Linux Foundation Node.js Application Developer Certification (Part 3)

After a long delay, I am pleased to announce I am now a certified Node.js Applications Developer! In this final part I will go into detail on my testing experiences.

The study material in the bundled course covers pretty much exactly what you will encounter in the test, so you are not forced to use outside resources to suppliment your studying (with some exceptions) but there are recommended external resources in the exam guide given.

Registering for a exam time is quite seamless, although it will involve taking a photo of your ID or equivalent identification and uploading it to their platform. I didn't have a hard time finding a suitable slot for my timezone, so absolutely no stress there.

The test is administered on a software platform that you will need to install for the test. No more than one monitor is allowed (you will be given the recommended system requirements in the exam guide) and you will need to clear a work space that has no banned items such as: papers, wristwatches, headphones, books, etc.

A proctor will be watching you through your webcam. They will ask you to pan the camera around so they can verify that everything is up to their standards. Once they confirm this, they will release the test to you and you will have exactly 2 hours to finish all the assigned tasks. Make sure your workspace is comfortable, because you'll be there for a while. You can request breaks but they WILL eat into your exam time.

Since the test environment is being run in a virtual machine that you are accessing over the internet, you will have to mentally prepare yourself for the fact that it is going to be SLOW. for those of us in Nordic countries with funny keyboard layouts, you WILL have problems typing in special characters. be prepared to copy paste them from other parts of the assignments given.

In my first test attempt, I spent too much time getting frustrated with my keyboard troubles, and was instructed to use the on-screen keyboard in the VM. On my second test attempt however, I was instructed by my proctor that using the on-screen keyboard was AGAINST the rules. this incongruity struck me as quite odd, so be sure to be up-front with your questions when chatting with the proctor so you don't get blindsided with situations like this (and study the exam rules thoroughly!)

You will have access to the official documentation for Node.js, NPM and various testing packages. You are not allowed to go to any external sites that the documentation might link to. So if you are not comfortable parsing docs yet, you might want to practice that as well. You will most certainly need to rely on them at some point in the exam.

Time management will be important over that 2 hours. You will encounter 12+ questions, mostly small tasks but some will require a decent amount of time. Be sure to use the console to test your code as much as the time allows. If you have time left over after completing all the tasks, go back and review your solutions to make sure you didn't miss anything, but don't second guess yourself too much. I'm reasonably sure I lost a few points by breaking some solutions due to this over-thinking.

Luckily, with the purchase of the course you get one free re-take, so if you fall just short the first try you will have ample opportunity to study harder on the subjects you struggled with the first time around.

Overall, I would argue that the experience was worth it: I learnt new things about Node.js I never encountered before and got to reinforce my existing skills. Although I imagine the price can be reasonably off putting if you have to fork out the cash yourself!