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To keep the Salesforce certification, we should take maintenance exam for 3 release per year. Since the prerequisites for Advanced Developer is completion of DEV401 and ADM201 for Sales Cloud/Service Cloud. But I still can't understand which exam should I take if I want to maintain both Advanced Developer or Sales/Service Cloud Certification.

Do I have to take DEV401/ADM201 each time when the release comes out (that means 3 times a year) to maintain Advanced Developer or Sales/Service Cloud Certification? Or should we take the normal maintenance exam like applied for DEV401 and ADM201?

Many Thanks!

Jay

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My original answer was incorrect.

As Jesse points out below, "There are only two different types of maintenance exams." i.e. one for developers and one for admins.

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  • Thanks Wes! Is that mean if I had DEV501 Certificate, then I just have to do DEV401 maintenance exam for each release? Not the complete new DEV401 exam right? – bedhes Feb 19 '13 at 10:13
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    Wes, are you sure you need to do a release exam for each certification you have ? My understanding was that if you have admin+2 consultant certifications, you only have to do a single release exam. So a single release exam per track, no matter how many certifications you have in the track. – Samuel De Rycke Feb 19 '13 at 10:50
  • I thought the way like you @Sdry, since I've never seen any release exam only for specific certification module in webassessor. But I just need a confirmation about this from someone who has advanced, consultant or technical architect certification. – bedhes Feb 19 '13 at 11:05
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There are only two different types of maintenance exams. If you look at any of the release training, you will find this on the bottom:

Note – If you are a Salesforce.com Certified Advanced Administrator, Service Cloud Consultant, or Sales Cloud Consultant, you must complete the Certified Administrator exam. If you are a Salesforce.com Certified Advanced Developer or a Salesforce.com Certified Technical Architect, you must take the Certified Force.com Developer exam.

So, this breaks down like:

Admin Maintenance Exam covers:

  • Salesforce.com Certified Administrator
  • Salesforce.com Certified Advanced Administrator
  • Salesforce.com Certified Service Cloud Consultant
  • Salesforce.com Certified Sales Cloud Consultant

Developer Maintenance Exam covers:

  • Salesforce.com Certified Developer
  • Salesforce.com Certified Advanced Developer
  • Salesforce.com Certified Technical Architect

So, if you have every certification, taking just two maintenance exams will cover you for all of them.

As far as studying for it goes, just go over the material they provide in the Learning Center. Take Summer '12 for instance, notice how they break down exactly which videos to watch. If you watch those videos, I guarantee you will pass. The tests are generally very simply (5-15 questions) and are meant to keep your knowledge of the platform up-to-date. You pay $100 every 3 releases (aka $100 a year).

If for some reason you do fail a maintenance exam, you get another 2 more tries for free. If you can not pass the maintenance exam in 3 tries, well, you really don't deserve to keep the cert at that point. Good luck, but it really isn't very difficult.

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  • It's not about the difficulty of the release exam. I've done all up to date release exam, and it was really not difficult at all. The question was, do we have to take the full DEV401 or ADM201 to maintain the full certification rights for advanced and implementation experts. But I think the question has been answered already above. – bedhes Feb 19 '13 at 13:47
  • Oh, you mean the actual course? Of course not, you don't need to take the course to do the certification the first time. If you are referring to the main exam, once again, no you don't need to do that. I referenced the Salesforce official documentation to outline exactly what is required. – Jesse Altman Feb 19 '13 at 13:52
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    Just asking out of curiosity: If a person has ADM, Sales, and Service, and fails 3 attempts of a single ADM maintenance exam, all 3 certifications, i.e., ADM, Sales, and Service, becomes null and void, right? – Shumon Saha Feb 20 '13 at 10:00
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    @BarneyRubble I am not really sure to be honest. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt though that failing it 3 times will not happen if you watch the videos. You can literally know nothing, watch the videos, and pass. They make them easy because their main purpose is keeping you up-to-date on the platform. They want you to pass these exams. – Jesse Altman Feb 20 '13 at 13:08
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    That should be correct. It looks like they reformatted the release training page, but those are the types of videos they provide. – Jesse Altman Feb 20 '13 at 15:54
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There are certification 2 branches, the admin-consultant branch and the developer-architect branch. For each branch, you will need to do the appropriate release exame for every new release. But, release exames are usually not that many questions, and if you are up to date with your knowledge they are not something you should fear or heavily prepare for.

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