Quick links
This is the study guide for the Acquia Certified Personalization Developer Pro Examination.
This guide explains the exam blueprint, breaks down knowledge domains, and helps you get familiar with the nature of questions asked in the exam. It also provides helpful steps to prepare for the exam and links to further resources for study and preparation.
About the exam
The following is the key information about the exam:
- Exam name: Acquia Certified Personalization Developer Pro
- Exam duration: 60 minutes
- Exam length: 40 questions
- Pass/Fail mark: 65%
The purpose of this exam is to validate skills and knowledge of developers that design, implement, and maintain the Acquia Personalization application. These individuals are directly responsible for supporting leadership in understanding the benefits of personalizing and the marketers that design and launch campaigns.
This exam validates a candidate’s ability to:
- Configure Acquia Personalization for building personalization campaigns
- Understand and implement the best practices of Acquia Personalization
- Support marketing and leadership teams that personalize
Steps to certification
Newcomer: You are absolutely new to Drupal and Acquia products.
Intermediate: You are an Acquia Certified Drupal Developer or Acquia Certified Backend Specialist but are new to Acquia Personalization.
Advanced: You are an Acquia Certified Drupal Developer or Acquia Certified Backend Specialist, have Acquia Personalization development experience, and wish to get certified.
Take Acquia Academy product introduction courses
All skill levels are encouraged to leverage the courses within the Acquia Personalization learning plan. Learning plans are the best guide to move learners in a curated and chronological order toward certification.
Customers can access these and many other courses for free by self-registering on Acquia Academy at https://customers.acquiaacademy.com. All other audiences can see Acquia Academy documentation for registration instructions. Once they have an account, they can log in to Acquia Academy and review the courses as many times as they like.
Gain practical experience
Completing the courses alone will not prepare you to pass the certification exam. You need to have some real-life, practical experience to attempt the exam. For this purpose, we recommend that you gain practical experience by working on at least 2-3 projects utilizing Acquia Personalization.
Perform self-assessment
Once you decide to take the exam, we recommend that you study the domains and topics covered by the exam and their relative weights. You should also perform a self-assessment of your own areas of strength and weakness against the domains and topics detailed in the exam blueprint. This is a recommended starting point for experienced Personalization users.
Use labs and study guide
Based on your self-assessment, you may need to gain knowledge and experience in some domains or topics. The best way to learn is by working or experimenting with the tools. Follow the suggestions given for preparation in the Preparation section and refer to the external resources given in the Study Guide section.
Appear for the exam
At this stage, you should be ready to take the exam. For instructions about registering for the exam, see Exam Registration. You may choose from an online proctored or an onsite proctored exam delivery option.
Exam domains
Note
This exam blueprint includes topics/domains and test objectives to help guide the test taker. They should not be construed as a comprehensive listing of all of the content on this examination.
| Domain | % of Questions |
|---|---|
| 1.0 Fundamental Personalization Concepts | 10% |
| 2.0 Installation and Initial Configuration | 20% |
| 3.0 Building Campaigns and Segments | 35% |
| 4.0 Testing and Training (Technical Handoff) | 35% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Content
Domain 1.0: Fundamental Personalization Concepts
1.1. Demonstrate understanding of fundamental concepts of website personalization
1.2. Demonstrate understanding of benefits and limitations of personalization
1.3. Demonstrate ability to build organizational understanding for personalization
Domain 2.0: Installation and Initial Configuration
2.1. Demonstrate ability to install the Personalization module, enforce configuration, and ensure site readiness
2.2. Demonstrate ability to configure, test, and set up data collection
Domain 3.0: Building Campaigns and Segments
3.1. Demonstrate ability to collect data
3.2. Demonstrate ability to understand and use Profile data
3.3. Demonstrate ability to define and use Segments
3.4. Demonstrate understanding of Analytics provided by Personalization
3.5. Demonstrate ability to configure Personalization in Management & Permissions
Domain 4.0: Testing and Training (Technical Handoff)
4.1. Demonstrate ability to test and validate that personalization is running
4.2. Demonstrate ability to display content, leveraging the browser’s inspect tool for verification
4.3. Determine accuracy of the data reported
4.4. Ensure data is moving to strengthen Profile Manager into information
4.5. Troubleshooting suspicious functionality completed by team members
Self-assessment
Experienced developers will likely know their weaknesses more than they know their strengths. You might have judged your own skill levels while reading through the exam domains. It is quite natural for you to be more experienced and proficient in one domain than another. Also, within a domain, it is likely that you have hands-on experience with some topics but have never touched other areas within the same domain.
How to use self-assessment
We suggest you perform a skills and expertise self-analysis with respect to the domains and topics listed in the blueprint. The blueprint lists test objectives (topics) for each domain. Rank your skills on a scale of 0 to 10 against each test objective (0 for absolutely zero knowledge or exposure and 10 for complete mastery).
- Topics with a score of 8+ are your strengths.
- Topics with a score of 5 to 7 will need some preparation.
- Topics with a score below 5 may require a lot of preparation, or guided instruction.
You may use the following table to carry out your evaluation.
Acquia Certified Personalization Developer Pro self-assessment table
| Domain | Topic | Your Score (1-10) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fundamental Personalization Concepts | |
| 1.1 | Demonstrate understanding of fundamental concepts of website personalization | |
| 1.2 | Demonstrate understanding of benefits and limitations of personalization | |
| 1.3 | Demonstrate ability to build organizational understanding for personalization | |
| 2 | Installation and Initial Configuration | |
| 2.1 | Demonstrate ability to install the Personalization module, enforce configuration, and ensure site readiness | |
| 2.2 | Demonstrate ability to configure, test, and set up data collection | |
| 3 | Building Campaigns and Segments | |
| 3.1 | Demonstrate ability to collect data | |
| 3.2 | Demonstrate ability to understand and use Profile data | |
| 3.3 | Demonstrate ability to define and use Segments | |
| 3.4 | Demonstrate understanding of Analytics provided by Personalization | |
| 3.5 | Demonstrate ability to configure Acquia Personalization in Management & Permissions | |
| 4 | Testing and Training (Technical Handoff) | |
| 4.1 | Demonstrate ability to test and validate that personalization is running | |
| 4.2 | Demonstrate ability to display content, leveraging the browser’s inspect tool for verification | |
| 4.3 | Determine accuracy of the data reported | |
| 4.4 | Ensure data is moving to strengthen Profile Manager into information | |
| 4.5 | Troubleshooting suspicious functionality completed by team members |
Preparation
Once you have a list of topics you need to review, you will possibly face two challenges:
- Find and study documentation and knowledge resources for the topics.
- Find enough practical case studies covering the topics.
Knowledge resources
Customers and Partners can self-register on the appropriate branch of Acquia Academy and take courses in the relevant domain to refresh their knowledge.
Available courses include:
- Acquia Personalization Onboarding Overview
- Creating Personalizations with Acquia Personalization
- Acquia Personalization Developer Kickstart
A list of online resources and documentation for each learning domain appears in the Study Guide section.
Study guide
Domain 1.0: Fundamental Personalization Concepts
1.1 Demonstrate understanding of fundamental concepts of website personalization
| Topic | Link |
|---|---|
| Using campaigns in Acquia Personalization | Using campaigns in Personalization |
| Creating and managing segments | Creating and managing segments |
| Creating and managing events | Creating and managing events (see also Goals) |
| Creating and managing goals | Creating and managing goals |
| Creating personalized slots | Creating personalized slots |
| Acquia Personalization Glossary | Personalization glossary |
1.2 Demonstrate understanding of benefits and limitations of personalization
| Topic | Link |
|---|---|
| Personalize Drupal with Acquia Personalization | How to Deliver Personalized Brand Experiences |
| Acquia’s approach to Personalization | Acquia’s Approach to Personalization |
1.3 Demonstrate ability to build organizational understanding for personalization
| Topic | Link |
|---|---|
| Touches by UTM content detail report | Touches by UTM content detail report |
Domain 2.0: Installation and Initial Configuration
2.1 Demonstrate ability to install the Personalization module, enforce configuration, and ensure site readiness
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Installing Acquia Personalization | Installing the Acquia Personalization module |
| Mapping taxonomy terms to Personalization | Mapping taxonomy terms to Personalization |
| Building personalized experiences | Building personalized experiences |
| Initializing content for campaigns | Initializing content for campaigns |
| Configuring Personalization settings | Configuring personalization settings |
2.2 Demonstrate ability to configure, test, and set up data collection
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Creating personalized slots | Creating personalized slots |
| Installing Personalization | Installing the Acquia Personalization module |
| Leveraging taxonomies to track user behavior | Utilizing Taxonomies to Track User Behavior |
| Configuring personalization settings | Configuring personalization settings |
| Limiting data collection and excluding Drupal entities | Limiting data collection and excluding Drupal entities |
| Ad-blocking and Personalization | Ad blocking and Personalization |
Domain 3.0: Profile Manager / Campaign Builder
3.1 Demonstrate ability to collect data
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Creating and managing goals | Creating and managing goals |
| Using the Personalization APIs | Using the Personalization APIs |
3.2 Demonstrate ability to understand and use Profile data
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Examining visitor information | Examining visitor information |
| Profile Manager | Profile Manager |
3.3 Demonstrate ability to define and use Segments
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Creating and managing segments | Creating and managing segments |
| Segment examples | Segment examples |
3.4 Demonstrate understanding of Analytics provided by Personalization
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Using reports and dashboards in Profile Manager | Using reports and dashboards in Personalization |
| Viewing reports in Personalization | Viewing reports in Personalization |
3.5 Demonstrate ability to configure Acquia Personalization in Management & Permissions
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Configuring personalization settings | Configuring personalization settings |
| Data warehouse | Data warehouse |
| Using the Personalization APIs | Using the Personalization APIs |
Domain 4.0: Testing and Training (Technical Handoff)
4.1 Demonstrate ability to test and validate that personalization is running
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Demonstrate ability to test and validate that personalization is running | We are reassembling best practice documentation into a single link. The new URL is currently TBD. |
| Creating personalized slots | Creating personalized slots |
4.2 Demonstrate ability to display content, leveraging the browser’s inspect tool for verification
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Cookies used by Personalization | Cookies used by Personalization |
4.3 Determine Accuracy of the Data Reported
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Examining visitor information | Examining visitor information |
| Displaying Personalization diagnostic messages | Displaying Personalization diagnostic messages |
| Using Google Tag Manager with Personalization | Using Google Tag Manager with Personalization |
| Default segment criteria | Default segment criteria |
4.4 Ensure data is moving to strengthen Profile Manager into information
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| captureIdentity - Personalization JavaScript API | captureIdentity - Personalization JavaScript API |
| Configuring personalization settings | Configuring personalization settings |
| Data warehouse Person field types | person_identifier table |
| Capture visitor identity with Google Tag Manager | Capture visitor identity with Google Tag Manager |
4.5 Ensure data is moving to strengthen Profile Manager into information
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Using campaigns in Personalization | Using campaigns in Personalization |