Greetings, fellow developers! Step into the realm where lines of code weave the fabric of digital experiences. I'm your guide on this journey—a seasoned fullstack developer with a year-long immersion in Sitecore XM Cloud. Having developed a framework, Constellation, to streamline the developer experience, I bring firsthand insights into the intricate tapestry of XM Cloud. Freshly certified and armed with the knowledge gained from crafting solutions in the real world, I'm here to share the keys to unlock your own certification success. Join me as we navigate the nuances of Experience Manager, delve into the magic of Sitecore Next.js SDK, and unravel the secrets that make XM Cloud a playground for digital innovators. Let's dive in and sculpt your path to certification brilliance!

XM Cloud Unwrapped: A Certification Guide for Developers

🚀 Embarking on the journey of mastering Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud (XM Cloud) certification is an exciting venture into the heart of a headless content management system that forms the bedrock of a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP) centered around content. Within the realm of XM Cloud, you'll find the latest iterations of Experience Manager, Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA), Headless Services, Sitecore Next.js SDK, Experience Edge, and the intuitive Pages content editor. The beauty of XM Cloud lies in its seamless Software as a Service (SaaS) nature, where Sitecore shoulders the responsibilities of hosting, monitoring, and maintenance, allowing you to channel your energy into crafting innovative functionalities and seamlessly integrating other composable solutions. In this blog post, let's unravel the layers of the XM Cloud Certified exam structure, share valuable tips, and illuminate the path to success in this dynamic domain.

Competencies and exam structure

Competency 1: XM Cloud Architecture and Developer Workflow

This competency is worth 12% of the exam (6 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a Developer should be able to describe the developer workflow and manage the architecture of XM Cloud. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Define Sitecore XM Cloud-specific terminology
• Describe the benefits of cloud and SaaS arhcitecture for composable DXP foundations
• Define key components within the developer workflow for XM Cloud
• Manage sites within site collections

Competency 2: Deployment of XM Cloud Projects

This competency is worth 16% of the exam (8 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to deploy new projects using both the Deploy Application and sitecore CLI. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Log into and navigate the XM Cloud Deploy Application
• Deploy a project using a starter template
  • Set up an XM Cloud local development enviroment
• Define the attributes of a starter template
  • Deploy a project using Source Code Provider
• Define compatibility requiremnts for deploying your own code
• Configure repositories and enviroments
  • Connect to your repository
  • Create enviroments such as production, QA, and test
  • Configure deploys on demand or automatically bsaed on code commits to a watched branch
• Review project details to determine deployment status
• Review logs to troubleshoot errors

Competency 3: Renderings and Layouts

This competency is worth 14% of the exam (7 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to create and manage components. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Create new components using the Component Builder
• Create placeholder settings items and set allowed controls
• Create and manage Page Designs and Partial Designs
• Create a custom SXA module
• Create component definition items
  • Set the compatible renderings on a rendering defition item
  • Set the Datasource location and data source template fields
  • Set up renderings parameters
  • Clone a rendering
  • Create and manage headless variants
• Configure item security properly for existing and future items

Competency 4: Sitecore Content Serialization

This competency is worth 14% of the exam (7 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to use Sitecore Content Serialization (SCS) to manage content and item changes among a team of developers To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Serialize and deserialize items from source contorl using the Sitecore CLI
  • Connect to a local or remote XM Cloud hosted instance
• Configure a Serialization Module with included paths and rules
• Use serialization packages for continous integration

Competency 5: Sitecore APIs & Webhooks

This competency is worth 10% of the exam (5 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to handle webhooks and use the Sitecore APIs. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Use Experience Edge API to query an item, layout or search
• Use GraphQL mutations to create, update, and delete items
• Define and handle webhooks

Competency 6: XM Cloud Pages

This competency is worth 10% of the exam (5 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to create, edit, and publish page designs and components using Pages. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Create and edit items using Sitecore Pages
• Add and modify components and components properties
  • Differentiate between Front End as a Service components and Headless SXA components
  • Add and change a component’s data source
  • Modify a component’s Grid layout settings
• Use Workflow to publish content
• Preview a page on multiple devices

Competency 7: Security for Developers

This competency is worth 10% of the exam (5 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer should be able to configure the enviroment and CM user security settings, and create and manage users and roles to meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Create users in the Sitecore Cloud Portal
• Configure and assign roles in the Sitecore XM Cloud Role Manager
• Manage permissions for items, roles and users
• Configure multifactor authentication

Competency 8: Data Modeling

This competency is worth 14% of the exam (7 questions)

To be certified in Sitecore XM Cloud, a developer must be able to create and manipulate items and data templates. To meet this competency, you should be able to:

• Create data templates, standard values, and set inset options to match the data structures outlined in a development plan
  • Configure bsae templates for a data template
  • Create fields on a data template
• Manage language and numbered versions of items
• Data Model mapping to Experience Edge Schema

Tips and tricks

Brace yourself for success! As you gear up for the Sitecore XM Cloud Certification, pay close attention to the upcoming tips and tricks. These insights will shine a spotlight on crucial areas, guiding your focus during exam preparation. These tips are your secret weapon for a stellar performance. Let's dive into the essentials that can make all the difference in acing the exam!

• In the Sitecore Cloud Portal, if a team member has an Organization Admin or Organizarion Owner role, they have an Admin role in all XM Clouds apps in the organization
• Configure Datasource template to filter content items based on a template
• To create a new XM Cloud project, you must be an organization admin or organization owner in an XM Cloud organization
• External components are previewed in a separate tab of the builder, and can’t be previewed in Pages
• createItem GraphQL mutation is used to create Sitecore items
• Admin API: ClearCacheForTenant - Clears the entire cache for a given tenant
• Sitecore Data Exchange Framework is designed to facilitate data transfer between Sitecore and third-party systems
• If the path of a specific module file is not set in the sitecore.json file, the paths and related items included in the module will not be serialized when you run a push or pull command
• In case of Rules section properties in module.json, path and scope are mandatory
• In case of Includes section properties in module.json, name and path are mandatory
• Standard Values help define default field values, usually go hand-in-hand with tokens
• SPE scripts available for Remove Site Collection, Remove Site, Remove Site Collection Folder, or Remove Site Folder