The test consists of 70 questions and you have 90 minutes to complete them. You may skip between questions and revisit those that you skipped. You will likely finish the examination in 30 to 45 minutes (purely personal experience), so take the other half and check your answers.

What Should I Know Before Taking the Test?

It is suggested to have at least six months of experience as a full-time PHP developer. This includes working on a day-to-day basis with technologies that integrate with PHP such as databases and regular expressions.

The test is based on your ability to evaluate and analyze a snippet of code. You will receive many questions showing you just this, and it will ask for an output response, whether there’s an error produced or both. Most questions are multiple-choice, but there are some that will expect you to either type the output of the code or a function name into a text box.

Here are a list of topics that are covered on the test:

• PHP basics
• Functions
• Arrays
• Object-oriented programming
• Security
• XML and web services
• Strings and patterns
• Databases and SQL (that’s right, SQL)
• Web features
• Streams and network programming
• PHP 4/5 differences
• Design and theory

I know this is a very broad range of topics, but the test does base your skills on an intermediate to advanced PHP programmer. Don’t let this scare you off, however. You don’t have to be an expert in these areas, just familiarize yourself with them.

Do notice the words “object-oriented programming” in bold. Since PHP5′s greatest feature is its object model, you should expect lots of questions relating to it. This does include object-oriented design and theory (the last category noted).

How Much Does the Test Cost?

The test costs US $125. You can purchase a voucher at http://www.zend.com/en/store/php-certification/.

What’s the Best Way to Study for the Test?

Visit the official Zend description of the test. Visit the php.net documentation for each of those categories, and start coding. Reading does help, but you need to get your hands dirty with actual, real-life development scenarios.

When you think you are ready, purchase a block of practice exams here. I can tell you that these practice exams are very similar to the actual test.

When Will I Know if I Pass?

After submitting the test for grading, you will receive a grade of “PASS” or “FAIL”. The actual numeric grade is never disclosed.

What if I Fail?

The test will give you a detailed explanation of the weaknesses of your evaluation. These are grouped by the categories listed above. Take the advice of the evaluation explanation and study those categories harder. Don’t worry. Just get back up on your feet and try again. Zend does give a discount to those who fail the test.

I Have More Questions!

If you have any questions, I’ll be glad to address them as best I can. Feel free to ask them in the comments section.