AWS has announced revisions to two of its most popular certifications: Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02 → SAP-C03) and Developer – Associate (DVA-C02 → DVA-C03). This article collects what is publicly known right now, from the official blog post and the certification pages.
Neither exam guide is published yet. The official blog states that the full exam guide, including detailed task statements, will be released on October 27, 2026, when registration opens. Everything below is based solely on the official blog (English and Japanese editions) and the certification pages. I'll update this article once the guides are out.
1. SAP-C03 (Solutions Architect – Professional)
Dates and format
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Registration opens | October 27, 2026 (all languages) |
| Last day to take SAP-C02 | November 16 — see note below |
| SAP-C03 available | November 17 |
| Duration | 180 minutes |
| Questions | 75 |
| Price | 300 USD |
The format is unchanged from the current exam.
Why the revision
The blog states that today's architects "don't just design highly available, cost-effective systems — they integrate generative AI and agentic architectures and implement post-quantum cryptography."
What's being added
| Area | New skills | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI and agentic AI | 11 | Generative AI integration design with Amazon Bedrock, AI agent architectures with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, RAG architectures, content filtering with Bedrock Guardrails, human-oversight workflows for AI operations |
| Resilience engineering | — | AWS Fault Injection Service, AWS Resilience Hub, Application Recovery Controller, automated runbooks with Systems Manager |
| Cloud-native patterns | 7 | Serverless data pipelines, durable workflows with Step Functions, service mesh with VPC Lattice and ECS Service Connect, container image security, multi-tenant architectures, real-time data architectures |
| DevSecOps and observability | 6 | Pipeline vulnerability scanning, multi-account deployment pipelines, container monitoring, AI/ML metrics monitoring, synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring |
| Data and analytics | 3 | Lakehouse with Lake Formation and Apache Iceberg, real-time and batch analytics pipelines, cross-account data sharing with AWS Clean Rooms |
| Post-quantum cryptography | — | ML-DSA and ML-KEM support in AWS KMS |
The largest addition is generative AI and agentic AI, at 11 new skills.
Domain structure
The current four domains of SAP-C02 are reorganized into five:
- Design and implement cloud-native architectures
- Security, compliance, and governance
- Design cost-optimized architectures
- Resilience, migration, and business continuity
- Operational excellence and automation
Domain weightings are not stated in the blog.
Target candidate
Two or more years of experience designing and implementing cloud solutions on AWS. Candidates are expected to evaluate requirements and provide guidance on cloud-native, serverless, and AI-integrated architectures.
2. DVA-C03 (Developer – Associate)
Dates and format
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Registration opens | October 27, 2026 (all languages) |
| Last day to take DVA-C02 | November 30 — see note below |
| DVA-C03 available | December 1 |
| Duration | 130 minutes |
| Questions | 65 (50 scored + 15 unscored) |
| Price | 150 USD |
| Passing score | 720 / 1000 |
The format is unchanged from the current exam.
Why the revision
The blog positions AI-assisted development as "a core competency, not an optional add-on," and describes today's developers as using AI-assisted development tools to generate, review, and optimize code, and integrating managed AI services into applications.
Main changes
New Task 2.3: AI Security (5 skills)
- Managing access to AI services
- Data privacy controls (VPC endpoints, ensuring inputs and outputs are not used for model training)
- Content filtering and prompt-injection defenses
- Securing AI agent interactions (tool-use authorization, session isolation, human-in-the-loop approval flows)
- Protecting sensitive information in monitoring logs
AI-assisted development across all domains
| Domain | Added |
|---|---|
| D1 | Code generation and automated review |
| D3 | Test automation and regression testing, automated deployment approvals in CI/CD |
| D4 | Error analysis and troubleshooting, performance optimization suggestions |
Stronger container coverage
Building and managing images in ECR, and deploying containerized applications on ECS, EKS, and Fargate.
Newly in-scope services
Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Amazon Q, Kiro, Amazon Data Firehose, AWS PrivateLink
Consolidation
Existing content is trimmed significantly.
| Area | DVA-C02 | DVA-C03 |
|---|---|---|
| DynamoDB | 4 skills | 1 skill |
| Security (encryption, sensitive data) | 2 tasks / 13 skills | 1 task / 7 skills |
| Testing | 2 tasks / 11 skills | 1 task / 5 skills |
| Observability | 8 skills | 5 skills |
| Optimization | 9 skills | 6 skills |
Domain structure
Unchanged.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Development with AWS Services | 30% |
| Security | 26% |
| Testing and Deployment | 22% |
| Troubleshooting and Optimization | 22% |
Explicitly out of scope
Prompt engineering, RAG design, AI model selection, Amazon SageMaker AI, and AI governance framework design.
The boundary with MLA-C02 is deliberate: DVA is limited to using, integrating, and securing AI.
Target candidate
One or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining applications on AWS, plus proficiency in at least one programming language, experience with AI-assisted development tools, and an understanding of CI/CD pipelines.
3. A discrepancy in the last-day dates
For the last day to take SAP-C02, the blog says November 16 while the certification page says November 17. The same one-day gap exists for DVA-C02 (November 30 vs. December 1). Check the actual deadline on the registration screen.
4. An instructor's read
The thing to watch in this revision is the addition of AI.
As of September 1, 2026, AWS had already announced a new AI certification (AI Business Strategist) and an update to an existing one (MLA-C02). Now AI has reached SAP and DVA — certifications that are not AI-specific.
AI-assisted development is standard practice today, and the exams are catching up. For SAP, generative AI and agentic AI is the largest new area; for DVA, AI security is a brand-new task.
Wrapping up
- SAP-C03 launches November 17 and DVA-C03 launches December 1; registration and the exam guides arrive October 27
- Duration, question count, and price are unchanged for both
- SAP-C03 moves from 4 to 5 domains; the biggest addition is generative AI and agentic AI (11 skills), plus post-quantum cryptography
- DVA-C03 keeps its domain weightings; AI security is a new task and AI-assisted development runs through every domain, while existing content is consolidated
- DVA explicitly excludes prompt engineering, RAG design, and SageMaker AI — that's MLA-C02's territory
I'll update this article when the exam guides are published.
References
- New courses and certification updates from AWS Training and Certification in September 2026
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (certification page)
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate (certification page)
About the author
Maruchin Tech — 12x AWS Certified | Cloud & AI for manufacturing and supply chain (AWS / Google Cloud / Azure) | Udemy instructor (100K+ students)
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