As a developer, I wanted to learn as much as possible and a good way to do it is getting any of the certifications that Salesforce offers to us.

I was able to get 401 and 501 credentials, so I decided to share some tips about them writing an entry some months ago.

However a year ago, Salesforce decided to modify certifications and 401 and 501 were not available anymore.

So what could I do? Do I lose my credentials? No at all. I still can say that I got these certifications. However Salesforce also advices to us to move to the new one.

In order to do it we have different paths as you can see on below image:

I decided to go for the combo Transition Exam, but lot of questions came to my mind. So let me share all answers I got. Maybe they can also help you.

Q – How is the Exam?

A – This is a test exam. We have 30 minutes to answer 16 multi-choice questions, and we need to get 63% (11 questions) right to pass the exam. Per my experience, don’t waste the time. Read carefully and if you are not completely sure, mark to review it later and move to the next one.

Q – When do I get the results?

A – After submitting the exam. As usual, we would get the Pass or Fail response. Unfortunately we don’t get the score. You can only see if you passed it or not.

Q – Is this a proctored exam?

A – Yes !! So take care and prepare your place for the exam in advance.

Q – What can I do if I fail the exam?

A – Good questions!! That also worried to me. This is a free exam and you can try to pass it as many times as you need. The only thing that you need to take into account is that you cannot try it more than 3 times per release. This mean. Salesforce deliver 3 releases a year, so you have 9 opportunities to do it per year.

Q – What should I study to pass it? 

A – There is no guide to know what you need. To be honest, you should get Platform Developer I and II guides and check what it is required for them and study the same. I reviewed all the material that I used to pass 501 exam. And in addition, I checked:

• Visual Workflow workbook
• Lightning Components
• Custom Metadata Types guide

Obviously, Trailheads are also very useful to remember certain contents for example Life cycle one.

Q – Should I look for any other material?

A – Something I didn’t find on above documents and I was asked for was about:

• Compounds fields
• Certifications, kind of certifications depending on device …
• Streaming API

Actually the exam was a challenged and that also helped me to learn even more.

Q – What kind of questions could I find?

A – This test exam provided different options and you need to select one or many responses.

An example could be (This is not a question of my exam. This is an example I have created based on what I found during the exam)

Having this piece of code:

@RestResource(urlMapping='/user_defined_type_example/*')
global with sharing class MyOwnTypeRestResource 
{
   @HttpPost
   global static MyUserDefinedClass echoMyType(MyUserDefinedClass ic)
   {
      return ic;
   }

   global class MyUserDefinedClass
   {
      global String string1;
      global String string2 { get; set; }
      private String privateString;
      global transient String transientString;
      global String staticString;
   }
}

And these JSON calls:

1. 
{
   "ic" : {
             "string1" : "value for string1",
             "string2" : "value for string2",
             "privateString" : "value for privateString"
          }
}

2.
{
   "ic" : {
             "string1" : "value for string1",
             "string2" : "value for string2"
          }
}

3.
{
   "ic" : {
             "string1" : "value for string1",
             "string2" : "value for string2",
             "transientString" : "value for transientString",
             "staticString" : "value for staticString"
           }
}

Which is the correct call?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 1 and 3
e) 1 and 2
f) 1, 2 and 3

Q – Once I pass the exam. Do I have to do anything else? Assignment or any other test?

A – No !! Since that moment you get your new credentials and you only need to do the maintenance exam as usual 3 times a year.

Q – I have Force.com Developer (401) certification. Does the maintenance exam cover also that one?

A – I’m afraid that Platform Developers maintenance don’t cover 401 certifications, so you would have to do 2 exams per release. But nothing to worry too much.

Do you have any other question? You can open a case here.

Once you get it you can also check your certification in the verification page. Something that I will miss from this page is my Advance Developer logo.

By the way, the correct answer on above question is option e).