How to ace your Sitecore .Net Developer 10 Certification Exam

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I have been a Sitecore developer for five years and worked on various Sitecore projects, yet every time I take the certification exam it makes me nervous. From my conversations with the other Sitecore developers I worked with, even the most experienced Sitecore developers are nervous about failing the certification exam. They try to avoid taking the exam unless absolutely necessary. A few reasons for this could be,

  • The exam is too expensive to fail. Most employers will only reimburse the fee for successful certification attempts.
  • The score required to pass the exam is quite high (80%) compared to your academic exams. 
  • The Sitecore training modules for exam competencies can be expensive.
  • Not everyone gets a chance to work on the latest version of Sitecore.
  • The exam competencies include areas of Sitecore you never had a chance to work on.
In this blog post I will share my most recent experience of preparing and successfully completing the Sitecore .NET 10 Developer certification exam. You can find numerous blogs on the internet that explain the exam competencies and format. Here are some fantastic blogs that cover these,
Instead of repeating the same content already covered by others I am going to talk about how to prepare for the exam and pass it without spending any $$ on the paid training. Here are my tips and tricks for acing the test.

Book your exam slot early

The certification exam is offered through a third-party Kryterion Webassessor. The certification can be taken at home if you meet the hardware equipment requirements like external webcam mentioned on the Kryterion website or at one of the testing centres near you. The testing centres usually offer multiple certification exams, not just Sitecore and can be booked out quickly. Make sure you are booking your slot at least one month in advance.

Look for discounts offered by Sitecore

The certification exam can be quite expensive (USD350 at the time of writing this post), especially if your employer is not covering the cost. From time-to-time Sitecore offers discounts on the exam vouchers. I booked mine when there was a 20% discount sale. You can also attempt the certification exam at Sitecore annual major events like SUGCON and Symposium usually at 50% discount.

Set a concrete exam date and don't change it

Once booked, the exam can be rescheduled any number of times 72 hours before the exam time without any penalty. If you booked your exam through a voucher, you can't reschedule the exam beyond the voucher expiry date. However, sticking to a deadline helps you with focusing on the preparation and achieve your goal on time. I personally was quite nervous about the test and rescheduled my exam multiple times. Once I couldn't reschedule the exam due to voucher expiry, I was lot more focussed and started setting time aside to prepare for exam out of work hours and weekends.

Get a preparation buddy

It's easier to prepare for the exam with a buddy than doing it alone. Find a partner who wants to take the exam with you or just help you with preparing for the exam. You will remember the topics longer when you discuss it with others. I am lucky in this regard as I have a Sitecore developer wife who also prepared with me for the exam.

Preparing for the exam

You can start by going through the competencies on the exam guide and % of questions you can expect from each competency. Identify your strong and weak areas in each competency and allocate time accordingly. While Sitecore paid trainer led training is a great way to prepare for the exam if you can afford it, you don't need to purchase the training to be successful. Here are the ways that helped me pass.

Watch a lot of YouTube videos

Yes, I am not kidding. I watched hours of YouTube videos to prepare for the exam. Just make sure those videos are Sitecore related. There are numerous videos that cover the exam competencies and the type of questions you can expect. These are a good starting point for your preparation. Here are some of the channels and videos I referred to.
Trust me on this. There is no better training material than the Sitecore documentation. The documentation is so huge, it's impossible for anyone to go through everything. However, it can be quite useful if you focus on the competencies, you are weak at. For e.g., in my case, I didn't have any experience working with the Sitecore Content Serialization. The documentation on this topic was only a few pages and the questions were straight out of the documentation.

Get your hands dirty

You can watch as many YouTube videos and read as much documentation, but you will forget everything you learnt in a few weeks to months' time unless you try the topics hands-on. I have been working on Sitecore for a long-time but never got a chance to work on ASP.Net Rendering Host which is one of the topics in major competencies. The only way I could understand and remember the topic was by trying it out by setting up a docker environment using the Getting Started template. You can find the documentation on Sitecore Walkthrough: Using the Getting Started template (sitecore.com).
If you can't run the docker environment due to licensing or hardware limitations, at least go through the solution files in the Getting Started template to understand the solution structure and the various projects and files the documentation talks about.

Practice! Practice! Practice!

Spend as much time you spent to prepare on the practice exams too. You can find a sample practice questions on the exam Study Guide. I personally used Quizlet website for practice test. There are tens of practice tests and study material on Quizlet for Sitecore. Some of the tests are for Sitecore 9 certification but don't skip those. Majority of the questions for both exams are the same (Trust me on this, I passed both the tests) except for the new topics only available on Sitecore 10. Just search for Sitecore on Quizlet and practice every test you can find repeatedly until you get 100% score in each test. Go back and study the topics you are failing on the practice test, and re-attempt until you get 100% score.
Some of the content on Quizlet is only available for their paid subscribers. However, you can get a 7-day free trial account to access this content for free. Make sure you register for free trial the week before your exam so that you can practice the test till the last date.

On the exam day

Arrive early

I personally stop preparing for the exam the day before to keep my head clear and not to confuse myself with new topics. Arrive early at the test centre to avoid any unforeseen issues like public transport or traffic delays. On my exam day I planned to reach the centre half an hour early but reached on the minute due to train cancellations and delays with replacement buses. 

Don't get stressed about things out of your control

In case of these issues stay calm, call the test centre to advise them of the delays. Most of the times they will be happy to reschedule to a later time on the day. The slots they give are generally for their capacity planning purposes, the exam won't automatically start on that time. Don't be surprised if you face any technical issues with the exam software. There may be a power or network outage during the exam. The test centre will help you with any of these issues and will reschedule the exam.

Take your time to answer the questions

The exam duration is 100 minutes. However, if you prepared well, you only need 60 minutes or less to answer the questions. Don't rush to finish the exam in half time as you may find the questions familiar if you did the practice tests. There are some questions which are tricky and may be worded differently. When in doubt mark the question for review and come back to it after you finish the other questions.
Only click submit after you are sure about all the answers and reviewed all the questions marked for review later.

If you follow these tips, you can ace the exam with flying colours. By following the above I was able to score 100% in all the competencies.

Celebrate success!

And last but not the least, celebrate your success with a celebratory lunch or dinner. Getting certified is a significant milestone in your career and distinguish you from others in the marketplace.

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