Sitecore 9.3 Certification Tips and Tricks

by Balaji Kandasamy

Plan

Planning is important set a goal date to get the certification and work towards it. In my case I set a month time-line and tracked it every week about the progress. Be accountable to someone you trust. I have seen my friends even book the date and start preparing. Yes the exams are full so check availability and book it ahead of time. Yes you can reschedule it till 24 hours ahead of the scheduled time or fees may apply.

Prerequisite

Sitecore environment for working on the labs. Sitecore license, if you dont have apply for a trial license. Windows machine with Admin access, Visual Studio and SQL server.

Preparation

Start with e-learning course Sitecore Experience Platform - Technical

https://learning.sitecore.com/pathways

Enroll this course its free for partners, if you login with the company email address. Don't panic when you see its 3000$, add it to the cart and when you go to the check out page it gets waived.

Even if you are an active Sitecore developer take the course there is always something new to learn. The course is well curated to cover all the basics of Sitecore development with eight modules. Its a video course with instructors walking us through with a real life scenario. End of each module we will be presented with practice questions. Take a note of those questions it will help in reviewing it.

The course covers most of the areas, but not much on the installation or architecture scaling. I got a question around SIA the new Sitecore installer assistant which wasn't part of the modules. Good Idea have a look at the Helix principles too. Lot of weightage around the Items and template inheritance.

There will be scenario based questions. We have to be careful with the choice, it will have two possible answers, but we need to choose the recommended approach. Some hypothetical questions too.

Official Study Guide

https://sitecore.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/16000067853-sitecore-9-0-certified-platform-associate-developer-exam-study-guide-

Review

Go through the questions at the end of each module.

I used these flash card based learning after the completion of the modules. These help in learning the topics and don't expect the same in exam.

https://quizlet.com/388185178/sitecore-9-certification-questions-flash-cards/

https://www.cram.com/flashcards/sitecore-test-11437117

https://www.cram.com/flashcards/sitecore-9-developer-certification-11315700

Reference only and doesn't reflect the actual exam.

Exam Competencies

Competencies with % of Questions in each area.

Templates 19%

Presentation 18%

Fields and Field Types 13%

Search 11%

Development Environment 9%

Creating and Editing Items 8%

API 5%

xManagement 5%

Architecture 4%

Publishing 2%

Versioning 2%

Installation 1%

Media 1%

Module Packages 1%

Sitecore Documentation and Support 1%

Exam

The exam has 50 questions to be completed in 90minutes. It is a closed book with a pass percentage to score is 80%. This means you need to get 40 out of 50 questions to pass. The exam costs $300 and if you fail, you will have to pay for the exam again.

The exam can be taken in two ways

  • Testing center
  • Online Proctored Exams

I personally recommend taking Online proctored which was easy and convinient.This can be taken anytime and any day but has to be booked ahead of time.

Tip: If you see slots months away. Keep checking the slots every day. Lot of slots free up when people reschedule. I was able to find a slot for the next day and I booked it right away.

During the exam, if you’re stuck on a question mark it for review and you can check that again later. You will have enough time to review. I completed my exam in 30 minutes and reviewed it for 10 minutes. As soon as you hit the submit button, your score is presented to you. Assuming you are pass you receive an email containing your certification from both Sitecore and Kryterion.

Exam Registration

Exam Day

  • Ensure the basic requirement of the webassesor is met.
  • https://sitecore.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/16000014810-setting-up-your-computer-for-the-online-proctored-exam
  • Install the sentinel client on the machine you plan to take the exam
  • Web cam and microphone is mandatory. I used my work laptop and had no issues
  • Ensure the room is well light and have a clean desk
  • Ensure you have good internet bandwidth
  • The exam tool will block all other apps and secondary monitors will not work
  • There will a person monitoring you via the web cam and might ask you to take the camera and show around
  • Ensure to login 15 minutes prior the exam scheduled time. The launch button in the webassessor site will activate few minutes before the scheduled time.
  • Relax and take the exam
  • On completion you will see the results
  • The certificate will be sent as an email or can be downloaded later from both the sites.
  • https://learning.sitecore.com/user/learning/achievement

All the best with your certification