data to AI services, for example VPC endpoints for private connectivity.
• Filter and control model inputs and outputs, for example content filtering, sensitive information detection, PII/PHI redaction, denied topic policies and prompt injection protection.
• Secure AI agent interactions, for example tool-use authorization, session isolation and human-in-the-loop approval for sensitive actions.
• Protect sensitive content in monitoring logs during interactions with AI services.

AI-assisted development and AI tooling in each domain

AI shows up across the exam, not just in one domain. According to the same comparison page, AWS added:

• Task 1.1: using AI-assisted development tools to generate, review and optimize code, and integrating managed AWS AI services into applications.
• Task 3.2: using AWS AI tools to generate tests and automate repetitive testing workflows.
• Task 3.3: using AWS AI tools to support CI/CD workflows, such as automated deployment approvals and post-deployment validation.
• Task 4.1: using AWS AI tools to analyze errors and suggest troubleshooting steps.
• Task 4.3: using AWS AI tools to find optimization opportunities.

The exam guide also draws a boundary. Selecting foundation models, engineering prompts, designing RAG architectures, and designing AI safety frameworks or governance are listed as out of scope for the target candidate. This is a developer exam about using and securing AI services, not designing them.

Containers and presigned URLs

Two non-AI additions matter if you have studied only for DVA-C02. Skill 3.1.2 adds building and managing container images, for example with Amazon ECR, Dockerfiles, tagging and lifecycle policies. Skill 3.3.2 adds deploying containerized applications with ECS task definitions, EKS manifests, Fargate launch types and rolling updates (Domain 3 of the DVA-C03 guide). Task 2.1 also adds presigned URLs for secure, time-limited access through Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront.

What moved

AWS says content was relocated but keeps its scope (comparison page):

AWS also consolidated granular skills. For example, four separate DynamoDB skills (partition keys and design, consistency models, query and scan operations, keys and indexing) became one DynamoDB skill. AWS states that this does not reduce the emphasis on those skills; it reduces repetition. Treat DynamoDB as a single area you must know end to end.

Should you take DVA-C02 or wait for DVA-C03?

This depends on your timeline, and AWS does not recommend one over the other. A few practical points follow from the published facts:

• If you can sit the exam before November 30, 2026, DVA-C02 is available and its guide is stable. Check available appointment slots now, because the window is short.
• If you will be ready in December or later, prepare for DVA-C03. Study material built only around DVA-C02 will miss the AI security task and the container deployment skills.
• Either way, the credential name is AWS Certified Developer - Associate. This article does not cover how AWS treats credentials already earned, so check the AWS certification page for renewal and validity rules.

How to adjust your study plan

1. Start from the Security domain. It is 26% in both versions, and in DVA-C03 it now includes AI service access, data privacy, guardrail-style filtering and agent safeguards.
2. Give Troubleshooting and Optimization more time than a DVA-C02 plan would. At 22% it is no longer the smallest domain by a wide margin.
3. Practice with the services named in the guide's AI skills. Build one small Lambda or API Gateway application that calls a managed AI service, then review how you would lock down its network path, inputs, outputs and logs.
4. Build and push a container image to Amazon ECR and deploy it to ECS or EKS with a rolling update.
5. Read the full DVA-C03 exam guide and mark each skill as known, shaky or new.

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