# How to pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam ## Some helpful hints on how to pass the AWS Developer Associate exam... Ali Khalil I am very happy to say I am now an AWS certified developer, having recently passed the [AWS Certified Developer - Associate](https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/) (DVA-C01) exam πŸ‘¨β€πŸŽ“. Here are some tips to help you pass your AWS developer certification first time! ### πŸ§ͺ Hands on experience using AWS services The AWS Certified Developer Associate exam questions are scenario based, so having practical experience with AWS services will help you understand how the services work and diagnose problems which you will come across in the exam. AWS offer [Self-Paced Labs](https://aws.amazon.com/training/self-paced-labs/) which are guided steps to learn a service. ### πŸ“š AWS whitepapers Take time to read through as many [AWS Whitepapers](https://aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/?whitepapers-main.sort-by=item.additionalFields.sortDate&whitepapers-main.sort-order=desc) as you can, especially on [Serverless](https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/) (as the majority of questions are based on Serverless, ranging from setting up to optimisation and refactoring). ### πŸ“ Take mock exams Reinforce your learning by taking as many mock exams as you can. I found mine at [Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-practice-tests-dva-c01/) and [Whizlabs](http://ask.whizlabs.com/aws-developer-associate/). You can also find courses at [AWS Training and Certification](https://aws.amazon.com/training/) or [A Cloud Guru](https://acloudguru.com/). Taking lots of mock exams really helps to streamline the learning process. ### πŸ•΅οΈβ€ Read the questions _very_ carefully The questions are a mixture of multiple-choice (where you select 1 answer from a list of options) and multi-select (where you choose 2 or more answers from a selection of 5 or more). The options in multi-select questions can be very similar to each other so it’s important to understand the differences between key components. An example would be knowing the difference between `GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext` or `GenerateDataKey`. Both generate data keys but `GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext` generates an encrypted copy of the data key. ### πŸ”Ž Focus on AWS Serverless services These are services based on the [Serverless](https://www.serverless.com/) computing platforms which consist of: - [API Gateway](https://aws.amazon.com/api-gateway/): questions which come up in the exam are usually concerned with deploying APIs, managing multiple versions, stages and environments & troubleshooting - [Lambda](https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/): questions regarding Lambda were usually intertwined with other services; integrations with API Gateway, and many questions about redeploying legacy applications in AWS - [Elastic Beanstalk](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/): Make sure you study Elastic Beanstalk, questions are usually around .eb extensions, upgrade scenarios & redeploys - [DynamoDB](https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/): determining partition & sort keys, creating a GSI & LSI and choosing hash and range keys, reading throughput and throttling errors and optimising the performance and costs of workload. - [Cognito](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/what-is-amazon-cognito.html): this is a service providing authentication, authorization, and user management. Questions which usually come up in the exam are regarding the features of AWS Cognito which are Cognito User Pools, Cognito Federated Identities & Cognito Sync - And finally [S3](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/), [SNS](https://aws.amazon.com/sns/) & [SQS](https://aws.amazon.com/sqs/), [Kinesis](https://aws.amazon.com/kinesis/) & [ECS](https://aws.amazon.com/ecs/). There are lots of questions regarding how to set up these services and how they interact with other services so it’s important to understand these areas. * * * I hope these tips have been helpful! Good luck and let us know how you get on [@jdlt_tech](https://twitter.com/jdlt_tech) 🀞