Spring Professional Certification Exam

General, Spring Certification, , ,

With Spring Framework gaining recognition day by day, getting certified will be one of the most valuable credentials in Java.

Can I write this exam?

One of the pre-requisites to write this exam is to have a training taken from SpringSource on Core Spring. If that’s the case, why should we have a book which also aims at helping readers to prepare for SpringSource Certification? Earlier there was an alternative which is called “Grandfathered” candidate, whereby an individual having adequate Proficiency evaluated by SpringSource could by-pass the training and get the exam voucher. While writing this book, I could read from SpringSource website that this is no longer applicable. Even after the training I feel there are so much required to actually pass the exam and get good score in the certification. The class manual is too easy and doesn’t cover edge cases so clearly isn’t sufficient. This book also goes into details of each objectives on which the exam is based.

How many questions?

There are a total of 50 questions to be answered. The questions are organized by subject areas detailed in the exam certification study guide provided by SpringSource.

Following that philosophy, here’s the distribution for Spring 3 as per Jeanne Boyarsky’s Spring 3.X Certification Experiences (http://www.selikoff.net/2010/08/20/jeannes-core-spring-3-certification-experiences/):

  • Container and test (20)
  • AOP (10)
  • JDBC (3)
  • Transactions (4)
  • Web (2)
  • REST (2)
  • Remoting  (2)
  • Security (2)
  • JMS (2)
  • JMX (2)

How much time do I get to write this exam?

You get total of 90 minutes to complete the exam, even reading the rules. Most people wont find this a problem, because usually these are not tricky, long or complicated.

How are the questions like?

The questions are aimed at testing the candidate’s depth and the actual working knowledge in Spring Framework. Each question has four answer choices. Even though it is multiple choices, it cannot be thought that you need to choose only one right answer. Answering a question makes the type of questions as follows:-

  • Select one answer
  • Select X answers
  • Select one or more answers (Very hard and tricky)
  • Select the one that is not correct (make sure that you read the question carefully to fall into wrong selection)

Most of the questions are fairly at a high level with few detailed ones. Usually it doesn’t stray from the course or study guide.

How many questions do I have to answer correctly?

The passing score for the exam is 76%. This boils down to 38 correct answers out of 50 questions. At the time of writing this book, all questions were equally scored, so 38/50 would give you the passing score for the exam.

How much does it cost?

In the case of Spring Certification it’s very tricky. As mentioned earlier the pre-requisites for taking this exam is training from SpringSource on Core Spring. According to various factors this can change. So it will not be a good idea to give an exact figure for the certification exam. If you have taken the training you get a voucher containing one free attempt at the certification test. Retakes are usually $150, I think that would be one of the reasons you need this book.

How can I register for the exam?

Once you get the exam voucher, you can register at any certified spring certification center. The exam can be taken at one of over 4500 world-wide testing facilities (http://www.pearsonvue.com/springsource/).

Exam resources available

You can get various resources which will be of help to you in the spring certification guide (http://www.springsource.com/files/core-spring-3.0-certification-study-guide_0.pdf) itself. Some very good links and resource locations are given below:

Spring Certification Path

SpringCertification

Figure 1 SpringSource Developer Certification Path

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Tomcy John

Blogger & Author at javacodebook
He is an Enterprise Java Specialist holding a degree in Engineering (B-Tech) with over 10 years of experience in several industries. He's currently working as Principal Architect at Emirates Group IT since 2005. Prior to this he has worked with Oracle Corporation and Ernst & Young. His main specialization is on various web technologies and acts as chief mentor and Architect to facilitate incorporating Spring as Corporate Standard in the organization.
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19 thoughts on “Spring Professional Certification Exam”

  1. Pingback: SpringSource Certified Spring Professional | Jakub Staš

  4. Is mandatory to take the Spring Core exam first of all? or instead if someone already know about spring core can take the Spring integration exam (after take the course)?

    Reply

    1. Hi Jose Antonio,
      it is strongly suggested by pivotal to take first the Spring Core Course and Spring Core Certification ! However, you can try to jump straight to the Spring Integration one, if you want.
      We use Spring Integration all the time and I can tell the certification has an higher degree of complexity if you do not know the basic properly.

      David, author at
      http://www.springmockexams.com

      Reply

  6. Hello guys,

    I am David the Creator of Spring Mock Exams.

    As you may know Pivotal has updated the Spring Certification from Version 3.2 to Version 4.0.

    So at http://www.springmockexams.com we did the upgrade too!

    Soon our Web Simulator will be released with a new set of Spring Certification Questions that reflect the new CoreSpringV4.0 exam certification.

    Stay tuned and visit: https://www.springmockexams.com/spring/mock/spring-mock-exam.html to see the new CoreSpringV4.0 exam simulator.

    David.

    Reply

  9. Hello Tomcy,
    Can you please explain what are the differences between spring 3.2 exam and spring 4 exam. I got training from Pivotal and received “core-spring-4.0.b.RELEASE-student-handout”.
    Exam 3.2 is SpringSource Exam where as Exam 4.0 is Pivotal exam. Does exam pattern got changed in version 4?
    I am little confused and not sure what extra preparation is required for exam version 4.

    Thanks,
    Suman

    Reply

    1. Hi Suman,
      if you have got the core-spring-4.0.b.RELEASE-student-handout it means you have taken part to the Spring4 course. Do not worry about the fact that the course it is now under the “Pivotal” name. Pivotal acquired SpringSource and so the name changed. You can definitely go for the Spring4 exam!
      Here is a link to our CertificationSimulator for the Pivotal Spring 4 exam:

      https://www.springmockexams.com/spring/mock/spring-mock-exam.html

      David Mayer

      Reply

  10. I am working on Spring Framework from more than 2 years now and worked on Spring MVC, Spring Security and Spring REST modules. I wish to appear for the exam, now by going though this link I got enough fair idea that I need to take “Spring Professional” exam first and then “Spring Secialist” and then “Expert”.

    For making preparation, I’m just following “spring docs” nothing else. Is there any free online simulator or dumps that will help to pass this exam?

    Any quick inputs are much appreciated.

    Reply

  11. Hello,

    How can I get the following exam dumps of Spring Framework certifications?
    – Spring Professional (Spring Core 3.2.x or 4.0.x) ?
    – Spring Specialist (Enterprise Integration with Spring)
    – Spring Expert (Hibernate with Spring)?

    Reply

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