Salesforce Advanced Developer [DEV 501]

How to pass Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Advanced Developer exam?

On Friday May 17, 2013 I got a chance to appear in the Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Advacned Developer exam and I passed the multiple-choice / multiple-select (part 1) exam successfully.

Prerequisite:
Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Developer certification

Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Advacned Developer exam has 3 parts:
  • multiple-choice / multiple-select exam (69 Questions & 120 minutes & 73% passing score)
  • programming assignment
  • essay exam
After passing the exam I would say this exam has 2 basic parts:
  • Your Development experience on Force.com (at least 1 year with Apex and Visualforce) (50%).
  • Read below mentioned guides (50%).
Note:
In order to pass this exam you must have experience of Apex (e.g. triggers, classes, batch classes, scheduled classes etc.) and Visualforce (e.g. standard and custom controllers etc.).
If you have previous experience with .Net and Java. Your previous experience will not help you much in this exam.

Guides:
Below are the guides which you must read for the exam.

Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide - You must read it from start to finish.
Visualforce Developer's Guide - You must read it from start to finish.
SOQL (Salesforce.com Object Query Language)
SOSL (Salesforce.com Object Search Language)
Development Lifecycle Guide (Enterprise Development on the Force.com Platform)
Force.com Migration Tool Guide

Note: You can also download these guides from Salesforce Documentation page.

High Points of the Exam:
Here are some high points of the exam.

Force.com Migration Tool / Development Lifecycle Guides
  • What is the function of build.properties, build.xml, package.xml, destructiveChnages.xml etc? (You can find this in Force.com Migration Tool Guide).
  • Which advantages/disadvantages of Developer/Configuration-Only/Full Copy sandbox? and which sandbox will be suitable for regression testing, integration testing and unit testing?
  • Which tools are available to migrate configuration and customization?
  • What are the features available in Force.com IDE? What functions you can perform in Force.com IDE?
  • Packaging - Managed / Unmanaged.
Apex
  • Developer must know about compile-time execution v/s run-time execution.
  • Order of Execution in Apex (5 to 6 questions come from this section).
  • Best Practices in Apex.
  • Best Practices of SOQL & SOSL.
  • Governors and Limits.
  • Limit Methods (e.g. getCallouts() v/s getLimitCallouts() etc.).
  • Best practice to write Apex test classes (e.g. System.asset() etc.).
  • Dynamic Apex.
  • Batch Apex.
  • Apex Callouts - Outbound Messaging, Apex triggers and Asynchronous calls.
  • Synchrounous v/s Asynchronous executions.
  • Inoubound Email Services. (e.g. InboundEmailHandler).
  • Outboud Email Services (e.g. SingleEmailMessage, MassEmailMessage).
  • Custom Settings.
Visualforce
  • Order of Execution in Visualforce (5 to 6 questions come from this section).
  • Best Practices in Visualforce.
  • What are standard controller / standard list controller / custom controller / controller extensions?
  • What are the methods of standard controller / standard list controller / custom controller / controller extensions?
  • How you can override standard buttons, links, views on the object?
  • How you can embed a Visualforce page in detail page or related list?
  • User mode / System mode.
  • Security - with sharing / without sharing keywords.
  • AJAX functions in Visualforce (e.g. <apex:actionFunction>, <apex:actionSupport>, <apex:actionPoller>, <apex:actionStatus>, <apex:actionRegion>).
  • Visualforce Templates (e.g. <apex:insert>, <apex:composition>, <apex:define>).
  • <apex:include> v/s <apex:iframe>.
  • View State - How to reduce view state size?
  • Difference between Static Resources v/s Documents?
  • Wrapper classes in Visualforce.
  • Visualforce components / Dynamic components.
  • You must know each and every attribute of all the Visualforce components.
Other Resources:
http://limitexception.herod.net/2011/12/14/helping-you-pass-your-501-advanced-developer-exam/
http://limitexception.herod.net/2011/12/19/more-tips-for-the-501-advanced-developer-exam/
http://blog.jeffdouglas.com/2009/07/13/i-passed-the-salesforce-com-certified-advanced-developer-exam-so-can-you/
http://www.laceysnr.com/2011/12/five-oh-one-part-one-advanced-developer.html
http://corycowgill.blogspot.in/2011/05/passing-forcecom-advanced-developer-501.html
http://cloudyworlds.blogspot.com/2012/09/advanced-developer-first-round.html
http://exploresalesforce.blogspot.in/2012/01/how-to-clear-dev-501-exam.html
http://bulkified.com/Certifications/?certificationId=4