The advantages of spring framework make it one of the top Java frameworks in the community. As an opensource framework, spring has provided opportunities for building applications on the Java Enterprise Edition platform. Introduced first in October 2002, spring framework got a recent stable release in the form of Spring v5.0. Many companies have shown interest in candidates with spring professional certification. Why?
Spring framework is everywhere in Java, and developers could gain a lot of promising employment opportunities. Also, you get the advantage of industry recognition and a better salary. So, if you are still thinking about getting the right path to a better career, then here is your solution! Start focusing on Spring certification preparation and get certified as a Spring developer professional.
However, the guidance and reliable information about the preparation journey for the spring professional v5.0 exam is quite limited. The following discussion would attempt to present a detailed guide for your spring developer certification preparation. The prominent highlights in the discussion would be basic information about the examination and examination objectives. The discussion would also present legible insights into the topics covered in different domains covered in the exam. Finally, the discussion would present a preparation guide for spring professional certification in a step-by-step format. It’s time, let’s start!
Spring Core Professional v5.0 Certification Exam
Before we proceed towards the spring core professional certification guide here, let us take in some information first! As of May 10, 2017, you don’t have to enroll for the Core Spring training course to get spring certification. Now, you can purchase the spring certification exams directly. Initially, candidates had to enroll for the spring training for 50k INR for taking spring certification exams.
The training is still considered as one of the best resources to prepare for spring certification. However, the expense factor was always a huge obstacle for many candidates to get spring certification. Therefore, the new measure by Pivotal, the founder of the spring framework, would open new roads for candidates.
The spring professional certification exam is ideal for candidates using spring framework in Java application development. Candidates with experience in key concepts such as dependency injection and spring container can appear for this examination. The spring core professional certification exam helps in testing the abilities of candidates in various concepts of spring framework. The abilities tested in the certification exam are as follows.
- Container basics.
- Data access and transactions.
- Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP).
- Spring model-view-controller (MVC).
Spring Professional Certification Exam Details
Now, let us find out more about the spring professional v5.0 exam in detail. The exam would consist of 50 questions. The format of the exam will be proctored, and candidates will get multiple-choice questions only. The exam launched in May 2019, has the code EDU-1202. The duration of the exam would be around 90 minutes, i.e., one and a half-hour. The passing score for the exam is 76%. Therefore, you have to answer at least 38 questions correctly to qualify the examination. You can use the table presented below for an organized idea about the exam information for spring professional certification.
Domains Covered in the Spring Professional Exam
After reflecting on the exam information related to spring professional certification, let us find out the domains in the exam. Finding out the weight of individual topics in the exam can provide better guidance for your preparation. How? Candidates can focus on the topic areas which have a high weight of questions in the exam. Here are the different crucial domains covered in the spring professional exam.
- Container.
- AOP.
- JDBC.
- Transactions.
- MVC.
- Security.
- REST.
- JPA Spring Data.
- Testing.
- Boot Intro.
- Boot Autoconfig.
- Boot Actuator.
- Boot Testing.
Preparing for a Spring interview? Go through these frequently-asked Spring Framework Interview questions and get ready to crack the interview.
Subtopics in Each Domain of Spring Professional Exam
For an effective preparation for the spring professional certification exam, you need to review the spring professional certification study guide. The study guide serves as a path on which candidates can recognize the essential concepts. Furthermore, candidates could use it as an instrument for scheduling their preparations for the spring professional examination. Here, we have attempted to outline the different topics included in each domain of the spring professional exam.
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Container
The first domain in the spring professional certification exam deals with containers, dependency, and IOC. This domain accounts for almost 20% of the questions in the spring professional exam. Candidates have to learn about dependency injection and the use of the interface in Java. Other important topics include application context and the creation of a new instance of the application context.
Candidates should also cover dependency injection with the use of Java configurations and annotations. You will also learn about property source, Bean Factory Post Processor, and definition of static @bean method. The importance of the Bean Post Processor and Bean Factory Post Processor is also evident in this domain. Candidates will find questions on initialization method and its declaration on Spring Bean as well as declaring a destroy method.
Component scanning is also a crucial addition in this domain of spring professional certification exam. Candidates should also learn about proxy objects and the use of @Bean and @Autowired annotations. The other important topics in this domain refer to the configuration of profiles and possible use cases for the same.
Candidates should also cover injection of scalar or literal values into spring beans and uses of @Value annotation. Furthermore, candidates should also identify the difference in the use of $ and # in expressions having @Value. This domain also covers Spring Expression Language, Environment abstraction, and referencing using Spring Expression Language.
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Aspect-oriented Programming (AOP)
The second domain in the spring professional certification exam deals with Aspect-oriented programming. Candidates will find around 8% of questions from this domain. Some of the essential topics covered in this domain refer to the concept of AOP and the problems it solves. You will also learn about cross-cutting concerns, weaving, pointcut, advice, aspect, and joinpoint in AOP. Another important topic is the process for enabling detecting of @Aspect annotation. Other important topics refer to the use of JoinPoint argument and the Proceeding JoinPoint.
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JDBC and Transactions
JDBC occupies around 4% of questions while Transactions account for almost 8% of questions in the spring professional exam. However, both domains are encapsulated in this study guide under the scope of data management. The concepts include the difference between checked and unchecked operations, the configuration of Data Source in spring, template design pattern, and the JDBC template.
You will also learn about callback, execution of plain SQL statement with JDBC template, and support for generic queries. The domain of transactions deals with basic concepts of transactions and the difference between local and global transaction. Candidates have to learn about defining a transaction in spring, transaction isolation level, and participation of JDBC template. You will also learn about transaction propagation, declarative transaction management, default rollback policies, and unit of work.
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Model-View-Controller (MVC)
Candidates will find around 8% of questions from this domain in the spring professional certification exam. The domain covers the basic explanation of MVC and the underlying idea for MVC. The domain also focuses on web application context and extra scopes it offers. Candidates will also cover the users of @Controller annotation and mapping of the incoming request to a controller and a method. Candidates will also learn about the parameter types and valid return types for a controller method.
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Security
This domain is highly crucial in the spring professional certification study guide. You can get around three questions related to security in the spring professional exam. Candidates have to learn concepts such as authentication and authorization, a delegation of filter proxy, security context, and security filter chain. Furthermore, you will also deal with the use of method security and object types secured at the method level.
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Representational State Transfer (REST)
This domain in spring professional exam also accounts for three questions in the exam. Candidates have to learn concepts such as resource, CRUD, scalability, and interoperability of REST and security of REST. Furthermore, you have to cover the HTTPS methods used in REST and difference between @Controller and @RestController. Also, candidates have to understand @ResponseStatus, @ResponseBody, and @RequestBody.
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JPA Spring Data
Candidates will find two questions for sure from this domain in the spring professional certification exam. The topics in this domain include repository interface, the definition of repository interface and naming convention for finder methods. You will also learn about the use of @Query and implementation of Spring Data repositories at runtime.
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Testing
You can easily expect two questions from this domain in the spring professional exam. The essential topics include use of spring in the unit test, tests that use Spring and the use of mock frameworks. You will also cover the creation of shared application context in a JUnit integration test.
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Spring Boot Intro
Candidates will have to focus on this domain as it will help in solving four questions in the exam easily. You will learn about Spring Boot and its advantages along with other concepts such as spring boot starter POM. The other concepts include the definition of specific property files and accessing properties defined in property files. You will also cover the configuration of default schema and initial data.
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Spring Boot Autoconfig
This domain will also account for four questions in the spring professional exam. You will cover topics such as component scanning in spring boot and identification of configuration needs. Most important of all, you should also learn about customizing spring auto-configuration.
Read Now: A Quick Introduction to Spring Boot
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Spring Boot Actuator
Another crucial domain in the spring professional exam with 8% weight, i.e., four questions in the exam. Candidates will have to explore topics such as value provided by spring boot actuator and protocols for accessing actuator endpoints. The other concepts include metrics, health indicator, and reasons for a third-party external monitoring system.
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Spring Boot Testing
Candidates will find almost four questions from this domain in the spring professional certification exam. You need to prepare on topics such as the use of @SpringBootTest annotation and its auto-configuration capabilities. The other crucial topics in the domain include dependencies introduced by spring-boot-starter-test to the classpath. Candidates will also have to learn about the difference between @Mock and @MockBean and the use of @WebMvcTest and @DataJpaTest.
Preparing for the Spring Professional Certification Exam
The most important part of this discussion is the preparation guide for the spring professional v5.0 certification exam. Let us point out the milestones that you have to cross to succeed at the spring professional exam.
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Review the exam objectives
The priority of candidates must be the exam objectives. You need to take a closer look at the syllabus outlined for the spring professional exam. The study guide on the official website of Pivotal is a helpful instrument to learn more about the exam topics. Once you have understood the exam topics, you can chart out a preparation schedule for the exam. You can allocate different periods in your schedule for preparing different topics in the exam.
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Selecting the right training course
The next important step in your preparation journey for spring professional certification is a prolific training course. The recommended source to get a training course for spring professional exam is Pivotal. The “Core Spring” training course is a recommended training course in the exam brief on the official website of Pivotal. The training course is ideal for achieving spring certification and improving knowledge of Spring features and its advanced modules.
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Books can help a lot!
Recommended reading materials can also be helpful in your preparation for spring professional exam. The “spring in Action”5th edition is ideally suited for spring v5.0. Another recommended read is the “Pivotal Certified Professional Spring Developer Exam: A Study Guide.” This Spring book has not been updated with spring v5.0. However, you can find many helpful resources relevant to the new version in this book.
Check Here: Best Books to Learn Spring Framework
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Feel the exam before appearing
Practical experience is mandatory for scoring good marks in the spring professional certification exam. Therefore, you should try a spring v5.0 simulator to practice questions in the real exam like scenarios. Simply put, you should go for practice tests. Even though you may have to pay some more, exam simulators can increase your chances of performing well in the actual exam.
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Advantages of shared learning
Finally, you need to engage in shared learning. The spring professional exam launched recently in May 2019 in a new form does not have many sources of guidance. Therefore, you need to participate in communities and forums. Learning communities and forums can help you interact with other candidates. As a result, you can contribute to the community as well as gain insights on better methods for preparation.
Final Words
On a final note, success in the spring professional exam completely depends on your will and commitment. You do not have access to proven information regarding preparations for the exam now. However, observations from the experiences of successful candidates helped shape up this discussion. Therefore, you can find this discussion as a reliable guide for spring professional certification preparation.
The facility of the individual purchase option for spring certifications by Pivotal is a promising opportunity. The discussion reflected on exam information and topics covered in the exam comprehensively. Finally, the discussion outlined specific steps to ensure effective preparation for the final examination. So, if you have purchased your spring certification voucher, then it’s time to get ready!
If you don’t know much about Spring, then we would recommend you to enroll for our Spring basics online training course and understand the basic concepts of Spring. It will help you in your Spring Professional certification preparation and get you ready for the Spring Professional certification exam.
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