I recently cleared the Cloud Foundry Certified Developer (CFCD) certification and thought that I would share some tips for the benefit of others. CFCD is a professional cloud native developer certification. It’s an excellent way for the developers to demonstrate their Cloud skills in general and Cloud Foundry expertise in specific. CFCD is a remotely proctored performance based online exam, where you would be required to only use CF CLI for solving problems in an Ubuntu VM, apart from answering some MCQs (15 questions each). Total time allocated for completing the examination is 3 hours.

Recommended steps for attaining the certification:

  1. Read through the:
    1. Candidate handbook
    2. Exam rubric
    3. Official exam tips
    4. Official Study Guide
  2. Gain practical experience using Cloud Foundry, there is no substitute for that. In fact the exam is focused on testing the hands-on skills.
  3. Use following supplementary material for your preparation:
    1. PCF study guides & review questions (free)
    2. LFD232: Cloud Foundry for developers by Linux Foundation ($299)
    3. Practice test provided with CFCD course from Linux Academy (subscription based)

Additional tips/information:

  • Ensure that you run the system compatibility check before attending the exam, so that you don’t run into issues during the exam. You would need a laptop with a webcam.
  • Ensure reserving a quite isolated place for these 3 hours. Your workstation should be clean, the proctors do not even allow keeping a water bottle on the table, they will ask you to pan your webcam around to show around the room, even under the table :). Also get rid of any wearable devices.
  • Do carry a Government issued Photo ID proof with you for verification.
  • Be aware that Linux Foundation may cancel your chosen exam slot, if there are any technical issues. But they do inform you in advance. Do check your emails before heading for the exam, in case you are travelling.
  • The exam result provides only an overall pass percentage but no topic-wise breakup of performance.
  • You should be familiar with application development in Java, NodeJS or Ruby (exam provides a choice to use any one of these).