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Announcement
· Feb 19

Beta Testers Needed for our Upcoming InterSystems IRIS Developer Professional Certification Exam

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

Hello IRIS community,  

InterSystems Certification is developing a certification exam for InterSystems IRIS Developer 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 on March 5, 2025, and the beta testing must be completed by April 20, 2025. 

 

What are my responsibilities as a beta tester? 

You must schedule and take the exam by April 20, 2025. 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. 

Interested in participating? Read the Exam Details and Instructions below: 

 

Exam Details 

Exam title: InterSystems IRIS Developer Professional 

Candidate description: A back-end software developer who: 

  • writes and executes efficient, scalable, maintainable, and secure code on (or adjacent to) InterSystems IRIS using best practices for the development life cycle, 
  • effectively communicates development needs to systems and operations teams (e.g., database architecture strategy),  
  • integrates InterSystems IRIS with modern development practices and patterns, and  
  • is familiar with the different data models and modes of access for InterSystems IRIS (ObjectScript, Python, SQL, JDBC/ODBC, REST, language gateways, etc.) 

Number of questions: 62 

Time allotted to take exam: 2 hours 

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

Classroom Training

Online Learning:  

Recommended practical experience: At least 2 years of experience developing with InterSystems IRIS and a basic understanding of ObjectScript is recommended. 

Exam practice questions 

A set of practice questions is provided here to help familiarize candidates with question formats and approaches. 

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. All questions are based on InterSystems IRIS v2024.1+.

Topic

Subtopic

Knowledge, skills, and abilities
1. Best practices: Architecture  1.1 Determines database storage strategy in InterSystems IRIS 
  1. Determines which databases should be included in a namespace 
  2. Recommends database architecture based on expected data growth 
  3. Structures data to support global mappings  
  4. Identifies implications of mirroring on application performance and availability 
  5. Identifies implications of configuration settings when designing for scale (buffers, locks, process memory) 
  6. Identifies implications of IRIS upgrades on database architecture 
  7. Identifies implications of security requirements on database architecture 
  8. Identifies costs and benefits of using InterSystems interoperability functionality  
  9. Identifies benefits and tradeoffs for using InterSystems IRIS BI to augment usage of object and relational models 
  10. Identifies secure REST API design best practices 
  1.2. Determines data structures
  1. Differentiates between registered object, serial object, and persistent classes  
  2. Determines indexes to add/update to improve performance 
  3. Describes relationship between globals, objects, and SQL  
  4. Determines when streams are the appropriate data type 
  5. Describes InterSystems IRIS support for JSON and XML 
  1.3. Plans data lifecycle  
  1. Evaluates strategies for data storage and retrieval (e.g., MDX, SQL, object) 
  2. Manages data life cycles (aka CRUD) 
  3. Describes expected application performance as a function of data volumes, users, and processes
2. Best practices: Development lifecycle 2.1 Uses recommended development tools and workflows with InterSystems IRIS
  1. Uses Visual Studio Code to connect to InterSystems IRIS and develop client-side and server-side code 
  2. Uses InterSystems IRIS debugging tools (e.g., uses debugger in VS Code) 
  3. Identifies components required in Compose files used for container development 
  4. Enumerates available development tools (e.g., %SYS.MONLBL, ^PROFILE, and ^TRACE) 
  5. Describes options for automatically documenting code 
  6. Chooses background execution strategy
  2.2 Integrates InterSystems IRIS with CI/CD pipelines  
  1. Describes deployment options for InterSystems IRIS (e.g., containers vs InterSystems IRIS installer) 
  2. Manages changes to CPF file to support continuous deployment 
  3. Uses the %UnitTest framework to write and run unit tests  
  4. Runs integration tests to confirm expectations in other applications 
  5. Runs system checks to check functional and non-functional requirements at production scale 
  6. Identifies implications of promoting changes 
  2.3 Uses source control with InterSystems IRIS  
  1. Describes options for integrating InterSystems IRIS with source control systems 
  2. Mitigates effects of importing an updated class/schema definition
3. Best practices: Data retrieval   3.1 Uses Python with InterSystems IRIS  
  1. Identifies Embedded Python capabilities in InterSystems IRIS 
  2. Describes features of different options for using Python with InterSystems IRIS (e.g., Embedded, Native API, etc.) 
  3.2 Connects to InterSystems IRIS
  1. Configures JDBC/ODBC connections to InterSystems IRIS  
  3.3. Uses SQL with InterSystems IRIS  
  1. Differentiates between embedded SQL and dynamic SQL  
  2. Leverages IRIS-specific SQL features (e.g., implicit join, JSON) 
  3. Interprets query plans
  4. Identifies automatically collected statistics via SQL Statement Index  
  5. Evaluates strategies for table statistics gathering (e.g., import, tune, representative data) 
  6. Evaluates SQL security strategies
  3.4 Creates REST services  
  1. Creates REST services and differentiates between implementation options 
  2. Describes API monitoring and control features available in InterSystems API Manager  
  3. Secures REST services 
  4. Documents REST Services 
4. Best practices: Code 4.1 Writes defensive code  
  1. Chooses strategy for error handling  
  2. Diagnoses and troubleshoots system performance and code execution performance 
  3. Manages and monitors process memory 
  4. Manages processes (including background processes) 
  5. Describes general system limits in IRIS (e.g., max string vs stream, # of properties) 
  4.2 Writes secure code  
  1. Implements database and data element encryption 
  2. Connects securely to external systems 
  3. Prevents SQL injection attacks (e.g., sanitizing, concatenating vs parameterizing)  
  4. Prevents remote code execution 
  5. Leverages InterSystems IRIS security model 
  4.3 Ensures data integrity  
  1. Differentiates between journaling behavior inside vs outside transactions 
  2. Minimizes requirements for journal volumes and performance 
  3. Manages transactions  
  4. Enumerates causes for automatic transaction rollbacks 
  4.4 Implements concurrency controls  
  1. Describes functionality of locking mechanisms with respect to stateful and stateless applications 
  2. Follows best practices when using locks 
  3. Chooses between row locks and table locks 

 

Instructions: 

Please review the following instructions for scheduling and buying an exam:

  1. From our exam store, log in with your InterSystems Single Sign-On (SSO) account.
    1. If necessary, please register for an account.
  2. Select InterSystems IRIS Developer Professional - Beta and click Get Started.
  3. Verify system compatibility as instructed. The Safe Exam Browser download requires administrative privileges on your device.
  4. Run the setup test to ensure the device satisfies the exam requirements.
  5. Schedule your exam – this must be done before checking out. The exam must be taken at least 24 hours after, but within 30 days, of scheduling the exam.
  6. Review the InterSystems Certification Program Agreement.
  7. Confirm your appointment. You will receive an email from Certiverse with your exam appointment details.
  8. You can access your reservations and history through the Exam Dashboard available through the MY EXAMS menu.

Below are important considerations that we recommend to optimize your testing experience:

  • Read the Taking InterSystems Exams and Exam FAQs pages to learn about the test-taking experience.
  • Read the InterSystems Certification Exam Policies.
  • On the day of your exam, log in to Certiverse at least 10 minutes before your scheduled time, launch the exam under MY EXAMS, and wait for the proctor to connect.
  • Please have your valid government ID ready for identification. The proctor will walk you through the process of securing your room and releasing the exam to you. 

You may cancel or reschedule your appointment without penalty as long as the action is taken at least 24 hours in advance of your appointment. The voucher code will reactivate and you can use it to reschedule the exam.

Please contact certification@intersystems.com if you have any questions or need assistance, and we encourage you to share any feedback about the exam, whether positive or negative.

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