The current scope of the advanced widget UI exam. What do you think?
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The "Advanced widget UI" is the second exam we have in beta now. Its scope is available "here":http://qt.nokia.com/developer/learning/qt-curriculum/advanced-exam-curricula/advanced-widget-ui-curriculum. We would like to get your feedback about its content too.
The rational for this exam is different to the C++ one. This exam covers one of the "good old" areas of Qt :-) One could even say "where Qt started". It is focused on everything around making application GUI based on widgets. Note that the scope does not include graphics, even though it is really needed again and again in almost each GUI. The reason for this is that graphics is going to get its own exam in the future.
What do you think about this scope? Does it cover areas you have experienced in your projects? Any omissions? Additions?
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I took both advanced exams on devdays in munich and liked both.
I found the c++ one to be simpler than the advanced widgets one, but then I tend to concentrate on non-UI topics during my daily work.
PS: Of course I did not try to answer everything correctly to lower the bar. So if I failed: That is the reason;-)
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IMHO ActiveX shouldn't be included at all (it is too specific part of framework).
Also networking and sql are not fitting name of exam - "widget UI". So I tihnk we will have them in next exams :) -
I took both the exams in München, and though I did leave some comments on some of the specific questions, I think they were not bad. However, I do think the scope is a bit off. Threading does not really belong in a Widgets exam, but may be more in in place together with SQL, XML networking and other backend technologies in a separate exam. I agree with Denis that ActiveX is a bit too specific. It is nice that it is there, but it should not be an exam topic IMO.
The focus on lots of code samples that you have to make statements about is a good one IMHO. It is good that there is less focus on having to know things. The essentials exam was too focussed on that. For some cases, perhaps you can even considder giving access to the API docs. A real-life programmer uses those docs next to his editor too. Somebody proficient in Qt will be able to look up exact method names and argument orders very quickly, while somebody who is trying to pass without the required skills will not have time to find everything he needs.
A general comment: it would be nice to get some kind of feedback on how well you did, other than a passed/failed. A percentage perhaps?
I am curious to what the future of Qt certification will bring. Will we see special QML & developing for the mobile programs? Certification based on code reviews? Exciting times...
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Andre: Any serious application will want to keep the UI responsive, so any developer should know some basics of multi threading. At least enough to be able to understand the code somebody else did for him:-)
I do think it makes sense to cover it here, but of course a backend technology exam needs to cover the topic more in depth.
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Tobias: perhaps, but techniques to do that differ a lot per application. Threading is nice if your operations are CPU bound, and even then it is not the only option. It won't help you much when you're dealing with keeping your application responsive when working with the network or file/IO, although you could use threading there too. If it is about keeping your application responsive, then other concepts for async programming are just as important. So, I do understand the importance, but I don't think it is more important than the basics of the other techniques I mentioned. Every application will also need to process/access data, perhaps access the net or work with a database. Why ask for the basics of threading, and not for the basics of those?
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Andre: I am not involved with the certification, so I can not really explain why something was included or not. This all this is just my 2 cents on the issue.
I still think it makes sense:-)
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I was quite disappointed by the exam: 30 questions in 60 minutes are simply not enough for covering all the topics "in the curriculum":http://qt.nokia.com/developer/learning/qt-curriculum/advanced-exam-curricula/advanced-widget-ui-curriculum .
My 2 cents:
there are ~70 items in that list; to call it an advanced Qt exam, I would expect two or three questions per item, while as of now, it's barely one question every two items;
please add questions covering other solid, well-known, tested parts of Qt. For instance, why in a "UI" exam curriculum there should be topics like "GPL, LGPL or Commercial: which license should you choose" and no questions about QGraphicsView or WebKit?
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peppe, I don't think Graphics Framework should be included. It is rather big topic and can be made as one more exam.
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I think the curriculum is just a sample what the developer taking the exam is expected to know and most of the stuff can be learned by experience and practice, not read them through before taking the exam.
