About Google Certified Mobile Web Specialist Exam
I discovered Mobile Web Specialist Certificate by Google one month ago. Actually i'm still working developing mobile web ui with React and also React Native for my company but feels i need to learn much about Mobile Web area like PWA, Service Workers etc. So i thought that getting this certificate will be challenge for me.
Detail of Mobile Web Specialist Certificate Exam
It's a performance-based exam with some challenges (about 18–20) real-world task code. And you have 4 hours to complete your exam attend. Drums coming.. So you have 12–13 minute for each task.
Exam designed for testing the mobile web developer skills. So it needs at least 3 to 4 year front-end development experience. I must tell you, experience only is not enough. You should follow all mobile web related stuffs like Progressive Web App, Service Workers, Accessibility etc. Study Guide will help you while preparing exam.
I think most interesting part about exam is exit interview. Its just 10 minute interview with camera and microphone. You have to answer questions about exam. I have 5 questions if i am not wrong. They tries to understand did you do your exam yourself or somebody else. For example, one questions like "Which method did you use Front End Networking — Request challenge?". Google provides for cheating in this interview.
How to prepare exam?
Basically all internet is your source. You can follow its own Study Guide. Here the link
The other source that i found efficient:
- Google Code Lab — https://codelabs.developers.google.com/?cat=Web
- Google Web Fundamentals — https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/
- MDN Web Docs — https://developer.mozilla.org/tr/
Also Udacity (Google have nanodegree for Mobile Web Specialist here) free preparation courses:
- Responsive Web Design Fundamentals
- Responsive Images
- Web Accessibility
- Asynchronous JavaScript Requests
- ES6
- Offline Web Applications
- Web Tooling and Automation
I checked Nanodegree program but it is really expensive and takes 6 month to complete. Maybe it worth I think 1,200 USD is really high for this experience. I believe you can also learn without this. Thanks to internet :)
Exam Requirements
Hardware:
- 4 GB RAM and 2 GHz dual core processor
- Minimum 1280 x 768 resolution
- Webcam
Browser:
- Chrome 60 or Firefox 55
Language: Only English is available.
Cost : 99USD
How to attempt?
If you believe your preparation of exam, you need to click "Take Exam" button. From here: https://developers.google.com/training/certification/mobile-web-specialist/
But not just easy like that. After you pay 99$, they want you passport photo and your selfie photo. Not kidding.. And selfie must be from your computer not uploaded one. You can upload your passport photo but not selfie. They want one photo which your head and shoulders must be visible. (interesting i guess)
Then you choose your exam date and hour. While first day, i thought i can attend during payment day but unfortunately all slots are closed that day. So I choose 25 May, 10:00PM. (one mistake here..) If you don't happy your time, there is reschedule option. I said one mistake here, my exam finished at 2:00AM, I felt really sleepy and tired when it finished.
You have to attend your selection time in one hour. If you don't begin, one of attempt will be failed.
You can attempt 3 times.
After you receive your results, if you did not pass the exam, you may retake it in the following manner:
- If you do not pass your first attempt, you may immediately retake the exam.
- If you do not pass your second attempt, you will be eligible for your third attempt after a two month period.
- If after three attempts you still have not passed the exam, you must wait six months. After six months, if you still wish to take the exam, you must pay for the exam before taking it again.
During the exam..
You will be work on Linux-based environment. It has Terminal, Google Chrome, Atom, Visual Keyboard, etc. You have to step through each challenge with the code in Atom and testing and debugging it in Chrome.
I mentioned above, you have 4 hours to complete all tasks. So I recommend quite place without any distractions for that time. Not all task takes much time, but some of them will takes more than others.
You can use Google for finding functions and general topics, but you can't copy/paste entire code blocks, because it will likely cause you to fail.
Grading..
After exam and quit interview, they will review completed exam submissions and reply to candidates within 45 days. If you succeed, you have a mail:
“Congratulations, you are now a Google Certified Mobile Web Specialist!”.
I couldn't complete all task, I guess i will fail this attempt but i will try again. Because I choose the wrong timing (felt sleepy and tired) and not checked all thing in the Study Guide.
I hope, I will get this certificate. It's one of my goals for this year.