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| ## Node.js Certified Developer | ||
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| In December 2016, the Node.js Foundation held an in-person development workshop | ||
| after Node.js Interactive North America to accelerate work on its new Node.js | ||
| Certified Developer program. | ||
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| The certification program aims to establish a baseline for competency in | ||
| Node.js. While not an expert in all areas, developers who pass the certification | ||
| will be able to hit the ground running with Node.js professionally. | ||
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| The Job Task Analyis(JTA) working group determined specific topics for the exam | ||
| and the skills, knowledge and abilities a certified candidate should be able to | ||
| demonstrate to become a Node.js Certified Developer. | ||
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| The process for our workshop is explained below. We’ll start with a few | ||
| premises! | ||
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| #### We are certifying early Intermediate level developers. | ||
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| Developers who certify cannot do everything, but hit the ground running with a | ||
| Node.js job. | ||
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| Considering the constraints of the exam environment (isolated and proctored), we | ||
| needed to address concerns around security, exam item exposure, and cheating. | ||
| Discussions spanned the full gamut of what we use on a day to day basis as | ||
| Node.js developers. Amongst resources considered to have available/unavailable: | ||
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| - Google search | ||
| - Lodash, underscore | ||
| - JavaScript frameworks | ||
| - Node.js frameworks | ||
| - Testing frameworks | ||
| - A white list of modules | ||
| - Keeping resources within VM | ||
| - Potential of developers to create npm packages that have answers pre-coded and | ||
| this can be logistically taxing to monitor by the Certification team. | ||
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| The issue of the programming environment candidates would encounter as part of | ||
| the certification was discussed at length as well. Considerations included: | ||
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| - Important to be vendor-neutral, no lock-in | ||
| - Tiers of support for Node.js were talked about: Linux, Mac, Windows. Ways to | ||
| provide a single environment but account for those who develop outside of OSX | ||
| so they are not penalized. | ||
| - Make sure we're covering the approximate quirks that different operating | ||
| systems have in the answer logic/testing | ||
| - Write agnostic JavaScript/Node.js items | ||
| - Infrastructure may be provided by a third party with constraints as yet | ||
| unknown | ||
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| ### Scope | ||
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| Participants individually attempted scope statements in writing and then | ||
| presented them aloud while transcribed. The critical elements of each were | ||
| highlighted, captured, and combined into a single scope statement. | ||
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| >Node.js Certified Developers can work proficiently in JavaScript with the | ||
| Node.js platform to build, debug, test and maintain secure framework-independent applications and CLI tools. | ||
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| >They are capable of handling asynchronous I/O effectively and efficiently | ||
| to manipulate, transform and persist various data using HTTP, files, | ||
| streams, and multiple processes. They can leverage and integrate 3rd party | ||
| modules effectively. | ||
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| ### The Topics! | ||
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| The next order of business was to determine the primary domains of performance. | ||
| Participants named many topics, which were then transcribed and posted on large | ||
| (24” x 36”) Post-It sheets. As we converged on ideas, it was realized that some | ||
| topics were out of scope, others could be captured under another domain. The | ||
| determined Domains are: | ||
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| Below is the final blueprint. | ||
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| | # | DOMAIN | WEIGHT | | ||
| |:--: |--------------------------------------------------------------- |:------: | | ||
| | 1 | **Unit Testing** | 5% | | ||
| | 2 | **Diagnostics** (Basics, Debugging, Performance) | 5% | | ||
| | 3 | **http(s) TCP** | 11% | | ||
| | 4 | **Events** | 9% | | ||
| | 5 | **Child Processes** (Basics, no IPC/fork) | 7% | | ||
| | 6 | **Buffers and Streams** | 9% | | ||
| | 7 | **Error Handling** | 7% | | ||
| | 8 | **File System** | 7% | | ||
| | 9 | **Control flow** (Async tasks, Callbacks) | 10% | | ||
| | 10 | **CLI** (-E, -R, etc) | 3% | | ||
| | 11 | **Package.json** | 5% | | ||
| | 12 | **Javascript Prerequisites** (Closures, prototypes, var/let/const) | 6% | | ||
| | 13 | **Security** (Basics only) | 5% | | ||
| | 14 | **Module system** (Scope) | 6% | | ||
| | 15 | **Process/Operating System** (no IPC) | 5% | | ||
| | | Total | 100% | | ||
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| The most valuable and heated discussions of this workshop was in determining | ||
| these weights. The diversity of roles that were giving input to the | ||
| weights--hiring managers, trainers, teachers, and developers of a wide range of | ||
| experience levels is key in finding confidence in the selected weights. It is | ||
| important to note that we will monitor the performance of candidates in alpha | ||
| and beta testing to determine whether these need to be adjusted for setting a | ||
| passing score. | ||
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| Individual tasks were written for each domain and subtopic, however the working | ||
| group did such a great, detailed job that we risk exposing potential questions | ||
| for the exam. These tasks will the foundation of the Item Writing development | ||
| phase. | ||
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| ### Testing Details | ||
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| A test length of 3 ½ hours was deemed appropriate for the scope of the exam and | ||
| for human comfort/attention span. The test time includes introductory material, | ||
| practice items, instructions regarding control structure, as well as final | ||
| instructions regarding results reporting. | ||
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| The test will consist of approximately 30 items, depending on the results of | ||
| Beta testing. The test will be comprised of one form with item variants for | ||
| security purposes. | ||
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| Writing, editing and testing code are going to be the assessment mechanisms used | ||
| in this exam. In some items, partial code will be provided to the candidate to | ||
| reduce the time required to demonstrate the skills to be evaluated. In other | ||
| contexts, the candidate would write an entire program. | ||
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| No prerequisites or credentials are required to take the examination. This has | ||
| to be stated for those who are not familiar with certification programs. | ||
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| ### Recertification Interval | ||
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| Recertification requirements and interval: | ||
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| 1. Regulatory requirements: there are no regulatory requirements for Node.js. | ||
| 2. The exam will reflect changes to normative documents annually with LTS cycle. | ||
| 3. The exam will reviewed and updated every 2 years 4. The LTS release | ||
| support cycle reflects the nature and maturity of the industry or field in which | ||
| the certified person is working. 5. The risks resulting from an incompetent | ||
| person include the following: bad hire; lost recruitment money; incremental | ||
| training costs; missed deadlines. 6. Ongoing changes in technology, and | ||
| requirements for certified persons are reflected in ES releases 7. | ||
| Requirements of interested parties were taken into account in formulating the | ||
| task force, and will be included in guiding bodies for updating and revision of | ||
| the exam. Interested parties include: | ||
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| - Programmers Training companies Foundation Consultancy companies | ||
| - Organizations using Node Hiring managers | ||
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| 1. No surveillance activities are planned to evaluate certificants on an ongoing | ||
| basis. | ||
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| ### Test Retake Interval | ||
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| In order to maintain current certification, certificants will be required to | ||
| retake the Node.js certification exam every two years. | ||
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| ### Exam Review Interval | ||
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| Because of changes to the Node language, every two years the exam will be | ||
| reviewed for content appropriateness and accuracy. If it is determined that the | ||
| exam needs substantial revision, then another JTA will be undertaken. | ||
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| ### Recommended learning materials | ||
| (to be refined and moved to a separate document) | ||
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| A subset of these will be provided as part of the isolated exam environment. | ||
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| - Node docs | ||
| - node_modules readme files | ||
| - MDN JavaScript docs | ||
| - Package.json docs | ||
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| #### Books | ||
| - [Eloquent Javascript](http://eloquentjavascript.net/) | ||
| - [HTTP – the Definitive Guide](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565925090.do) | ||
| - [HTTP Developer’s Handbook](https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9780672324543) | ||
| - [Node Cookbook](https://www.packtpub.com/web-development/node-cookbook-second-edition) | ||
| - [Node Up and Running](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001808/index.html) | ||
| - [Node.js in Action](https://www.manning.com/books/node-js-in-action-second-edition) | ||
| - [Node.js the Right Way](https://pragprog.com/book/jwnode/node-js-the-right-way) | ||
| - [You Don’t Know JS](https://pragprog.com/book/jwnode/node-js-the-right-way) | ||
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| #### URLs | ||
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| - IETF | ||
| - [RFC 2616](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616) | ||
| - [RFC 7230](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7230) | ||
| - [RFC 7231](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231) | ||
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| #### Training Materials | ||
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| - [NodeSchool.io](https://nodeschool.io/) | ||
| - learnyounode | ||
| - scope-chains-closures | ||
| - stream-adventure |