About This Study Plan
This 90-day study plan breaks the DVA-C02 (AWS Developer Associate) exam preparation into 7 focused study sessions with a total of 28 actionable tasks. The plan covers all 4 exam domains — Development with AWS Services, Security, Deployment, Troubleshooting and Optimization — ensuring complete coverage of the exam blueprint. A comprehensive three-month study plan for beginners with no prior AWS developer experience. Includes hands-on labs and gradual ramp-up.
Prerequisites
- No prior AWS experience required
- Basic programming knowledge in any language
- 1–2 hours of study time per day
Study Schedule
- AWS global infrastructure, regions, AZs
- AWS Console, CLI, SDK setup
- IAM fundamentals: users, groups, roles, policies
- Create free-tier account, set up MFA and billing alerts
- EC2 basics, instance metadata (IMDSv2)
- Lambda deep dive: functions, concurrency, layers, aliases
- Step Functions and event-driven architecture
- Hands-on: build a Lambda function with API Gateway
- S3: buckets, policies, pre-signed URLs, encryption
- DynamoDB: tables, keys, indexes, streams, DAX
- RDS: Multi-AZ, read replicas, Aurora, IAM auth
- Hands-on: build a CRUD API with DynamoDB
- API Gateway REST and HTTP APIs, authorizers, stages
- SQS: Standard vs FIFO, DLQ, long polling
- SNS: topics, fan-out, message filtering
- Hands-on: build an SNS → SQS fan-out pipeline
- Cognito: User Pools, Identity Pools, hosted UI
- KMS: CMKs, envelope encryption, key policies
- Secrets Manager: rotation, Parameter Store comparison
- Practice: 50+ security questions over these 2 weeks
- CodePipeline + CodeBuild + CodeDeploy end-to-end
- CloudFormation, SAM, CDK fundamentals
- Elastic Beanstalk deployment policies
- Hands-on: build a CI/CD pipeline for a Lambda function
- X-Ray tracing, CloudWatch monitoring, Auto Scaling
- Full mock exams (take 2-3 over the final week)
- Review all cheat sheets and flashcards
- Practice: 50+ troubleshooting questions, review weak areas
Study Tips
Spend the first month building foundational knowledge before diving into exam-specific topics
Do hands-on labs every week — practical experience is the best teacher
Take at least 3 full mock exams in the final 2 weeks
Use flashcards daily for spaced repetition of key facts
Ready to Practice?
Put your study plan into action with AWS Developer Associate practice questions.