Hai all,
I've cleared the IBM XML exam - 141 today. Fortunately I just passed it. on dot with 65%, i donno which question saved me;-)
The paper was definitely tougher than the sample
test. In the sample test I scored 85% and you can check the difference for yourself.
The questions covered were:
- Architecture: Similar to something like a B2B application has to be designed. Which is the MOST likely alternative to be present in the design?
Which are the options which may NOT be part of the design.
What are the major issues a developer needs to focus on when he is working on an application which processes XML on server side and generates output in HTML.
- XML Schema/DTD: Good number of questions in this area.
What would be the correct representation of a the design of objects(a design diagram was attached) in the XML schema
If you want to make alterations to the entities declared which is the best way? modify the DTD or modify the entities in the XML instance document etc..
When would you use xsd:import instead of xsd:include?
Given a particular scenario when would you use SAX and when would you use DOM.
What is ParserAdapter? (I donno the answer yet)
How would you capture an attribute value in SAX2 (2 correct choices)
- XSL-FO and CSS: I got some questions on XSL-FO and CSS, so do have a look at these topics. I didn't study these so I had some trouble answering these questions
- XSLT: This was my weak area. The questions included XPath expressions which I could handle. Two questions on how will you read a XML document for XSLT which reads and then returns the root node, and how would you save multiple documents of XML using XSLT. the choices were like read("doc.xml"), parse("doc.xml"), save("doc.xml"), document("doc.xml") and nothing of such is specified in XSLT. This also contributed to good number of questions.
- Namespaces: Which of the following are the benefits of namespaces? (three correct answers). Included some two to three questions.
- SOAP/UDDI/Web Services: 3 to 4 questions.
- one question on XML signatures. What is the core requirement of XML Signature?
I don't think any questions from XPointers were asked. One question on XLink was asked. It was conceptual.
Overall 35-40% syntax oriented (mostly in XSLT/Schema/DTD) and the rest were conceptual.
Reference materials I used:
Professional XML 2 Ed.
XML in a nutshell
w3c specs for XML Schema, DOM, SAX.
www.w3schools.com - good for some quick reference
The topics I studied were Basic XML, DTD, Schemas, XSLT, XPath, XLink, XPointers, DOM, SAX. A brief overview on
SOAP & XML signatures.
I recommend reading XML in a nutshell to begin with. It's a very good book for basic XML, DTD, XPath, XLink, XPointers. Then you can refer to Professional XML 2 ed. But none of these cover XSLT extensively. May be you need to refer to
Java&XSLT or XSLT by oreilly. For schemas refer to Part 1 Schema Primer on w3c. It's really very good and I think it's vast enough.
Take the sample tests available on javaranch, witscale, and
www.skillometer.com. I initially took XML@whiz tests but i really didn't like the tool. Some of the answers are wrong and I used to lose the confidence. so i stopped looking at it. if interested you may try since there is no other tool.
I spent around 160 hours spread over 3 months. On the whole I went through the topics three times, first overview, second a bit deeper and last two weeks was a thorough study. I had some prior understanding of XML so it helped. It also played a spoilsport - I was a bit overconfident in the beginning.
I think this info would help the prospective XML professionals attain their goal. Let me know if you have any questions.
My sincere thanks to all the javaranchers who shared their ideas and clarified the doubts. This is a great place to visit.
Time for me to think of next certification, but after a break!
Good luck,
Rakesh.
[ August 20, 2002: Message edited by: Rakesh Gudur ]