MySQL Certification: Exam Update as of February 1st 2005

[Carsten Pedersen]

Hi,

On February 1st, 2005, the MySQL Certification Exams will be updated to
reflect the changes that have taken place with the release of MySQL
Server version 4.1.

Changes in the Exams
====================

The following presents a high-level overview of the changes that will
occur on the exams as they are upgraded from MySQL 4.0 to MySQL 4.1.
For further information, and to download the MySQL Certification Study
Guide Addendum, please see http://www.mysql.com/certification/

Changes to the Core Exam
========================
      * Structural changes: The exam section MySQL and MySQL AB is
        reduced from taking up 10% of the exam questions to 5%. The
        section SELECT statements is increased from taking up 10% of the
        exam questions to 15%.
      * In the exam section Using MySQL Client Programs, questions on
        the MySQL Control Center (mysqlcc) are removed. This product is
        no longer under active development by MySQL AB, and has been
        replaced by the new GUI tools MySQL Administrator and MySQL
        Query Browser. Note that MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query
        Browser are not included in the MySQL Certification Program at
        this time.
      * The exam section Using Client Programs will contain questions on
        using server-side help, as well as questions on specifying
        connection protocols for client/server communication.
      * In the section Data Definition Language, questions on new
        TIMESTAMP behavior and storage requirements for character
        strings will appear.
      * Questions on subqueries, the GROUP_CONCAT() function, and GROUP
        BY ... WITH ROLLUP will appear in the section SELECT statements.
      * In the exam section Basic SQL, you should be prepared to answer
        questions on prepared statements.
      * The exam section Update Statements will contain questions on
        INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.

Changes to the Professional Exam
================================
There will be no structural changes to the Professional exam. However,
questions will appear on the topics described in the Study Guide
Addendum

      * Knowledge of the Cluster storage engine will be part of the exam
        section MySQL Architecture.
      * The exam section Optimizing for Query Speed will contain
        questions on using different index types for MEMORY tables.
      * SHOW WARNINGS will be part of the section Advanced Server
        Features.

New Features in MySQL 4.1 Not on the Exam
=========================================
MySQL Server 4.1 introduces some completely new features that are
important in their own right. But the area of application for these
features is so new that they do not fit into the framework of general
MySQL usage. We mention them here for the sake of completeness, and to
clarify that they will not appear on the exam.

* MySQL server now supports the spatial data types required for
  analyzing geographic features. The spatial data types allow you to
  store locations (such as lakes, cities, postcode areas, street
  intersections) in the database, and retrieve them using special
  functions. Most often, the spatial functions will, given a border,
  select those locations that are within the border, outside the border
  or which intersect the border.

* Apart from briefly covering the need to be aware of potential new
  storage requirements, the exam does not touch upon newly introduced
  support for character sets and character collations.

If you are taking the exam on or after February 1st 2005, you should
download and familiarize yourself with the MySQL Certification Study
Guide Addendum found on http://www.mysql.com/certification/

Best regards

Carsten Pedersen

-- 
Discuss MySQL certification on our forums: http://forums.mysql.com/ 

Carsten Pedersen, Certification Manager
MySQL AB, http://www.mysql.com