ForcePrepare: Salesforce Advanced Certification DEV 501 FAQ

So essentially there are two certification tracks. For Developers there are two exams: the Force.com developer and advanced developer certification. For Business Consultants there are three exams: Administrator, Consultant and Advanced Administrator.

Force.com Developer exam is a prerequisite for the Force.com Advanced Developer exam. Administrator certification is a prerequisite the Advanced Administrator and Consultant certifications. Salesforce datasheet provides more details on different Salesforce Exam and their fee structure.

What all is included in the Advanced Force.com developer certification?

Force.com Advanced Developer credential encompasses the programmatic capabilities of the Force.com platform, including Apex and Visualforce. To earn this credential, a candidate must successfully complete three activities:

The Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Advanced Developer exam
The Advanced Developer programming assignment
The Advanced Developer essay exam

How many questions are there in the Force.com Advanced developer exam? What is the pass percentage?

There are 69 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions in the exam. You need to complete these questions in 120 minutes. The pass percentage is 73%, which means 51 correct answers are required to clear the exam. No hard-copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam. If you know the course material, you will find the time sufficient.

How much time is required to prepare for the Force.com Advanced Developer certification?

If you are a seasoned Force.com developer (with at least one year experience on the platform), you should be able to prepare for the exam in 3-4 weeks. These are just reference timelines, you may need more or less time based upon your specific experience, how much time you spend per day on preparation and whether you take any formal training.

What is the process to register for the exam? What is exam fees for the Force.com Advanced developer exam?

To register for the exam visit Webassessor . Create a new webassessor login. After you have created a login, you can choose the exam and a location convenient to you, pay the fees via the credit card to schedule the exam. Webassessor has testing centres across all major cities on the globe. The Advanced Developer certification exam is $400. If you take the preparatory classes, the price of the exam is included. The price of each exam includes 1 year of release-specific maintenance activities.

What is the syllabus for Salesforce Advanced Developer Exam?

Complete syllabus can be found in the Salesforce Advanced Developer study guide.

What type of questions are there in the exam? Force.com developer certification has multiple choice questions. They may have one correct answer or multiple correct answers. In case there are multiple correct answers, exam mentions the number of correct answers.

Try to develop a solid understanding of Visualforce, Apex and SOQL. As an example make sure you know

Force.com Apex Code Developer’s Guide – You must know this document from start to finish.
Visualforce Developer’s Guide – You must know this document from start to finish.
Force.com Developer Guide – You should read through this book also, as it has a lot of important concepts.

Salesforce Object Query Language – You must have good expertise on SOQL
Force.com Metadata API Developer’s Guide
Force.com Migration Tool Guide

Here are some topics covered in the exam:

Visualforce – know all of the components, how they are used and their attributes
Controllers – know the differences between custom controllers and extensions and how they function
Unit testing – how to write unit tests with proper test coverage
Email services – there are quite a few questions regarding inbound and outbound email
SOQL – you must know how to construct SOQL queries with and without related objects
Trigers – you must know what you can and cannot do with triggers. The order of execution is also important.
Classes, method and annotations – really understand well the classes section of the Apex Developer’s Guide

Is there any negative marking in the exam?

There is no negative marking in the exam. So you should attempt to answer all the questions.

Any additional sites?

Will the certification help me find a job?

Certifications from Salesforce are highly valued in the market. Although certification does not guarantee a (better) job, certification will definitely help you in landing up more interview calls. The number of people with Salesforce advanced developer certification is low, so this certification definitely helps you stand out in the crowd.

How often do the certification exams change?

Salesforce has three annual releases - Summer, Spring and Winter releases. Along with each of these releases, Salesforce also updates the certification exams.

What are the requirements for maintaining the certification?

To maintain your certification status, you will need to pay an annual fee of $100. Along with the three releases every year, Salesforce also launches release upgrade exams. You get one year to clear each of these release upgrade exams. You need to clear them to maintain your certification status.

What if I fail the exam?

Re-takes are available at a 50% discount

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