If you are studying for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional or the AWS Certified Developer Associate right now, your exam has a shutdown date. AWS has confirmed that SAP-C02 can be taken until 17 November 2026 and DVA-C02 until 1 December 2026. Registration for both replacements, SAP-C03 and DVA-C03, opens on 27 October 2026.
The short answer on whether to sit the old exam: if you are already well into your preparation and can book before the cutoff, sit it. The certification you earn is identical either way, because the badge names the certification, not the exam code. If you are starting from cold, do not rush a professional-level exam into ten weeks. Wait for the new exam guide on 27 October and study against the real objectives.
There is a third exam in the same wave that almost nobody is talking about, and it has the tightest deadline of the three. The AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate moves from MLA-C01 to MLA-C02, and the last day to sit MLA-C01 in English is 28 September 2026.
Every AWS exam change date that matters in 2026
AWS is updating three exams in this round to reflect how cloud roles have changed. Each follows the same pattern: registration for the new version opens, the old version stops on a fixed date, and the new version begins the next day.
| Exam | Outgoing code | New code | Registration opens | Last day for the old exam | New version begins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning Engineer Associate | MLA-C01 | MLA-C02 | 1 September 2026 | 28 September 2026 (English) | 29 September 2026 (beta) |
| Solutions Architect Professional | SAP-C02 | SAP-C03 | 27 October 2026 | 17 November 2026 | 17 November 2026 |
| Developer Associate | DVA-C02 | DVA-C03 | 27 October 2026 | 1 December 2026 | 1 December 2026 |
MLA-C02 begins as a beta on 29 September 2026. AWS has not published a general availability date for it yet.
Exam Tip: Book early. Test centre and online proctored slots for a retiring AWS exam get scarce in the final fortnight, and the cutoff is the last day you can sit it, not the last day you can book it.
What AWS has published about SAP-C03 and DVA-C03, and what it has not
AWS has committed to the dates. It has not yet published the content.
The full exam guides for SAP-C03 and DVA-C03, including the domain names and their percentage weightings, arrive on 27 October 2026, the same day registration opens. Until then, any site listing SAP-C03 domain weightings is guessing.
What AWS has said is that the update reflects how cloud roles have evolved, and its wider 2026 certification programme gives a strong steer on direction. AWS has added the Certified Generative AI Developer Professional certification, refreshed the Security Specialty exam with expanded AI security coverage, and added Amazon Bedrock AgentCore to refreshed exam content. Generative and agentic AI services are the obvious growth area across the portfolio.
Treat that as a reasonable expectation rather than a published fact. Nothing in the new outlines is confirmed until 27 October.
Should you sit SAP-C02 before 17 November 2026?
Sit it if you have already put the hours in. The Solutions Architect Professional is a 180-minute, 75-question exam costing 300 USD, with a pass mark of 750 out of 1,000. Candidates who reach that mark have usually spent two to four months on it. Ten weeks from a standing start is not a realistic plan for this exam, and a failed attempt costs you the fee and the deadline.
The current SAP-C02 domains are weighted as follows:
- Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity, 26%
- Design for New Solutions, 29%
- Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions, 25%
- Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization, 20%
Two of those four domains, the migration and continuous improvement pair, are where most existing study material is weakest and where AWS service coverage moves fastest. If your notes were written for SAP-C01, they were already out of date before this announcement.
The decision comes down to three cases:
- You are booked or nearly ready. Sit SAP-C02. You get a current, complete exam guide and years of community write-ups, which SAP-C03 will not have until well into 2027.
- You are two months in but not confident. Book a date in early November anyway. It gives you a hard target, and if you fail, the SAP-C03 guide is out by then and your study time carries over.
- You have not started. Wait. Read the SAP-C03 guide on 27 October and build a plan against it.
Should you sit DVA-C02 before 1 December 2026?
DVA-C02 gives you two extra weeks, and it is a far more approachable exam: 130 minutes, 65 questions, 150 USD, with a pass mark of 720 out of 1,000. Thirteen weeks is enough to prepare for an associate-level exam if you already write code against AWS services.
The DVA-C02 domains are weighted as follows:
- Development with AWS Services, 32%
- Security, 26%
- Deployment, 24%
- Troubleshooting and Optimization, 18%
Security at 26% is the part candidates consistently underestimate. IAM policy evaluation, KMS, Secrets Manager and Cognito account for more of the DVA-C02 scored content than deployment does.
If you want a week-by-week structure for the outgoing version, our 8-week DVA-C02 study plan fits inside the remaining window with time to spare.
MLA-C01 has 26 days left, not ten weeks
This is the one to act on now. The last day to sit MLA-C01 in English is 28 September 2026. MLA-C01 is a 130-minute, 65-question exam costing 150 USD.
If you are mid-preparation, finish and book. If you are not, the sensible move is to sit MLA-C02 during its beta from 29 September, accepting that beta results take longer to arrive than a standard exam and that no third-party material exists yet. Our MLA-C01 study plan still covers the machine learning engineering fundamentals that will carry into the new version.
AWS has been aggressive with its machine learning credentials this year. The Machine Learning Specialty was retired and replaced by MLA-C01, and MLA-C01 is now being replaced in turn after roughly two years.
What happens to the certification you already hold
Nothing. This is the question that generates the most panic and it has the least interesting answer.
An AWS certification is valid for three years from the date you pass, regardless of which exam version you sat. Your digital badge says AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional. It does not say SAP-C02. Employers verifying your credential see the certification and its expiry date.
When you recertify, you sit whatever version is current at that point. Somebody who passes SAP-C02 on 16 November 2026 holds the same certification, with the same three-year validity, as somebody who passes SAP-C03 in January 2027.
How to use the next ten weeks
- Check your booking window today. If you are targeting an outgoing exam, get the date in the diary before slots thin out.
- Stop buying material for the old codes. A DVA-C02 course bought in September has a ten-week shelf life. Practice questions built on the underlying services keep their value; anything organised strictly around the old domain structure does not.
- Diarise 27 October. That is when the SAP-C03 and DVA-C03 exam guides publish, and it is the first day anything concrete can be said about the new content.
- Work on services, not on exam codes. The IAM, VPC, Lambda and Bedrock knowledge you build now transfers to whichever version you end up sitting.
If you are earlier in the AWS path, the associate architect exam is unaffected by this round of changes and remains the sensible foundation. Our SAA-C03 practice exam course and the matching 8-week SAA-C03 study plan are the place to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the latest changes to AWS certifications?
AWS is replacing three exams between September and December 2026. MLA-C01 ends on 28 September 2026, SAP-C02 on 17 November 2026 and DVA-C02 on 1 December 2026. Registration for SAP-C03 and DVA-C03 opens on 27 October 2026, which is also when their exam guides are published.
What is the minimum passing score for the AWS DVA-C02 exam?
DVA-C02 requires a scaled score of 720 out of 1,000. The exam has 65 questions and a 130-minute time limit. Not every question is scored, because AWS includes unscored items that do not affect your result.
What is the hardest AWS certification to get?
The Solutions Architect Professional is widely considered the hardest, and its numbers support that: 75 scenario questions in 180 minutes leaves about 2 minutes 24 seconds per question, and the questions run to several paragraphs each. The pass mark of 750 out of 1,000 is also higher than the associate-level exams.
Will my SAP-C02 certification still be valid after SAP-C03 launches?
Yes. AWS certifications are valid for three years from the pass date and the version you sat does not appear on the badge. A SAP-C02 pass in November 2026 stays valid until November 2029, at which point you recertify against whatever exam is current.
Should I wait for SAP-C03 instead of sitting SAP-C02?
Wait only if you have not started studying. New AWS exam versions launch with no community write-ups and no third-party question banks, so you would be preparing against the official guide alone for several months. If you are already well into SAP-C02 preparation, finish it.
Ready to Start Practising?
Exam changes reward the people who were already prepared and punish the ones who were still thinking about it. Whichever version you sit, the deciding factor is how many realistic scenario questions you have worked through before exam day.
CertCrush gives you exam-style practice questions with full explanations, so you find your weak domains while there is still time to fix them. Create your free account and start practising today.