My journey to becoming an Associate Android Developer Certified by Google.
I will say I’m a lucky person because it’s less than a year I started Programming and I got a scholarship from Andela for the Google’s Associate Android Developer Course.
As expected I was elated, it was like a dream come true for me since it’s the first time receiving a scholarship.
The journey wasn’t easy though, It got even tougher since I was also a Facilitator for beginner’s level. God stood by me and I was able to combine both successfully.
As a Facilitator,
Some of the participants made tutoring them challenging especially when it came to the aspect of coding, I mean Java, because some where already conversant with it, it was as if I was being dragged and slowed by those who didn’t know Java, do had to take a it slow and make sure that we got everyone on the same page, so that they all could learn as a team and enjoy the process with no hitch and because the facility we used was a government owned property, at some point, we were almost stranded due to some public holidays.
As intermediate learners, we were grouped into teams by our awesome program managers. They encouraged us to hold one another accountable and inspire each other into completing the courses, projects and taking the certification exam… guess what ? I was the first learner in the first team (Coded Squad).
That alone was a lot of motivation to me so I always strive to be the first in completing the projects. We had 3 projects to complete in total but I ended up doing 4 projects, HOW ?
Yes, I completed the first project (Popular Movie App stage 1)earlier than expected, then I went on in completing the second project (Popular Movie App Stage 2) and I was able to beat the timeline given to us. The third project was StockHawk which I did successfully before UDACITY changed the project to BakingApp as at this time I was done with the course, but because this change, I had go back and complete the new project making it 4 projects in total. I was happy with myself that I did all 4.
The exam was not very difficult and the time given should have been enough to complete and pass it if you went through the training. It covers everything an entry level Android developer should know. It was designed to be flexible and allowed a bit of creative freedom in completing the tasks so there are usually multiple ways to go about solving the problem. The only caveat was you were not allowed to rename or move the classes. To be comfortable taking the exam, one should have knowledge of activities, content providers and databases, services, Espresso testing, creating xml layouts, debugging, creating and using custom views, creating background tasks, activity lifecycle etc… The exam also requires you use Android Studio 2.3+ (as at the time of writing this post). so you are advised to update your Android studio before starting the exam. Most of this information was given to us by Philip Okonkwo one of the learner who took the exams before me during ALC Intermediate Projec-thon meetup .
After taking the exams what next ?
This was when I felt my dream of being certified by Google had ended due to VERIFICATION Process.
I tried verifying with over 5 different IDs and all I was getting was the above message, I didn’t know what to do next, so I ran back to our program managers and then filed a complain.
I don’t know how they did it but few days later i got this email;
So I immediately scheduled for an exit interview. The exit interview involved routine Android questions that you should have answers to if you did the exam yourself. It’s just to test your skills and knowledge and, if you were able to answer questions that proved your knowledge and also provide a valid ID again the second time. With all this accurately put in place, an email will be sent to you confirming that you are now a Google Certified Associate Android Developer.
My advice to anyone planning to take the exam,
- Take your time to read what your app does
- Try completing the tasks in the order they are arranged, this will ensure you don’t miss any.
- Understand everything you do in the app, that might be a question in the exit interview.
Special thanks to GOD Almighty first, because without Him all this wouldn’t have been possible. I also wish to thank Andela and the entire #AndelaALC17 team not forgetting our awesome program managers Chimdindu Aneke and Awosupin Olalere Solomon, you guys really made us proud and to everyone who has contributed to the success of this program, I say THANK YOU.
Many Thanks to Start Innovation Hub especially the CEO Hanson Johnson for his support , encouragement and resources. Thanks for believing in me.