Spring Professional 5.0 Certification

[Ankur R Jain]

Guys, I was thinking to go for Spring Professional v5.0 certification exam as it isn't mandatory anymore to go through the expensive training pivotal provides.
I would like to have some recommendation in terms of study material for this exam / spring 5.0. Also, please suggest if it is worth to go for this certification.

Requesting you all to guide me.

[Pete Letkeman]

Welcome to CodeRanch Ankur.

There is some debate as to the value of certifications. Some companies like them some do no even care about them.

With Spring 5 being relatively new I would be someone what surprised if there was a full study guide for the exam covering all the topics listed here
https://pivotal.io/training/certification under "Spring Professional" for Spring 5.0.

Pivotal has stated what the broad topics for Spring 5 certification are in an 11 page PDF date January 2018 which should help point you in the correct direction.
Using this PDF you may be able to learn the material well enough for the exam.

That being said, if you are unable to find a study guide for the Spring 5 exam I would suggest that you find one for the Spring 4.3 which was published recently.
I'm 100% sure that this won't be correct or enough for the Spring 5 exam, but it's a place to start. I know that one of the big things for Spring 5 is "Reactive".

[Ankur R Jain]

Thanks Pete.

Yes, I couldn't find a study guide for version 5.0 with the content relevant to exam. I've started studying with 'Pro Spring 5 (Apress)'.
It has lot of extra stuff so I am thinking to have exam specific content from somewhere.

I will definitely look at the link and try to compare study guide with the contents of book, and try to get hold of missing topics from spring.io docs.

I will have to spend more time in preparing for the exam as finding the content itself seems a bit challenging for now.  

[Curtis Jackson]

Hi Ankur

Did you end up taking this test. If so, what did you use to study for it?

[Ankur R Jain]

Curtis Jackson wrote:Hi Ankur

Did you end up taking this test. If so, what did you use to study for it?

Hi Curtis,

I didn't take this test, got a little side-tracked due to work. Looking forward to take it in near future, however there are issues in terms of content available on internet for spring certifications so I am a bit worried for this one as opposed to oca and ocp.

-Ankur

[Peter Rooke]

I passed the previous version of the exam a few years back.  Found the exam quite a challenge as it required detailed knowledge of a wide variety of subjects.

From what I recall, the course and exam covered the spring frameworks support for;

Spring configuration, Java config, component scanning, XML.
Spring container, bean lifecycle
Testing
AOP
Data access; JDBC, JPA, [some spring data]
Security
Web
Web Services; REST and SOAP
JMS and messaging
JMX
RMI
Transactions (and not just database ones)

[Laurynas Robotas]

If somebody else will take spring exam, please post as there are little to no stories on internet I am was thinking about 4.3 myself, but currently don't have the time, but will start during the summer. By the way, there is a github link, where a guy just summarized his notes: https://github.com/vojtechruz/spring-core-cert-notes-4.2/blob/master/Spring%20Core%20Certification%20Notes%204.2.md

[Jesus Angeles]

The Pivotal guides for the Core exams  (4.2 to 5) are currently at:

https://pivotal.io/training/certification

I noticed that React* is not in the Spring guides above, for 5.0.  There are A LOT of topics not in the exam.  I suggest that you refer to the guides so as not to waste your time studying the wrong topics or topics not in the exam.

There are practice tests here below for 4.2 and 4.3:

https://www.udemy.com/user/jr-angeles-jesus-calimlim/

I am still currently completing the one for 5.0.

[Curtis Jackson]

Ankur R Jain wrote:

Curtis Jackson wrote:Hi Ankur

Did you end up taking this test. If so, what did you use to study for it?

Hi Curtis,

I didn't take this test, got a little side-tracked due to work. Looking forward to take it in near future, however there are issues in terms of content available on internet for spring certifications so I am a bit worried for this one as opposed to oca and ocp.

-Ankur

I am facing the same issue. I want to take the test, but I can't find mock exams or very many books for it. I am guessing pivotal really wants you to take the course.

[Jesus Angeles]

There are now Spring 5 certification practice tests at:

http://itestjava.com/java-certification-practice-tests/product/enter.do?product=SPRING-CORE50

[Mike Taylorrrr]

Hello, i saw itestjava and it is ok, but they don't provide neither a mobile app,
so I found that quite disappointing as I like to study in mobility my Spring 5 exam

So I found: certification questions.com/spring-exam/core-professional-v5.0-dumps which have PDF, an on-line simulator and a mobile app too.. the questions are ok and (I couldn't believe) there is always an explanation.. quite handy!

[Jesus Angeles]

Mike Taylorrrr wrote:Hello, i saw itestjava and it is ok, but they don't provide neither a mobile app,
so I found that quite disappointing as I like to study in mobility my Spring 5 exam

Hi Mike,

If you have internet connection on the move, you can use itestjava on your mobile browser.  It is responsive and the page will adjust based on the size of your device' screen.

[Dominik Cebula]

I am currently creating tutorial for Spring Certification that contains answers and explanation to exam topics from Spring Certification Exam Study Guide.
It is available over here:
http://spring-certified-tutorial.com/

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch

Please complete your tutorials before telling us about them.

[Himai Minh]

Hi, Dominik,
I just bought your tutorial module 1 and I am studying on it  now
I can't wait to see module 2 - 8 available. Would you mind posting them soon?
Thanks.

[labzar othmane]

Hello guys,
I have passed the Spring Professional v.5 exam with a high score, and i want to share with you my experience

EXAM TOPICS Topics
1) Container (28%)
2) AOP (14%)
3) JDBC (4%)
4) Transactions (10%)
5) MVC (10%)
6) Security (6%)
7) REST (6%)
8) JPA Spring Data (4%)
9) Boot (14%)
10) Testing (4%)

Total preparation time:
~ 200 hours
Over a period of 12 weeks
~ 2 hours on average per day

Mock Exams et notes:
Mock Exam Mobile app : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.springqcm
Notes : https://github.com/vojtechruz/spring-core-cert-notes-4.2/blob/master/Spring%20Core%20Certification%20Notes%204.2.md

Books:
Spring Core 5 official documentation.
Spring in Action (i recommend it)
Pivotal Certified Professional Spring Developer Exam (je le recommande)

GoodLuck for everyone

[Antonio Cirasole]

labzar othmane wrote:Hello guys,
I have passed the Spring Professional v.5 exam with a high score, and i want to share with you my experience

EXAM TOPICS Topics
1) Container (28%)
2) AOP (14%)
3) JDBC (4%)
4) Transactions (10%)
5) MVC (10%)
6) Security (6%)
7) REST (6%)
8) JPA Spring Data (4%)
9) Boot (14%)
10) Testing (4%)

Total preparation time:
~ 200 hours
Over a period of 12 weeks
~ 2 hours on average per day

Mock Exams et notes:
Mock Exam Mobile app : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.springqcm
Notes : https://github.com/vojtechruz/spring-core-cert-notes-4.2/blob/master/Spring%20Core%20Certification%20Notes%204.2.md

Books:
Spring Core 5 official documentation.
Spring in Action (i recommend it)
Pivotal Certified Professional Spring Developer Exam (je le recommande)

GoodLuck for everyone

Hey Labzar,

thank you for your feedback.

Would you share with us some additional information?

1)What about your previous Spring knowledge?
2)Where the questions OCA/OCP like or more generic and conceptual? The official Study Guide states:

Do I have to know class names and method signatures?

No. We think that this is why you are using an IDE -for us it's much more important that you've understood the conceptsrather than learning API and method signatures.3.

Do I have to write, complete or rearrange source code?

No. The only thing you should be able to do is read a snippet of code and understand what it's doing. For example, we might show you a class implementing a Spring callback and you will then see a couple of related questions. We do not ask you questions on things an IDE can do for you, like checking if the code will compile.

Is that for real? I've taken a few free mock exams found online so far and most of them were asking for the exact name of annotation/classes/etc. trying to trick you with fake ones.

3) How/where did you take the exam (at home? at an authorized Pearson VUE location)? If you took your exam online were there any restrictions (doors, windows, are you allowed to get in/out of the room, etc.?)?

4) Any specific tips/advice about the exam itself (e.g. skip some questions, read once all the questions then answer, etc.).

Thank you so much,
A.

[Geff Chang]

Dominik Cebula wrote:I am currently creating tutorial for Spring Certification that contains answers and explanation to exam topics from Spring Certification Exam Study Guide.
It is available over here:
http://spring-certified-tutorial.com/

Hi Dominik - When do you think you will finish all the modules?

[Himai Minh]

Hi , Geff Chang,
For Dominik's tutorial, there are only 3 modules out of 8 modules are available. I heard Dominik is still working on the 4th module.
During the meantime, you may consider to take John Thompson's Spring Core / Spring boot for the preparation.
Or, you can purchase practice exams written by David Mayer.