Zend Certified Engineer: PHP5 (ZCE 200-500)

From this day on I can proudly say that I am a PHP5 Zend Certified Engineer.

I took the ZCE 200-500 exam today at a Pearson-Vue authorized testing center, Provision Romania, after registering online, just a business day before.

I have read the Zend PHP5 Certification Study Guide from PHP Architect and I also bought the Practice Exam Pack with 10 questions (I used only 3 tests to prepare). If you want to take the same road as me, I suggest you get the Zend PHP5 Certification Bundle as you’ll save some money in the process.

I have to say I am not an expert in all areas covered by the ZCE exam, but I manage very well in all of them.

The Practice Exam Pack did help me in getting in the state of mind needed for the exam. Also I came across a few things which I would have missed in the real exam, had it not been for a few tricky / theoretical questions.

The problem is that these practice tests are not enough to prepare you for the real exam. I found a few tricky questions including printf parameters and SoapClient / SoapServer usage that were not in the Practice Tests, but I also observed that the XML coverage is emphasized in the PHPArch Practice Tests.

I learned some things I didn’t know in PHP after reading the Study Guide and I recommend reading it as it is a very good book even if you are not preparing for the ZCE exam.

Overall it was not the hardest exam I took and I managed to finish the whole 70 questions (plus review them) in around 1 hour more or less.

I do not know how the ZCE Certification will help my career, but I am happy and proud to be a member of the ZCE Group and I am the 29th certified ZCE in Romania. I am also the second Romanian person to obtain the ZCE in 2009, followed only after a few hours later by Ionut Voda.

If you’re a Romanian from Bucharest, Romania (or just passing by) I strongly recommend Provision Security Training as they were very professional and the process of getting Zend Certified was as simple as possible !

If you have any questions about the ZCE exam or anything PHP related, post them in the comments section and I will try to answer them the best I can !

Good luck if you’re preparing to apply for the ZCE exam !

Book: Guide to Programming with Zend Framework

I’ve been busy lately, lot of work to do, so little time… I wasn’t able to write as much as I would like on the blog, but I’m trying to.

In the last couple of days I’ve been reading PHP Architect’s Guide to programming with Zend Framework.

It’s a moderately good book written by Cal Evans for those of us that are beginning their journey into the Zend Framework.

It is very light, only 200 pages and it sheds a light into the ins and outs of the Zend Framework. Unfortunately it is more or less useless for the seasoned coder that knows his way into PHP.

The author presents some simple things that you probably can find out yourself from the Zend Framework Manual or the Zend Quickstart Application, given you have some time to research it.

I’d recommend this book if you have to learn how to use ZF fast and you don’t have time to dig into the Zend Documentation (which is in my opinion excellent). You won’t be able to use this book as a reference later on and it will only serve as bookshelf decoration.

Also I feel that the book stresses the Web Services topic a little too much.

The next book I want to read is called Zend Framework in Action and I hope will be more complex and advanced. It’s not out yet but I came upon a prerelease so I’ll see how it is.

Do you know any other good ZF books ?

Share them in the comments ! Thanks !