Overview of the certification exam
The exam consists of 60 questions. The time you’re given to attempt these questions is 120 minutes. This gives you about 2 minutes per question.
To pass the exam, you need to have a score of 70%, which means that you need to answer 42 questions correctly out of 60 for you to pass.
If you are well prepared, this time should be enough for you to answer the questions and also review them before the time finishes.
Next, we will see how the questions are distributed throughout the exam.
Distribution of questions
Exam questions are distributed into the following broad categories. The following table provides a breakdown of questions based on different categories:
|
Topic |
Percentage of Exam |
Number of Questions |
|
Spark Architecture: Understanding of Concepts |
17% |
10 |
|
Spark Architecture: Understanding of Applications |
11% |
7 |
|
Spark DataFrame API Applications |
72% |
43 |
Table 1.1: Exam breakdown
Looking at this distribution, you would want to focus on the Spark DataFrame API a lot more in your exam preparation since this section covers around 72% of the exam (about 43 questions). If you can answer these questions correctly, passing the exam will become easier.
But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t focus on the Spark architecture areas. Spark architecture questions have varied difficulty, and they can sometimes be confusing. At the same time, they allow you to score easy points as architecture questions are generally straightforward.
Let’s look at some of the other resources available that can help you prepare for this exam.
Resources to prepare for the exam
When you start planning to take the certification exam, the first thing you must do is master Spark concepts. This book will help you with these concepts. Once you’ve done this, it would be useful to do mock exams. There are two mock exams available in this book for you to take advantage of.
In addition, Databricks provides a practice exam, which is very useful for exam preparation. You can find it here: https://files.training.databricks.com/assessments/practice-exams/PracticeExam-DCADAS3-Python.pdf.
Resources available during the exam
During the exam, you will be given access to the Spark documentation. This is done via Webassessor and its interface is a little different than the regular Spark documentation you’ll find on the internet. It would be good for you to familiarize yourself with this interface. You can find the interface at https://www.webassessor.com/zz/DATABRICKS/Python_v2.html. I recommend going through it and trying to find different packages and functions of Spark via this documentation to make yourself comfortable navigating it during the exam.
Next, we will look at how we can register for the exam.
