[Disclaimer: I am on the Zend Advisory Board and helped create the Zend Certification exam.]
--- Greg Donald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I bought the Zend study guide and have read it cover to cover That's a good approach. I don't think the guide is a good substitute for experience, but it's as broad as the exam itself, so you get a good idea about what topics are covered, and the discussion on those topics is there in case you feel like you need a refresher. In a few cases, the author of a particular chapter in the guide also wrote the exam questions on that topic. > I went back and re-read a bunch of it again in areas where I > felt weak. I've been studying heavily the past two weeks and I > have the test tomorrow morning. So I'm wondering what anyone > who has taken the test might recommend studying the most during > my last 24 hours prior? Zend has a few questions available here: http://zend.com/store/education/certification/self-test.php They're obviously not on the exam, but they give you an idea about how the questions might be worded and such. The first question is: What is the value of $a? <?php $a = 123 == 0123; ?> I think this question is a little tricky, so I don't like it. It requires you to realize that 0123 is going to be interpreted as an octal value due to the leading zero. While we tried to avoid trick questions, a few of them are just a bit tricky. Don't let that leading zero thing mess you up. :-) Another one on Zend's site is what I consider a very good question: What is the value of $result in the following PHP code? <?php function timesTwo($int) { $int = $int * 2; } $int = 2; $result = timesTwo($int); ?> This question requires that you realize how functions and return values work. This would be difficult for someone who wasn't an experienced PHP developer, but for anyone who has much experience with PHP, it's easy. Another question I like is this: What will be the output of the following PHP code: <?php echo count(strlen("http://php.net";)); ?> Now, I would expect someone like John Holmes (or any of the other major contributors to this list) to note that you may as well use single quotes there, because no interpretation of the string is necessary. :-) But, that's not the point of the question. Answering this requires that you can deduce what strlen() and count() do, or that you happen to remember - whatever works. :-) This is also the type of question that I think inexperienced developers will have trouble answering correctly, while experienced developers are unlikely to miss. Because strlen() returns the length of the string (one thing), the count of that return is going to be 1. > I'm definatly not a regular expression master I bet you can miss every regular expression question and still pass the exam. Don't worry too much about a single topic, unless you're confident in every other area. Keep in mind that the exam is as broad as PHP itself, and there are only 70 questions. So, no single topic is going to be very important overall - you want to be fairly proficient in all areas. > The open ended 'name that function' questions worry me, as I've > always relied on the fine PHP manual for quick lookups when I > can't recall something. We kept this in mind when writing the questions. In general, when a quick reference to http://www.php.net/foo would tell you an answer, the question was thrown out. This includes the order of the arguments for most things, especially since PHP has a reputation for being inconsistent in this regard. :-) However, you should know the names of the common functions. I know that's vague, but I seriously doubt anyone who has been developing in PHP would not know what functions trims whitespace (trim), what function returns the length of a string (strlen), or what function can be used to set an HTTP header (header). On the other hand, it would be ridiculous to expect people to know what functions like cpdf_set_current_page(), crack_check(), or pfpro_init() do. You might be familiar with these functions, but I don't think anyone would consider them mainstream. Hope that helps, and good luck on the exam. Chris ===== Chris Shiflett - http://shiflett.org/ PHP Security - O'Reilly HTTP Developer's Handbook - Sams Coming December 2004 http://httphandbook.org/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
