The Zend Certification Exam: What to Expect

Posted on 27. Apr, 2008 by Will Fitch in PHP, Zend Certification Exam

The Zend Certification Exam is a step in the right direction for PHP developers looking to enhance their resume and prove their skills. It is becoming accepted by recruiters worldwide and in some cases, demanded by corporations seeking employees. Achieving this certification is no easy task, though. It requires working experience with PHP, as well as the technologies associated with it.

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.

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11 Responses to “The Zend Certification Exam: What to Expect”

  1. Carlton Dickson

    29. Apr, 2008

    Thanks for this entry….studying for my exam right now and aiming for a May/June exam date…although the release of GTA might interupt this week’s revision :)

    I have a massive amount of work to do on “Streams and network programming” and a little on databases…does databases include PDO at all?

    Hope you don’t mind me posting these links but they are the experiences of others that have done the test:
    http://benramsey.com/archives/passing-the-zend-php-certification-exam/
    http://sidyou.blogspot.com/2007/03/zend-certification-exam.html
    http://shiflett.org/blog/2005/apr/zend-certification-self-test
    http://jonpeck.blogspot.com/2006/12/zend-certification-and-drink-recipe.html

  2. Will Fitch

    29. Apr, 2008

    Hi, Carlton.

    I’m pretty excited about GTA as well!! I can’t wait!

    As for your question on PDO. If you receive any questions regarding PDO, it will not be database specific. The functionality of PDO, however, is possible to show up as it is PHP functionality. You should not receive any database specific questions (how does MySQL handle this, PostgreSQL handle that), but SQL questions can be present.

    I wouldn’t personally worry too much about PDO questions. There are way too many other areas to cover, and if there are any PDO questions, it will be very few (or even one).

    As for the streams section, know your file system functions (file_get_contents, fopen, fwrite, flock, fclose) and the basics of streams functionality (http://us2.php.net/manual/en/book.stream.php).

    I also can’t urge you enough to breakdown and pay a few bucks for those practice tests that Zend/phpArchitect put out. They are VERY VERY close to the real deal.

    Thanks also for the additional links. It will certainly help others expand their readiness for this examination.

  3. Carlton Dickson

    30. Jun, 2008

    Yay, I passed the exam…the first few questions were a little tricky but soon found my rhythmn, all in time for the release of Battlefield, treated myself to a copy of as a reward!
    Thanks again for your advice, I don’t think a question about PDO came up!

  4. Will Fitch

    30. Jun, 2008

    Congratulations, Carlton!

    I’m very happy to hear you are part of the “club”. Well earned treat!

    I’m also happy to hear that no PDO questions came up. You should be getting your framed certificate and big “Zend Certified Engineer” sticker in 6 – 8 weeks!

    Again, congratulations!!!

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  6. Patrick

    15. Aug, 2008

    Thanks for your experiance….
    studying for my exam right now and plan to take the exam after 2 weeks. I have 3 years of experience in PHP 4.
    Is this enough to pass the exam?

  7. Will Fitch

    21. Aug, 2008

    Hello Patrick,

    Just taking into account what you stated, I would say no. The current ZCE test specifically covers PHP5 object-oriented programming capabilities and techniques, migrating from PHP4 to PHP5 and other new bits of functionality introduced in PHP5.

    Having three years of experience is huge, but you should cover new PHP5 functionality. It shouldn’t take you long to do so. A couple of links to take note of are http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.php and http://us2.php.net/manual/en/migration5.php. This will give you a jump on PHP5.

    Also, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to spend a few bucks and get the practice exams to see if you’re ready. It is completely worth the investment!

  8. Adam

    02. Oct, 2008

    Thanks for the post Will, I’m revising and trying to understand what the test involves at the moment. I found some inconstancies with the study guide and test book. The guide misses some test sections out, and the test book adds new sections not mentioned on the Zend explanation of the tests.

    The guide book has no reference to date/time at all, where the test book has whole sections on it. In your experience is their many date and time questions in the ZCE test?

    I thank you for your post, as I have referenced it in my PHP 5 Certification Revision Blog. Which I started once found that the Book and my Knowledge alone may not be enough to qualify.

    Adam

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  10. Abhijit Ghatnekar

    17. May, 2009

    Hello ,

    I’m a beginner in PHP. I keep switching my development work between J2EE, Python and now I’m learning PHP. I wanted to ask you , whether it will be the right decision for me to appear for the ZCE, which currently I’m preparing very hard for. Second question which I wanted to ask is a bit technical and concerned with PHP OO.
    We create objects in PHP, with the new keyword. Does it return a reference to the object constructed on the heap , or by value ? Within a class’s method does $this refer to a copy of the object or the actual object itself ?
    Please guide me regarding the same, I’ll be highly grateful.
    Thanks and regards,
    Abhijit

  11. LAYGO

    18. Oct, 2009

    Awesome read. I just decided last week that I *NEEDED* to be certified after watching a presentation by Zend on all of their products. I eventually want to include the Zend Framework cert as well. I’ve been working with PHP since 2000-2001, but never OOP. I’m applying that now to my skillset & hope I can include the cert soon!

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