TYPO3 Certified Developer, TCCD: Preparation, Experience and Review

Eager to know how to prepare for TYPO3 Certification Exam?

Becoming a TYPO3 certified developer will be an excellent chance for you to make your mark of TYPO3 expertise in industry.

In this blog post, you will find the most reliable sources of information about TYPO3 certifications. 

I want to divide this blog post into two sections:

• General information, tips and tricks for the developer certification exam.
• Book Review: of two great books (TYPO3 Extbase, 3rd Edition and TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer) which is very useful and prepared from the heart by Michael Schams (and, to say a big thanks to him).

TYPO3 Certification for better TYPO3 eco-system

It feels proud to say, “TYPO3 is one of the only Open Source community” to have a dedicated Education & Certification Committee installed by the TYPO3 Association's Board and Expert Advisory Board in early 2014.

What are the main activities of the TYPO3 committee?

• Setting up an education strategy

• Managing the TYPO3 certification program

• Defining global standards for TYPO3 certifications

• Training/workshop for certification

• Co-ordinating with other TYPO3 teams

• Much more.,

Importance of TYPO3 Certification

TYPO3 certification programs ensure the competence of professionals and by providing a measurement of knowledge and skills.
 
for TYPO3 agencies
TYPO3 service providers can highlight such certification for their strong position in the market. Even for TYPO3 freelancers, it gives a more competitive advantage.
 
for Decision-makers
The certificate gives more confidence to decision-makers for the success of the project.
 
for TYPO3 eco-system
The certified integrators, developers, editors, and consultant gives the best quality of work, so TYPO3 eco-system works well with less chance of failure projects.
 
for Personal feeling

• It gives personal proud feeling to a person who passed and gets a certification badge.
• It is a plus factor for your resume.
• An official proof of your knowledge: become globally recognized for your expertise in creating applications with TYPO3.

Available TYPO3 certifications

There are 4 possible certifications you can aim for, depending on your requirements. They are listed below in the order of difficulty of their relevant tests.

• TCCI - TYPO3 CMS Certification Integrator

• TCCD - TYPO3 CMS Certification Developer

• TCCE - TYPO3 CMS Certification Editor

• TCCC - TYPO3 CMS Certification Consultant

What is TCCD (TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer)?

The TYPO3 association certification team defines the role of “certified TYPO3 developer” as follows:

“A TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer has to have experience collected through projects, should know the architecture, design patterns, best practices, and a fair share of internals both TYPO3 CMS and the extension framework. TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer can implement an extension completely in a state-of-the-art way. They write clean code by following the TYPO3 Coding Guidelines (CGL), and they are well versed in a wide range of topics, from the initial setup of an extension up to the point of publishing it in the TYPO3 Extension Repository (TER).”

It's better to begin from scratch

Some general information about all the certification are as follows:

Language
All the exams are exclusively conducted in English (except, you can also give exam in the German language for editor certification).

TYPO3 version
Generally, the exams are conducted in context to recent or last TYPO3 LTS (long-term support) version. But it is highly recommended to confirm exact TYPO3 version, you may found such details during the registration.

Questions/Answers
All questions have been developed by TYPO3 experts and are reviewed or updated according to strict guidelines.

Location for examination
Unfortunately, TYPO3 exams are not available world-wide eg., Earlier, there was a good option to take TYPO3 exam through Pearson Vue. At last T3DD19, I got confirmation, the certification team is working hard to globally take exam. 
At the moment (Sep 2019), TYPO3 certification tests are usually taken at TYPO3 events like TYPO3 Developer Days, annual TYPO3 CertiFUNcation Day, TYPO3camps, TYPO3 conferences and so on.

Cancelling a Registration
On the off chance, if you don't turn up at the scheduled date/time of examination without giving early notification of retraction, the refund would not be provided. In case of urgency, you need to do this somewhere around 48 hours before the booked date and time.

Roadmap to get certification

• Being aware of Syllabus
• In-depth dive to the Topics
• Registration
• Take the exam
• Enjoy your success party

How to register for TYPO3 certifications?

Choose the TYPO3 Events
Visit the official TYPO3 events page and choose your best suitable TYPO3 events typo3.org/community/events/

Registration cost

• 200 € for TYPO3 Certified Developer exam
• 150 € for TYPO3 Certified Developer exam for members of the TYPO3 Association
• 150 € for TYPO3 Certified Developer exam for employees of members of the TYPO3 Association (bronze, silver, gold or platinum level)

Eventbrite to register
You may perform registration at TYPO3 association’s official Eventbrite page at www.eventbrite.com/o/typo3-education-committee-typo3-association-8060006853

How to prepare for Certification?

Good thing is that TYPO3 certification team defined syllabus with a number of topics. Here are some tips and tricks for better preparation for the certification.

Step 1. Dream it

Forgot TYPO3 at the moment. First, you should set your vision to become TYPO3 certified Developer, which will keep motivating you to “lots read and practice” the TYPO3.

Step 2. Check topics

To clear the scope and vision, take a quick look at all the topics and sub-topics of https://typo3.org/certification/developer/syllabus-v9/

Step 3. Theory knowledge through TYPO3 Documentation
At each topic, you will find “references” the recommend reading links that are linked with docs.typo3.org. You should read in-depth at TYPO3 documentation.

It will help you to clear theoretical knowledge for eg., How can you know all the properties of FLUID TEMPLATE TypoScript object, simply go here https://docs.typo3.org/typo3cms/TyposcriptReference/ContentObjects/Fluidtemplate/Index.html

Step 4. Practical knowledge through Practice

Of course, The exam is exactly what you know practically to integrate templates into TYPO3. Your real-time project’s work is the only best way to learn and prepare for the exam. There will be many tricky questions which can only be answered if you have done good-enough TYPO3 practice.

TYPO3 Books

To prepare for the exam, we would highly recommend reading the best available books by Michael Schams.

Book Review: TYPO3 Extbase, 3rd Edition

Book Review: TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer

2nd great book from Michael Schams is specifically designed to prepare TCCD exam.

It’s an ideal study guide for the preparation of certification, In first edition contains 150 questions. Don’t miss to read “How to use this book” section before you start to read TYPO3 questions.  

leanpub.com/typo3certifieddeveloper-en

Happy Reading and Practicing!

TYPO3 Training and Workshop

Points to keep in mind while appearing for the exam

• We recommend that you arrive at the test center 15 to 30 minutes before the exam starts for the registration and other processes.

• Candidate needs to bring valid official identification documents, that shows your full name, photograph, and signature and proves your identity like a passport or personal identification card.

• It is mandatory to sign the NDA document prior to the examination. By signing the NDA document, you accept that the exam material is strictly confidential and that questions and answers must not be disclosed.

• Applicant has 90 minutes to go through the test and answer and answer as many questions possible.

• The exam would be having multiple-choice questions with at least one or more correct answers. Good thing is that, on each particular question, they mentioned: “how many answers are correct”. For the question with more than one correct answers, if the candidate does not pick all correct answers, the question would be marked wrong and no points will be credited.

Exam structure: Score and Statistics

75 Questions would be asked in the exam paper

90 Minutes of time to complete exam paper

1.2 minutes to answer each question

~60 out of 75 answers should be correct to become certified Developer (CAUTION: it’s not defined by the certification team, but majoring according to our experience).

Receive results via Email
After the exam, you will receive an email with your result (pass or fail) within a few weeks.

Receive TYPO3 Certificate
If the candidate has successfully passed the test, then the TYPO3 certificate is sent to their postal location within a month.

The candidate can allude to oneself as a Certified TYPO3 Integrator until the expiration period of certificate i.e 3 years.

Your name at Certification Listing
Also, the names of candidates with TYPO3 certification would be listed on- https://typo3.org/certification/developer/certified-developer-listing

Summering it up!

We have listed all the important and useful resources you can use to further your learning to become a TYPO3 certified developer. We hope all these TYPO3 resources will help you complete your certification and you can stand in the comity of certified developers!

• Have a dream and passion to become a TYPO3 certified developer.
• Aware with a syllabus of TCCD exam.
• Must read two excellent TYPO3 books Michael Schams
  • TYPO3 Extbase, 3rd Edition
  • TYPO3 CMS Certified Developer
• Theoretically and practically dig in-depth at each topic.
• Register for your best available time and location.
• Keep calm while giving the examination and wait for the results.
• Celebrate your winning shot by becoming a TYPO3 Certified Developer!

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We wish you best wishes for your TYPO3 certification developer exam :)