Plan

Planning is important set a goal date to get the certification and work towards it. In my case I set a couple of weeks 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 might get full. But its better than the last year, so check availability and book it ahead of time. Yes you can reschedule it till 72 hours of the scheduled time or fees may apply. I tried rescheduling an hour before the exam it prompted it will have to cancel my current slot and then only I could choose a different time and charges were not shown till then. Support is always helpful reach out to them in unforeseen circumstances they will be able to help.

Prerequisites

This exam is intended for developers. Sitecore recommends to meet the following prerequisites to take the Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Certification Exam:

At least one-year of prior experience developing on the Sitecore XP solution.

Complete Sitecore Experience Platform—Technical modules
Developer’s Fundamentals 9.3 Collection
Developer’s Fundamentals 10 Collection

Preparation

Official Study Guide

The Study guide talks about the competencies and the expectation on each area for the exam with additional resources link to the documentation. If you follow this guide and cover all the areas mentioned you should be able to crack the exam.

Competency 1: Sitecore structure & platform 12%
Competency 2: Security & user management 16%
Competency 3: Item management 20%
Competency 4: Layouts & placeholders 10%
Competency 5: Components, controls, & renderings 26%
Competency 6: Sitecore Content Serialization 10%
Competency 7: Containers 6%

Study Guide: Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Certification Exam - Sitecore
https://learning.sitecore.com/exam/study-guide-sitecore-10-net-developer-certification-exam

UnOfficial Study Reference

Navan has put together a crash course and a presentation on it.
Video of the presetation
PDF

What's new ?

The major change from previous certification. There are not much hypothetical questions. Three new areas part of the core competencies and they are mostly on the basics.

Component and rendering development

• Headless is the main focus and mostly around ASP.NET core rendering
• I have not practically used other than theoretical knowledge which is good enough
  Ref:

https://doc.sitecore.com/en/developers/hd/190/sitecore-headless-development/headless-development-with-the-asp-net-rendering-sdk.html

Sitecore content serialization

• Get the basics about how to install, configure and use the content serialization.
• I am mostly a TDS user. I took this opportunity to learn and try out the new capability.
  Ref:

https://doc.sitecore.com/en/developers/102/developer-tools/sitecore-content-serialization.html

Containers

• Docker mostly on the development configuration and understanding on how to use it in your day to day development.
• Kubernetes basics on when and why its used. Also understanding on promoting images from docker to Kubernetes.
• I was lucky enough in this area since, I have been using it in my current project.
  Ref:

https://doc.sitecore.com/en/developers/102/developer-tools/containers-in-sitecore-development.html

Partner

Start with e-learning course Sitecore Experience Platform - Technical
https://learning.sitecore.com/pathway/sitecore-experience-platform--technical

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.

Non-Partner

Recently Sitecore launched a 25 hours free training and first two modules covers the competency requirements. It's still in beta but launched in time for the certification preparation.
https://learning.sitecore.com/pathway/sitecore-essentials

Even if you are an active Sitecore developer take the course it helps to brush up the knowledge and always something new to learn. The course is well curated to cover all the basics of Sitecore development. Practice question at the end of course for knowledge test will help.

The course covers most of the areas, but not much on the installation. I got a question around SIA the new Sitecore installer assistant which wasn't part of the modules. Lot of focus around the Items and template inheritance which is the core of the system. There will be scenario based questions. We have to be careful with the choice, we need to choose the recommended best practice.

The final practice questions give you a flavor of the exam

Certification

Format

The Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Certification Exam is a multiple-choice exam proctored through Kryterion Webassessor. To pass the exam and earn certification, you must score at least 80% on the multiple-choice test. If you score lower than 80%, you will have to repurchase the exam to try again.

Open or closed book?

The Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Certification Exam is closed book. You will not be allowed to refer to notes, study guides, training materials, web searches, Sitecore installations, or other software when taking the test on Kryterion Webassessor.

Certification Purchase

If you would like to purchase the Sitecore 10 .NET Developer Certification Exam itself, you can do that on Sitecore’s certification exam home page on Kryterion Webassessor.
https://www.webassessor.com/wa.do?page=publicHome&branding=SITECORE

Choose the Sitecore >NET Developer 10 Certification exam

Choose the best time that works for you

Pick the appropriate timezone or it will become a no show

If you are a partner use the partner coupon code it was shared in the October partner email update that will bring the cost down to 105$

Day of Certification

Ensure you are in a well lighted and a quite room. I preferred to take at late night when it is quite and not much of distractions. Ensure you lock the door so no one walks in by mistake. It would be better if you have an external camera. The proctor might ask you to show the room around before taking exam or if they have doubt they might pause your session and ask to show around.

Step 1:

Login to Kryterion Webassessor site. Home page you would see an option to download and install the Sentinel tool. Install it ahead of time.

Step 2:

Navigate to my assessments tab and you should see the following with a question icon.

Step 3:

Few minutes before the scheduled time you would see the launch button that you can click and get started with the exam.

Multiple monitors will be disabled on certification program launch only primary monitor will work

Ensure you have a working camera, microphone and speaker to communicate with the the proctor if any issues.

Do it with confidennce and patience. Wish you the best and Good luck.

Support

Please reach out the Learning@Sitecore team with any queries. They would be happy to help. Create a support case for Learning@Sitecore but expect 3-5 business day response time.
https://support.sitecore.com
https://learning.sitecore.com/contact_us.html