Few days ago, I passed the Sitecore 9.0 Certified Platform Associate Developer exam and I would like to share my experience and some important details about the exam with you. 🙂
What is Sitecore Certified Platform Associate Developer certification?
The Sitecore Certified Platform Associate Developer is the certification that validates your skills and knowledge of building solutions with Sitecore XP and related products. It is recommended to have it if you are a developer and you want to build MVC solutions that integrate with the Content Management System and marketing capabilities of Sitecore.
How many versions of the certification are available?
If you decide to take the exam, you can choose between 3 certifications:
- Sitecore® 8.2 Professional Developer
- Sitecore® 9.0 Certified Platform Associate Developer
- Sitecore® 9.1 Certified Platform Associate Developer
There is one certification per version of Sitecore. When I started preparing for the exam, Sitecore 9.1 was not released, so I went for Sitecore 9.0.
Exam fee
First, you have to register at https://www.webassessor.com. The exam costs $300 per attempt and you can retake the exam as many times as you want until you pass it.
Schedule the exam
There are 2 options offered by Kryterion Global Testing Solutions for taking the exam:
- Online proctored:
- If you choose this option, you can take the exam anywhere in the world from your home or office, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. Certified proctors will verify your identity and monitor your exam session in real time to ensure a fair test.
- You need to have a webcam and install the Kryterion Sentinel software.
- Onsite proctored
- There are more than 900 physical Testing Centers worldwide.
If you decide to go for the certification, I suggest you to schedule a date and a hour for your exam depending on your availability. This will motivate you to go through the study materials and dedicate enough time for preparations.
The exam
It’s a one hour and a half exam, but you probably won’t need that much time. It took me around one hour including reviewing my answers. You can skip questions or mark them for review.
There are 50 multiple choice questions in total and the passing mark is 80%, so you need 40 correct answers.
The Sitecore Certified Platform Associate Developer exam is closed book. You will not be allowed to refer to notes, books, training materials, web searches, Sitecore installations or other software, etc. during the exam.
Exam competencies:
Exam preparation and personal tips
If you have the chance to work on a real Sitecore Project, this will be the best preparation, because most of the questions are practical. Also it helps if you already have ASP.NET and MVC knowledge; otherwise reserve more time for preparations, because you will need it.
Taking into consideration my experience, I recommend to:
- download the Exam Study Guide that is very helpful in terms of what to study and how to prepare better for the exam.
- enroll on Elearning Platform and go for the free training. It is a basic one but it’s very helpful if you don’t have previous experience with Sitecore. It will teach you how to set-up a local Sitecore instance and how to use the Content Editor interface.
- after finishing the free course, take the paid one (it costs $1500). It is the advanced option and you will have 8 courses with a lab for each of them in order to practice the skills. The training contains videos and demos.
Solving all the labs will make you to understand better how Sitecore works and you’ll also have a nice first project at the end of it.
There are also quizzes for each module. Practice the questions and you’ll have no problems passing the exam.
I recommend you to use all the official Sitecore documentation if you have additional questions:
- dev.sitecore.net – Sitecore Developer Network (Sitecore® Experience PlatformTM 8.0 or later)
- doc.sitecore.net/developers – Sitecore Documentation Site (Sitecore® Experience Platform 9.0)
- sdn.sitecore.net – Sitecore Developer Network (Prior to Sitecore® Experience PlatformTM 8.0)
- kb.sitecore.net – Sitecore Knowledge Base
- youtube.com/mastersitecore – Master Sitecore YouTube channel
- helix.sitecore.net – Helix Documentation Site (Habitat)
Exam results
After submitting the exam, you will receive an email with the results and with the Certification attached is case of success. The certificate used to have an expiration date, but it doesn’t have it anymore.
Take the exam!
Don’t hesitate and take the Certification. It is not mandatory in order to be a Sitecore Developer/Architect, but for sure it gives you more visibility and credibility within the marketplace.
The preparations really help you to understand better how a WCMS works.
Good luck! 😉
