Today I passed Spring Certification (EDU-1202) with a score of 450 out of a possible 500.
I'm not sure if these preparation tips will be helpful since EDU-1202 will be retiring in the next day or two.
I have over 10 years of experience using Spring and over 5 years of using Spring Boot so it did help me quite a lot since I'm not starting from scratch.
Having said that, in terms of coverage this is probably the hardest certification I have taken so far.
The amount of materials to cover is the main challenge with this certification.
It took me around 3 months to study and pretty much had to cram because of the impending retirement of EDU-1202 with its replacement having mandatory training.
Preparation tips:
1. Read "
Core Spring 5 Certification in Detail" by Ivan Krizsan
- This is probably the most important resource that you can find about the exam since it covers the exam objectives per item.
- I've read this twice, the first pass was for detailed reading while writing code to test what I've learned; the second pass was for a refresher a week prior to the exam.
2. Read the official documentions while going through Ivan's guide chapter by chapter. There are plenty of materials to cover so take your time to digest all the info.
-
Spring Framework v5.x (
Core, Data Access, Web Servlet, Testing) (
https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/docs/5.2.15.RELEASE/spring-framework-reference)
-
Spring Security v5.x (
https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/site/docs/5.3.9.RELEASE/reference/html5)
-
Spring Data JPA v2.3.x (
https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/jpa/docs/2.3.9.RELEASE/reference/html)
-
Spring Boot v2.3.x (
https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/2.3.12.RELEASE/reference/htmlsingle)
3. Write plenty of codes to test what you've learned.
- I suggest creating 2 projects; the first is using plain Spring and the second is using Spring Boot.
- Do this while reading Ivan's guide and the official documentations.
4. Use mock exams to practice. There are only 2 mock exams provider that I've tried with the Udemy mock exams being the closest to the actual exam. Do this on the last strech of your preparation.
- By
Ad Satour (9 mock exams) (
https://www.ad-satour.com/information-technology/technologie-certifications/all-what-you-need-to-know-to-pass-vmware-spring-professional-certification/#h-mocks)
- By
Ivan Mirchev in Udemy (6 mock exams) (
https://www.udemy.com/course/vmware-spring-professional-edu-1202-ultimate-mock-exams)
Exam experience:
In my opinion, the actual exam is very close to the Udemy mock exams by Ivan Mirchev so I didn't really encounter any questions in particular that surprises me.
If you can do well in the Udemy mock exams then you're pretty much ready.
I consistently scored 80%+ on the mock exams with 90% being the highest which is pretty much the same as my actual score.
Good luck to those who are about to take the exam in the next day or two.
