AWS Certified Developer - Associate Study Guide (2026) - Pass on Your First Attempt
📋 2026 Edition  ·  Updated May 2026

AWS Certified Developer - Associate
aws-developer-associate Study Guide — Pass First Attempt

Complete exam coverage for the AWS Certified Developer - Associate. Every domain, every key topic — structured so you study smart, not hard. Built around the official exam blueprint.

65
Questions
130 min
Duration
72
Passing score
4
Domains
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92%
First-attempt pass rate
47K+
Candidates prepared
4.9★
Average rating
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Exam at a Glance

Everything you need to know before you start

Key facts about the AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam structure, format, and scoring.

🆔
aws-developer-associate
Exam code
📝
65 questions
Total questions
⏱
130 minutes
Duration
🎯
72
Passing score
📋
4 domains
Exam domains
📅
Valid 3 years
Certification validity
🌐
Online / In-person
Testing mode
🏆
Globally recognised
Credential type
ℹ️
Scoring method: Scaled scoring (100-1000). 50 scored questions; 15 are unscored pretest items. Score of 720/1000 required to pass.. The exam may include unscored pilot questions — treat every question seriously.
Focus Areas

What should you study for the AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam?

To pass the AWS Certified Developer - Associate certification exam, you should focus on these core domains. The exam tests your ability to apply concepts in real-world scenarios — not just memorise definitions.

⚠️
Common mistake: Candidates memorise terminology but struggle with scenario-based questions. Focus on when to use what, not just what exists.
🔐
Development with AWS Services (32%)
Covers developing and architecting applications using core AWS services including Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, and Kinesis.
🏗
Security (26%)
Covers implementing security controls for AWS applications including authentication, authorization, encryption, and secrets management.
⚡
Deployment (24%)
Covers deploying applications to AWS using CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and container services.
💰
Troubleshooting and Optimization (18%)
Covers monitoring, tracing, debugging, and optimizing AWS applications using CloudWatch, X-Ray, and performance best practices.
Full Syllabus

AWS Certified Developer - Associate Exam Syllabus and Topics

The AWS Certified Developer - Associate exam is divided into 4 domains. Each domain tests specific skills and contributes to your overall score. Click any domain to expand topics.

Development with AWS Services
Covers developing and architecting applications using core AWS services including Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, and Kinesis.
32% ▼
AWS Lambda
Function configuration and runtime environments
Event sources and triggers
Lambda layers and extensions
Concurrency, throttling, and cold starts
Lambda@Edge and SnapStart
Amazon API Gateway
REST API vs HTTP API vs WebSocket API
API Gateway integrations and proxy resources
Authorization with Cognito and Lambda authorizers
Throttling, caching, and CORS
Amazon DynamoDB
Partition keys, sort keys, and indexes (GSI, LSI)
Capacity modes: On-Demand vs Provisioned
DynamoDB Streams and TTL
Conditional expressions and transactions
DAX for caching
Amazon S3
S3 bucket policies, ACLs, and presigned URLs
S3 versioning, lifecycle rules, and replication
S3 event notifications
Multipart upload and transfer acceleration
Amazon SQS and SNS
Standard vs FIFO queues
Visibility timeout and dead-letter queues
SNS topics and fan-out patterns
SQS polling: short vs long polling
Amazon Kinesis
Kinesis Data Streams vs Firehose vs Analytics
Shards, partition keys, and sequence numbers
Consumer types: enhanced fan-out
~16 questions
160 marks
32% of exam weight
Security
Covers implementing security controls for AWS applications including authentication, authorization, encryption, and secrets management.
26% ▼
IAM Policies and Roles
IAM policy evaluation logic
Cross-account access and resource-based policies
IAM roles for EC2, Lambda, and ECS
AWS STS and temporary credentials
Amazon Cognito
User Pools vs Identity Pools
Cognito Sync and federated identities
JWT token validation
OAuth 2.0 and OIDC flows
AWS KMS and Encryption
Customer managed keys (CMK) vs AWS managed keys
Envelope encryption
S3, DynamoDB, and Lambda encryption at rest
KMS key policies
AWS Secrets Manager and Parameter Store
Storing and rotating secrets
SSM Parameter Store SecureString
Referencing secrets in Lambda and ECS
~13 questions
130 marks
26% of exam weight
Deployment
Covers deploying applications to AWS using CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and container services.
24% ▼
AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy
Pipeline stages and actions
CodeBuild buildspec.yml configuration
In-place vs blue/green deployments
Deployment strategies: all-at-once, rolling, canary
AWS CodeCommit and CodeArtifact
Git repository management on AWS
Artifact storage and package management
AWS CloudFormation
Templates, stacks, and nested stacks
CloudFormation parameters, mappings, and outputs
Change sets and rollback triggers
Custom resources and CloudFormation macros
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Environment types: Web Server vs Worker
Deployment policies and .ebextensions
Elastic Beanstalk with Docker
AWS SAM
SAM template structure
SAM CLI for local testing
SAM transforms and deployment
~12 questions
120 marks
24% of exam weight
Troubleshooting and Optimization
Covers monitoring, tracing, debugging, and optimizing AWS applications using CloudWatch, X-Ray, and performance best practices.
18% ▼
Amazon CloudWatch
CloudWatch Metrics, Logs, and Alarms
CloudWatch Logs Insights queries
Metric filters and custom metrics
CloudWatch EventBridge rules
AWS X-Ray
Distributed tracing and service maps
X-Ray segments, subsegments, and annotations
Enabling X-Ray for Lambda and API Gateway
X-Ray sampling rules
Optimization Patterns
Lambda provisioned concurrency and memory tuning
DynamoDB capacity planning and adaptive capacity
Caching strategies: ElastiCache, DAX, API Gateway cache
API Gateway throttling and quotas
~9 questions
90 marks
18% of exam weight
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Study Plan

AWS Certified Developer - Associate Structured Study Roadmap

Designed for candidates studying 1-2 hours per day. Select your timeline below.

Exam Strategy

Tips to pass AWS Certified Developer - Associate on your first attempt

Tactical advice beyond content knowledge — what separates candidates who pass from those who retake.

🗓
Know the difference between SQS Standard and FIFO queues — this is heavily tested with visibility timeout and message ordering scenarios.
🔍
Understand IAM policy evaluation logic including explicit deny vs allow and the order in which policies are evaluated.
⏭
Master DynamoDB access patterns: know when to use GSI vs LSI and how to avoid hot partitions.
📊
Lambda configuration gotchas — concurrency limits, timeout max (15 min), memory impact on CPU, and cold start mitigation using SnapStart or provisioned concurrency.
🔁
CloudFormation: distinguish between Parameters, Mappings, Conditions, and Outputs and know how Change Sets work before deployment.
🧪
CI/CD: know all three CodeDeploy deployment strategies (in-place, blue/green) and when to use each for EC2 vs Lambda vs ECS.
📝
Envelope encryption is a core concept — understand how KMS data keys are used to encrypt data without passing plaintext to KMS for every operation.
🎯
X-Ray requires daemon sidecar in ECS; for Lambda, active tracing must be enabled — know both the configuration and code-level SDK integration.
🗓
API Gateway: understand integration types (Lambda proxy vs custom integration) and how to use mapping templates.
🔍
Practice reading and writing IAM JSON policies — you may be given a policy and asked to identify what it allows or denies.
Recommended Resources

Official and trusted study materials

Curated resources ranked by usefulness. Quality over quantity — focus on a small set of authoritative sources.

Official
Official Exam Guide
The authoritative blueprint. Know every objective before studying anything else.
→ Vendor website
Practice Tests
Edureify Practice Tests
Full-length AWS Certified Developer - Associate simulations with detailed per-domain analysis and explanations.
→ Start free test
Video Course
Structured Video Course
Pick one highly-rated course and complete it end-to-end before switching resources.
With edureify Convert Tutorial to AI Tutor
Reference
Domain Cheat Sheets
One-page summaries for each AWS Certified Developer - Associate domain — ideal for last-week revision.
→ Get free Cheat Sheet
Community
Study Groups & Forums
Reddit r/certifications and exam-specific Discord servers for peer support and tips.
→ Reddit / Discord
AI Tutor
Edureify AI Mentor
Get instant answers to AWS Certified Developer - Associate concepts, domain-level weak-area coaching, and adaptive questions.
→ Try free
⚠️
Avoid brain dumps. Sites selling "real exam questions" violate most vendor NDAs and are legally risky. Questions rotate regularly — brain dumps lead to overconfidence on outdated material and a higher retake rate.
Reviews

What candidates say after passing

★★★★★
"Passed AWS Certified Developer - Associate on my first attempt after 5 weeks. The domain-level diagnostic showed me exactly where my gaps were — I stopped wasting time on topics I already knew."
Rahul S.
Solutions Architect, Bangalore
★★★★★
"The structured study plan kept me on track. I tried studying on my own for 3 months and failed. With Edureify's roadmap I passed in 6 weeks."
Priya M.
Cloud Engineer, Mumbai
★★★★★
"The AI mentor was like having a personal tutor available at 2am. Every concept I didn't understand was explained until I got it. Invaluable for the Development with AWS Services domain."
David K.
DevOps Engineer, London
FAQ

Frequently asked questions about AWS Certified Developer - Associate

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