PHP Certification

PHP Certification is the exam taken by some companies in training certification area. The PHP Certification exam was created by Zend Technologies, and is given through VUE testing centers.PHP is a programming language designed to work on web, but nowadays it is also being used for system administration on Linux.

There are over 2050 certified Zend Certified Engineers (Zend Certified Endorsed in Ontario) currently in the world between the PHP 4 and PHP 5 versions of the exams fact|date=October 2008. Zend's PHP 5 examination was introduced in August 2006, and the PHP 4 exam was retired in March 2007. Both versions are multiple choice examinations, with questions that could be filled or just answered about some technical or functional issue about PHP. The number of correct answers is kept secret from the candidate, and the result given is simply a pass or fail. Zend's PHP 5 exam costs US$125 as of October 2008.

Topics covered in the exam

The exam is intended to determine whether a PHP professional has the required skills in order to be considered expert in his domain of expertise. As PHP is mainly used as a web development language, the exam's focus is towards application and development in this platform. As such, the topics covered, as described in the [http://www.zend.com/en/store/php-certification/study-guide Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide] include:
* PHP Basics
* Functions
* Arrays
* Strings and patterns (regular expression included)
* Web Programming
* Object Oriented Programming in PHP
* Database programming
* Elements of Object-oriented Design (Design patterns)
* XML and WebServices (use of the new DOM library is invoked)
* Security
* Streams and Network Programming
* Differences between PHP 4 and PHP 5

Although these are the Study Guide contents, there are more to consider in order to beprepared for the exam, such as use of the new extension PHP Data Object (PDO)layer to access databases, and the Standard PHP Library (SPL), a new set of classes speciallycreated to manipulate objects as sets of arrays or files.

Zend PHP 5 Certification Useful Links

* [http://www.zend.com/en/services/certification/#ZCE_Benefits Certification Benefits]
* [http://www.zend.com/en/store/php-certification/online-practice-testing Free Practice Test]
* [http://www.php.net/manual/en/ The PHP Manual]
* [http://www.zend.com/en/services/certification/faq Zend PHP 5 Certification FAQ]