This is the study guide for Acquia Certified Drupal 9 Site Builder Examination.
In this guide, we’ll explain the exam blueprint, break down the knowledge domains, and help you get familiar with the nature of questions asked in the exam.
You’ll find helpful steps to prepare for the exam as well as links to further resources for study and preparation.
The following is the key information about the exam:
The purpose of this exam is to validate the skills and knowledge of a Drupal Site Builder in the areas of using Drupal features, Content and User Management, Content Modeling, Site Display, Community and Contributed Projects, Module and Theme Management, Security, and Performance.
This exam can be taken in a testing center or in your office, provided certain environmental details can be guaranteed (such as a webcam on the testing computer). Do not be discouraged if you do not pass the exam the first time. Many do not.
This exam validates a candidate’s ability to:
The basic knowledge and skills required at this level should include all of the following areas and objective components:
Drupal
Web and IT Knowledge
Newcomer : You are absolutely new to Drupal.
Learner : You have Site Building experience with previous versions of Drupal, but new to Drupal 9.
Experienced : You have Drupal 9 Site Building experience, wish to get certified.
As a newcomer to Drupal, take introductory courses in Acquia Academy. We have three courses to get you started on your Drupal journey.
After taking the courses, build a small website on your own to reinforce the concepts learned in the courses.
Note
As Drupal 8 and 9 are very similar in architecture and concepts, you may start with the latest of the Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 courses from Acquia Academy.
For the Site Builder path, the next step is to take an Intermediate Level course in Acquia Academy.
If you have previous experience in Drupal 7 Site Building, you should start here. The course covers advanced site building concepts and also contains hands-on exercises to help you build a Drupal 8 based website.
You can access Drupal preparatory courses on Acquia Academy at https://acquiacademy.com.
You can access these courses for free and review them as many times as you like. Many of Acquia Academy courses are available, and if you are in an Acquia enablement or training program, you have been assigned the courses you most require to obtain an initial certification.
Note
As Drupal 8 and 9 are very similar in architecture and concepts, you may start with the latest of the Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 courses from Acquia Academy.
Completing the courses may not make you ready for taking the certification exam. You need to have some real-life practical experience to attempt the exam. For this purpose, we recommend that you gain the practical experience by working on at least 2-3 real life projects.
Once you decide to take up the exam, we recommend that you study the domains and topics covered by the exam and their relative weightings. You should also perform a Self Assessment of your own areas of strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis the domains/topics covered by the exam blueprint. This is a recommended starting point for experienced Drupal 8 Site Builders.
Based on your Self Assessment, you may need to gain knowledge and experience in some domains or topics. The best way to learn Drupal is by working or experimenting on it. Follow the suggestions given for preparation in the Preparation section and refer the external resources given in the Study Guide section.
At this stage, you should be ready to take the exam! Follow the ‘Schedule A Test’ link on https://acquia.com/certification and register for the exam. You may choose from an online proctored or an onsite proctored exam delivery option. You may find it helpful to read some sample questions and tips for the exam by downloading a ready guide from Acquia.com!
Domain | Number of Questions |
---|---|
1.0 Understanding Drupal and working with a Drupal Site | 6 |
2.0 Content Modeling | 14 |
3.0 Site Display | 10 |
4.0 Site Configuration | 10 |
6.0 Contributed Module and Theme Management | 6 |
8.0 Security and Performance | 4 |
TOTAL | 50 |
Experienced Drupalers will likely be more aware of their weaknesses than their strengths. You might have judged your own skill levels while reading through the eight domains listed above. It is quite natural for you to be more experienced and proficient in one domain than another. Also, within a domain, it is likely that you have hands-on experience on some topics but have never touched other areas within the same domain.
We suggest you perform a skills and expertise self-analysis with respect to the domains and topics listed in the blueprint. The blueprint lists test objectives (topics) for each domain. Rank your skills on a scale of 0 to 10 against each test objective (0 for absolutely zero knowledge or exposure and 10 for complete mastery).
You may use the following table to carry out your self-evaluation.
Domain | Topic | Your Score (1-10) |
---|---|---|
1 | Understanding Drupal | |
1.1 | Demonstrate the ability to explain the distinct and differentiating features of Drupal and understanding of Drupal Terminology | |
1.2 | Given an example of a page layout, determine what is content versus a block | |
1.3 | Demonstrate an ability to troubleshoot problems related to content, configuration and maintenance | |
2 | Content modeling | |
2.1 | Demonstrate ability to model content using content types and vocabularies | |
2.2 | Demonstrate ability to configure and manage comment types and comments | |
2.3 | Demonstrate ability to configure and manage block types and blocks | |
2.4 | Demonstrate ability to configure and manage contact forms | |
2.5 | Demonstrate ability to configure and use multilingual content and interface | |
2.6 | Demonstrate ability to configure and manage menus, menu items and menu blocks | |
2.7 | Demonstrate the ability to configure and use Rich media in content using Media module | |
3 | Site Display | |
3.1 | Demonstrate the ability to control the display of content across various regions of the site using the block system | |
3.2 | Demonstrate the ability to provide different presentations of content entities (like nodes, comments, user profiles, terms, etc.) for editing or viewing | |
3.3 | Demonstrate the ability to to create, manage and display lists of content using Drupal views | |
3.4 | Demonstrate the ability to build layouts of content using Layout Builder | |
4 | Site configuration | |
4.1 | Demonstrate the ability to use the various options related to site configuration like account settings, content authoring, development, search, site and system settings, media | |
4.2 | Demonstrate the ability to use the configuration and synchronization options to import, export, compare configuration across environments | |
4.3 | Given a scenario, demonstrate the ability to configure user accounts | |
5 | Contributed Module and theme management | |
5.1 | Demonstrate the ability to add, update, and remove contributed modules | |
5.2 | Demonstrate the ability to add, update, and remove contributed themes | |
5.3 | Identify ways of community participation and reporting issues | |
6 | Security and performance | |
6.1 | Identify security issues resulting from site configuration | |
6.2 | Identify performance issues resulting from site configuration |
Once you have a list of topics for which you need preparation, you may face two challenges:
Finding documentation and online resources is easier. You may register for Acquia Academy Courses and take a course in the relevant domain to refresh your knowledge.
A list of courses on Acquia Academy can be found at: https://training.acquia.com/free-training. Depending on your areas of weakness, you may wish to take one or more of the following courses:
Note
As Drupal 8 and 9 are very similar in architecture and concepts, you may start with the latest of the Drupal 8 or Drupal 9 courses from Acquia Academy.
You can access these courses for free, and review them as many times as you like. Many Acquia Academy courses are available, and if you are in an Acquia enablement or training program, you have been assigned the courses required to obtain an initial certification.
Courses follow a model of 100-level for introductory material, 200-level for application of the concepts, 300-level for advanced concepts, and 400-level for solution architecture. Those with more exposure to Drupal 8 concepts, or with demonstrated site building experience with Drupal 7, may skip the D8 100-level courses.
We also include a list of online resources and documentation for each learning domain in the We also list of online resources and documentation for each learning domain in the Study Guide section of this document.
The second challenge of finding sufficient practical case studies covering the topics is likely to be more daunting. Here are a few ideas and suggestions for finding case studies for your preparation:
Review several (3 to 5) Drupal 8 projects that you or your team has worked on in the past year. Review the content types, field settings, display settings, vocabularies, blocks, menus, and views used on the sites.
For each project, study the following:
Once you study the projects as above, for each project, ask questions:
Check out the new Drupal User Guide for understanding key concepts. |
1.1. Demonstrate the ability to explain the distinct and differentiating features of Drupal
1.2 Given an example of a page layout, determine what is content versus a block
1.3 Demonstrate an ability to troubleshoot problems related to content, configuration and maintenance
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Understanding Drupal | https://www.drupal.org/docs/understanding-drupal |
Drupal Version Numbers | https://www.drupal.org/docs/understanding-drupal/understanding-drupal-version-numbers |
Drupal System Requirements | https://www.drupal.org/docs/system-requirements |
Drupal General Concepts | https://www.drupal.org/node/19828 |
Administering a Drupal Site | https://www.drupal.org/docs/administering-a-drupal-site/getting-started-with-drupal-administration |
Managing Content on a Drupal Site | https://www.drupal.org/docs/administering-a-drupal-site/managing-content |
2.1. Demonstrate ability to model content using Content Types and Vocabularies
2.2. Demonstrate ability to configure and manage comment types and comments
2.3. Demonstrate ability to configure and manage block types and blocks
2.4. Demonstrate ability to configure and manage Contact forms
2.5. Demonstrate ability to configure and use multilingual content and interface
2.6. Demonstrate ability to configure and manage menus, menu items and menu blocks
2.7 Demonstrate the ability to configure and use Rich media in content using Media module
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Planning Data Types | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/planning-data-types.html |
Planning Content Structure | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/planning-structure.html |
Content Types | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/content-structure-chapter.html |
Blocks | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/block-concept.html |
Contact module documentation | https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/contact |
Drupal Multilingual Guide | https://www.drupal.org/docs/multilingual-guide |
Working with Menus | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/menu-concept.html |
Setting up Content Structure | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/content-structure-chapter.html |
Media Module | https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/core/modules/media |
3.1. Demonstrate the ability to control the display of content across various regions of the site using the block system
3.2. Demonstrate the ability to provide different presentations of Content Entities (like Nodes, Comments, User Profiles, Terms etc) for editing or viewing
3.3. Demonstrate the ability to to create, manage and display lists of content using Drupal Views
3.4 Demonstrate the ability to build layouts of content using Layout Builder
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Views User Guide | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/views-chapter.html |
Working with Views | https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/views |
Working with blocks | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/blocks-chapter.html |
Layout Builder | https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/core/modules/layout-builder |
4.1. Demonstrate the ability to use the various options related to site configuration like account settings, content authoring, development, search, site and system settings, media
4.2. Demonstrate the ability to use the Configuration and Synchronization options to import, export, compare configuration across environments
4.3 Given a scenario, demonstrate the ability to configure user accounts
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Managing your site configuration | https://www.drupal.org/docs/configuration-management/managing-your-sites-configuration |
Managing User Accounts | https://www.drupal.org/docs/user_guide/en/user-chapter.html |
5.1. Demonstrate the ability to add, update, and remove contributed modules
5.2. Demonstrate the ability to add, update, and remove contributed themes
5.3 Identify ways of community participation and reporting issues
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Finding and installing a contributed module | https://www.drupal.org/docs/extending-drupal/installing-modules |
Extending Drupal | https://www.drupal.org/docs/extending-drupal |
Installing themes | https://www.drupal.org/docs/extending-drupal/installing-themes |
Evaluating a contrib module | https://dev.acquia.com/blog/how-select-drupal-modules-part-3-evaluation-tips |
Ways of community contribution | https://www.drupal.org/contribute |
Reporting a problem | https://www.drupal.org/node/314185 |
6.1. Identify security issues resulting from site configuration
6.2. Identify performance issues resulting from site configuration
Topic | Link |
---|---|
Secure configurations for Site Builders | https://www.drupal.org/docs/security-in-drupal/secure-configuration-for-site-builders |
Drupal Performance improvements | https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-cloud/performance/ |
https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-cloud/performance/#cloud-perf-drupal-core |
Drupalize.me has published a concise list of the Drupalize.Me tutorials and other resources that will help you prepare for Acquia Certified Site Builder exam for both Drupal 7 and 8. The list is available at https://drupalize.me/acquia-certified-site-builder-exam.