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· 11 hr ago

Do you have the InterSystems IRIS SQL Specialist certification? Beta testers needed for our upcoming InterSystems IRIS SQL Professional certification exam

#Certification #SQL #InterSystems IRIS #InterSystems IRIS for Health

Hello IRIS community,

InterSystems Certification is currently developing a certification exam for InterSystems IRIS SQL professionals, and if you match the exam candidate description given below, we would like you to beta test the exam! The exam will be available for beta testing starting May 19, 2025.

Please note: Only candidates with the pre-existing InterSystems IRIS SQL Specialist certification are eligible to take the beta. Interested in the beta but don’t have the SQL Specialist certification? Take the SQL Specialist exam!

Eligible candidates will receive an email from the certification team on May 19, 2025 with instructions on scheduling the exam.

Beta testing will be completed June 30, 2025.

What are my responsibilities as a beta tester?

You will schedule and take the exam by June 30th. The exam will be administered in an online proctored environment free of charge (the standard fee of $150 per exam is waived for all beta testers). The InterSystems Certification team will then perform a careful statistical analysis of all beta test data to set a passing score for the exam. The analysis of the beta test results will take 6-8 weeks, and once the passing score is established, you will receive an email notification from InterSystems Certification informing you of the results. If your score on the exam is at or above the passing score, you will have earned the certification!

Note: Beta test scores are completely confidential.

How is this exam different from the InterSystems IRIS SQL Specialist exam?

This new exam - InterSystems IRIS SQL Professional - covers higher-level SQL topics and is recommended for candidates with 4 to 6 years of relevant experience, compared to the 1 to 2 years recommended for the SQL Specialist exam.

Interested in participating? Read the Exam Details below.

Exam Details

Exam title: InterSystems IRIS SQL Professional

Candidate description: A developer or solutions architect who

  • Designs IRIS SQL applications
  • Manages IRIS SQL operations
  • Uses IRIS SQL
  • Loads and efficiently queries datasets stored in IRIS SQL

Number of questions: 38

Time allotted to take exam: 2 hours

Recommended preparation: Review the content below before taking the exam.

Online Learning:

Recommended practical experience:

  • 4 to 6 years of experience developing and managing IRIS SQL applications is recommended.
  • At least 2 years of experience working with ObjectScript and globals in InterSystems IRIS is recommended.

Exam practice questions

A set of practice questions to familiarize candidates with question formats and approaches will be provided here on May 14, 2025.

Exam format

The questions are presented in two formats: multiple choice and multiple response. Access to InterSystems IRIS Documentation will be available during the exam.

DISCLAIMER: Please note this exam has a 2-hour time limit. While InterSystems documentation will be available during the exam, candidates will not have time to search the documentation for every question. Thus, completing the recommended preparation before taking the exam, and searching the documentation only when absolutely necessary during the exam, are both strongly encouraged!

System requirements for beta testing

  • Working camera & microphone
  • Dual-core CPU
  • At least 2 GB available of RAM memory
  • At least 500 MB of available disk space
  • Minimum internet speed:
    • Download - 500kb/s
    • Upload - 500kb/s

 

Exam topics and content

The exam contains questions that cover the areas for the stated role as shown in the exam topics chart immediately below.

 

Topic

Subtopic

Knowledge, skills, and abilities
1. Designs IRIS SQL applications 1.1 Designs a SQL schema
  1. Distinguishes use cases for row vs columnar table layout
  2. Distinguishes use cases for different index types
  1.2 Designs advanced schemas
  1. Recalls anatomy of Globals (subscript and value)
  2. Interprets relationship between table structure and Globals
  3. Distinguishes the (Globals) level at which mirroring/journaling operates from the SQL layer
  4. Distinguishes the differences between date/time data types
  5. Interprets the overhead associated with stream data
  6. Identifies use cases for text search
  1.3 Writes business logic 
  1. Identifies use cases for UDFs, UDAFs, and SPs
  1.4 Develops Object/Relational applications
  1. Recalls SQL best practices when defining classes
  2. Uses Object access to interact with individual rows
  3. Identifies SQL limitations with class inheritance
  4. Uses serial and object properties
  5. Identifies use cases for collection properties
  6. Distinguishes class relationships from Foreign Keys
  1.5 Deploys SQL applications
  1. Determines what needs to be part of a deployment
2. Uses IRIS SQL   2.1 Manages IRIS query processing
  1. Identify benefits of the universal query cache
  2. List considerations made by the optimizer
  3. Differentiates client and server-side problems
  4. Uses Statement Index to find statement metadata
  5. Distinguishes between the use of parameters and constants in a query
  6. Distinguishes between transaction and isolation levels
  2.2 Interprets query plans 
  1. Identifies the use of indices in a query plan
  2. Identifies vectorized (columnar) query plans
  3. Uses hints to troubleshoot query planning
  4. Identifies opportunities for indices, based on a query plan
  2.3 Uses IRIS SQL in applications
  1. Distinguishes use cases for Dynamic SQL and Embedded SQL 
  2.4 Uses IRIS-specific SQL capabilities 
  1. Uses arrow syntax for implicit joining
  2. Determines use cases for explicit use of collation functions
3. Manages IRIS SQL operations 3.1 Manages SQL operations
  1. Identifies use cases for purging queries and rebuilding indices
  2. Recalls impact of purging queries and rebuilding indices
  3. Identifies use cases for un/freezing query plans, including automation
  4. Identifies use cases for (bitmap) index compaction
  5. Uses the runtime stats in the Statement Index to find statements with optimization opportunities
  3.2 Configures InterSystems SQL options 
  1. Recalls relevant system configuration options (e.g. lock threshold)
  2. Differentiates scale-out options, ECP, and sharding
  3.3 Manages SQL security
  1. Recalls to apply SQL privilege checking when using Embedded SQL
  3.4 Uses PTools for advanced performance analysis  
  1. Identifies use cases for using PTools

Interested in participating? Eligible candidates will receive an email from the certification team on May 19th with instructions on how to schedule and take the exam.

Discussion (2)2
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Celeste Canzano · 10 hr ago

Hi Pietro! Unlike prior certification exam betas, only folks who hold the InterSystems IRIS SQL Specialist certification are eligible. There is no application process, rather, the certification team will be reaching out directly to eligible individuals on May 19th. Anyone who holds an active SQL Specialist certification will receive an email next Monday with instructions on how to access and take the beta exam. The email will be sent to the address associated with your account on Credly, our digital badging platform.

If you do not yet have the SQL Specialist certification, I encourage you to consider taking the InterSystems IRIS SQL Specialist certification exam. Once you pass this exam and obtain the certification, you will receive an email from the certification team regarding the beta. 

Please let me know if I can clarify anything! 

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