Getting AWS Certified Developer Associate (DVA-C02) in 2023
Tags: aws
Published: 2023-07-30 08:09:46

I just got certified on 24 July 2023 and would like to share the experience and the learning strategy with you.

Let’s start with the phases I am going through.

**Phase 1** — Getting Started with the Course

In January, I started off by watching this course by Stephane Maarek

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-dva-c01/

The course is very effective and covers everything you need to know to get the certification. It also provides a hands-on lab every step of the way to help you understand at the practical level. This hands-on lab is a must if you’ve never touched or not working day to day with AWS.

In this course, the instructor provides you with a lot of good tips and highlights important things worth noting, and explains everything with good comprehension.

Please do all the hands-on, it really does help.

After I finished all the videos and hands-on, I thought, I am ready to take the exam, then I started doing example practice exams in the course and realized I got more work to do.

**Phase 2** — Practice, Practice, Practice

After I found out that I need more practice, I gather all the material I can afford.

Here is a list

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-practice-tests-dva-c01/ by Stephane Maarek

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-practice-exams-amazon-dva-c01/ by Jon Bonso

https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Developer-Associate-Practice-Tests/dp/B08B3B3CGK/ by Neal Davis

The way I do it repeatedly is, I take the exam either entirely(65 questions) or 5–10 questions a day until finished then I started to review the incorrect answer and study them. And start again for the next practice exam.

At my best, I keep doing it every day with pen and paper then life happen it became every other day. I find that 5–10 questions a day is better than nothing, even 1 question a day or 1 incorrect answer a day is still better than nothing. If you can’t do 1 question, just read the question and answer the next day.

I recommended you keep note of your score and see how you progress over time, that will help motivate you.

Also, If you get bored over time, you can switch up to doing self-assigned challenges generate by chatGPT, it’s pretty fun. But remember to get back to exam practice after using hands-on challenges to help understand things in action.

**Phase 3** — Book the exam

After I went through half of them I started booking the exam and I did it. Personally, I would say pick 1or 2 of those 3 practice resources would be enough to pass the exam.

I bought 3 of them because I got caught up in the day-to-day work and pause for a couple of weeks. I just needed more practice to come back on track.

**Last Note**

- Set your calendar when you are going to take it. I recommend the online version.
- Build a small habit to study every day or every other day.
- Compare to [CKAD](https://medium.com/@sarinsuriyakoon/portal-guide-for-ckad-2022-2023-36aaf04e4891), AWS CDA DVA-C02 is much harder since there are tons of content to go through, understand, and space repetition over time.

Originally publish at 
https://medium.com/@sarinsuriyakoon/getting-aws-certified-developer-associate-dva-c02-in-2023-16664c207904

Photo by [Pero Kalimero](https://unsplash.com/@pericakalimerica?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/images/nature/cloud?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)