A roadmap to achieving a Magento 2 Certification

Hello friend,

My name is Joseph Maxwell. I am a 2019 Magento Master (one of approximately 20) and am part of the Magento Certification Advisory Board (it’s a fancy way of saying that I help write Magento certifications). I have almost every Magento certification.

If you have are looking for help to become Magento 2 certified, you are at the right place. I have helped hundreds of people become certified.

Magento 2 Certification Questions and Answers

All Magento 2 exams are scenario-based questions. This means that there are two parts to every question:

  • The scenario. This presents a situation based upon a vanilla Magento 2 installation. You must mentally assess how this situation differs from Magento 2.
  • The stem. This presents the question. Most questions are related to the effect of the scenario, like “how do you resolve this?” or “what is the effect of this?” In multiple-answer questions, the stem will also tell you how many answers are expected.

Finally, there are the answers. Some questions have one, two or three correct answers. Radio buttons indicate one answer. If more than one answer, the stem will explicitly state how many are expected.

As you are studying, beware of any sample questions that do not use this formula. You will be surprised as to how much harder scenario-based questions are.

A merchant sells sandpaper which comes in various grades. The merchant would like to combine similar types of sandpaper so customers can order multiple types in one add to cart action. The merchant would like to also prevent the individual grades from appearing on category pages. They use an integration that adds all products to categories.

What two steps do they take to accomplish the requirements?

  • Create grouped products for similar types of sandpaper.
  • Create configurable products and add applicable attributes.
  • Disable all simple products.
  • Set all simple products to be Visible in Search.

A merchant sells sandpaper which comes in various grades. The merchant would like to combine similar types of sandpaper so customers can order multiple types in one add to cart action. The merchant would like to also prevent the individual grades from appearing on category pages. They use an integration that adds all products to categories.

What two steps do they take to accomplish the requirements?

  • Create grouped products for similar types of sandpaper.
  • Create configurable products and add applicable attributes.
  • Disable all simple products.
  • Set all simple products to be Visible in Search.

As you can see, this is a scenario-based question. It requires a basic understanding of how products work in Magento.

You have just created the following acl.xml file in your module:

<acl>
    <resources>
        <resource id="MyCompany_MyProject::DoSomething" title="Do Something"/>
    </resources>
</acl>

After deploying code, the merchant complains that they cannot find “Do Something” in the Role Permissions dialog.

What is the solution?

  • The backend node is missing.
  • The cache needs to be flushed.
  • The merchant needs to log out and then back in.
  • The parent attribute need to be specified.

You need to fetch a dump of the Magento database in production to hydrate your local environment’s database. For many systems, we use mysqldump.

What shortcut does Magento Cloud provide to speed this process?

  • Use the magento-cloud db:dump command.
  • Use the ece-tools create-db-backup command.
  • Go to the Project Web Interface and click “Download SQL Dump”.
  • Use the ./vendor/bin/magento-dbdump command.

Will a certification dump help me pass the test?

If we traveled back in time to the Magento 1 certification era, I would hesitantly say “yes”, they could help you. Is it right to use a certification dump? No, definitely not. The goal of a certification is to prove knowledge—and a piece of paper without the knowledge does both you and those you work with a disservice. That said, you could get a general idea of each question and the answer that was expected. I believe that the answers were also in a fixed order, and you could memorize them.

However, we live in the “modern era”, where . Peter Manijak is head of certifications at Magento and he is a master at working with industry experts to make difficult exams. Now, my answer is “no”, they do not help. Even if you were to find a full PDF with the Magento 2 Exam Questions, I do not believe you would pass.

That's a strong statement to say, but here’s why:

  • The Magento certification test question banks often have 120 questions (each test has 60 questions, 90 minutes to take the test).
  • Questions are scenario-based, so it isn’t memorizing questions like “what does New Relic do?”
  • Answers are mixed up, so you never know which order they will be in.
  • Questions rely on experience. If you have experience, I have found that you can easily answer almost all questions, and achieve the certification in way less time than allotted. When I help write tests, there are quite a few questions written that receive a round of laughter in the room. Why? Because we can all relate, having worked with that very same situation.

Here's how you can achieve a Magento certification without spending a cent.

Well, other than buying the test itself. I know it sounds cliche to say experience, but that’s really the key. Many people do not have 1-2 years of Magento 2 experience. So, how can we accelerate that process?

  • If you are looking to get a developer certification, build modules on your own time. Read the DevDocs. Use xdebug to step, line-by-line through Magento core code. Read community articles. Accommodate for your lack of 8-hour day experience by investing extra time on your evenings and weekends. If your career is important enough for you to achieve this certification, make an additional investment (which will pay back quite nicely).
  • If you want to achieve the Solution Specialist certification, get your hands on a Magento 2 Commerce instance (with no customizations or modules). Work through every part of it. Take your time in understanding each component and what it does. Ultimately, this is quite difficult unless you are in a project management position where you are interacting with a client daily.
  • Read the Magento U study guides. These are free, but are not in-depth. I started the certification branch of SwiftOtter by working through these study guides myself—that’s how I passed each certification.
  • At the end of each Magento U study guide, there are several practice questions. Take your time to read it, and then check your answer.
  • Go take the test. If you fail, don’t be crushed. Take it as you have better experience in what is expected. Study up. But, don’t just try to memorize the questions and answers on the test: your next go-around of questions will be different. Instead, study generally on your weak areas.

My suggestion to go-ahead and get that certification! Do it. The longer you wait the less likely you are to have the motivation necessary to pass.

Joseph Maxwell

President / Senior Developer at SwiftOtter - @swiftotter_joe