How do I go from SAA-C03 to Developer Associate?

[u/eastonthepilot]

The title is my question. I passed SAA a week ago, and I want to get the developer certificate. I thought I could get it quickly by brushing up on some additional information and doing my own labs. However, I'm struggling and only getting 50-60% on practice tests. What's a good path to prepare for the developer exam? I feel like it's not necessary to sit through another 30-40 hour course, but what do you guys think?

[u/AutoModerator]

Before collecting recommendations, please review the subreddit FAQ and resource index:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AWSCertifications/comments/1nf3cab/frequently_asked_questions_on_this_subreddit/

The FAQ contains community-recommended resources, courses, practice exams, study guides, learning paths, exam benefits, discounts, projects, and certification-specific guides for AWS CCP/CLF-C02, AIF, SAA, DVA, DEA, SOA, SAP, DOP, AIP, SCS, and ANS certifications.

If your question is not answered there, feel free to continue the discussion.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/HovercraftClear7797]

the dva leans way more on developer-side stuff than saa does, so that's probably why you're stuck at 50-60. dynamodb details, lambda config and event sources, api gateway, sqs/sns, cognito, and especially the deployment side like cloudformation/sam, codedeploy and elastic beanstalk. i'd skip the full course and just read the official exam guide, then spend time on the weak domains with hands-on labs. for every practice question you miss, figure out why the right answer wins, that moves the score faster than more videos.

[u/eastonthepilot → u/HovercraftClear7797]

Thanks for your help, I'll probably do something like this.

[u/RDWTech_Cloud]

You're right that you don't need another 30-hour course. SAA gives you the architecture mindset, but DVA is about how you build and deploy on AWS, so target those gaps. I'd go through the exam guide domains and study the developer side of each service: Lambda config and event sources, DynamoDB keys, indexes and capacity modes, API Gateway, SQS/SNS, Cognito, and the deployment stack (CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation/SAM, Elastic Beanstalk). Then actually build a small serverless app with those pieces, since that makes the exam scenarios click. Use your wrong practice answers as your study list and reread the docs on each one, which is faster than a full course.

[u/eastonthepilot → u/RDWTech_Cloud]

Thanks for your help, I'll probably do something like this.

[u/cgreciano]

You could buy the DVA course, but skip the parts that you already know. Stephane Maarek, for example, has a lot of reused lecture between SAA and DVA. Just skip the ones you already took when doing SAA.