Just remember, love is live, and hate is living death!

When upgrading to Delphi XE, or maybe some weeks later, I noticed the offer of a free certification that came with buying the upgrade. So I visited the Delphi Developer Certification website, read the study guide, and had a split opinion.

I’m a low level coder. If I use databases, I use SQLite or WySQL libraries directly, without the overhead of Delphis database components. Some questions deal with this. Guessing how many areas there are and that you need only 80% of correct answers to pass, I decided I could have some lack of knowledge here.

Another area are generics and anonymous methods. Before upgrading from Delphi 2006, I never cared about them, so I had to learn. Not that difficult, I reserved half a day and knew everything I needed.

Meanwhile, time has passed, since work is more fun than exams, and I requested the serial for the exam the last day possible, and took the exam again the last possible day. Wouldn’t have needed to, since answering the majority of questions took 15 minutes, with another 15 minutes spent on 5 questions I was unsure about.

If you also have a free go at the test, I can only recommend taking it. Even if you don’t prepare, you won’t loose anything, but if you spend some time on preparation and have a few years of background, I think it’s easy to pass.