Acquia Certified Drupal 9 Site Builder¶

Take Acquia Academy Basic Level Courses¶

As a newcomer to Drupal, take introductory courses in Acquia Academy. We have three courses to get you started on your Drupal journey.

• Introduction to Drupal
• Building a Basic Site Using Drupal
• Extending and Managing a Drupal Site

After taking the courses, build a small website on your own to reinforce the concepts learned in the courses.

Take Acquia Academy 200 Level Courses¶

For the Site Builder path, the next step is to take an Intermediate Level course in Acquia Academy.

• Building Websites with Drupal

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.

Gain Practical Experience¶

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.

Perform Self Assessment¶

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.

Use Labs and Study Guide¶

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.

Appear for Exam¶

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!

How to Use Self Assessment¶

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).

• Topics with 8+ score are your strengths.
• Topics with a score of 5 to 7 will need some preparation.
• The ones below 5 may require a lot of preparation, or guided instruction.

You may use the following table to carry out your self-evaluation.

Acquia Certified Drupal 8 Site Builder Self-Assessment Table¶

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

Knowledge Resources¶

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:

1. Introduction to Drupal 8 (Introductory Level)
2. Building a Basic Site Using Drupal 8 (Introductory Level)
3. Extending and Managing a Drupal 8 Site (Introductory Level)
4. Building Websites with Drupal 8 (Intermediate Level)

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.

Labs and Case Studies¶

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:

• What are the Content Types for the site?
• What are the fields and field settings for each Content Type?
• What are the Displays configured for each Content Type? Are there any Custom displays? If so, how and where are they used?
• What Vocabularies are defined? Are they controlled or uncontrolled? How is the Taxonomy system used?
• How many Custom blocks are used on the site? Are there any Custom Block Types defined? Are there any custom fields in the blocks? How are they used on the site?
• How many Menus are defined? Are there any Custom Menus? How are the Menu items managed? Where are the Menus used on the site?
• List all the Views used on the site. For each View, check the Displays, Format, Fields, Sort Criteria, Filter Criteria, Contextual Filters and Relationships. Check how views are used on the site.
• List all the Custom Modules enabled on the site. Check the functionality added by each module.
• Go to the Configuration Settings page of the site. Check the settings made under all the available options. Check the settings made under People, Content Authoring, Development, Search and Metadata, RSS Publishing, System, Media, Regional and Language Settings.
• Go to Extend. Enable modules under Multilingual section. Check the different configuration options newly available under Language settings and Content type configurations. Play around with the settings to build a bi-lingual or a multilingual website.

Once you study the projects as above, for each project, ask questions:

• Why are the configurations the way they are?
• What can be changed or improved?
• What are the issues or support requests raised by the client?
• What changes were made to initial configuration and why?

Drupal User Guide¶

Check out the new Drupal User Guide for understanding key concepts.

Topic-wise Study Reference Material¶

1. Understanding Drupal & Working with a Drupal Site

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. 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

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. 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

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. 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

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. 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

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. Security & Performance

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

Acquia Academy YouTube Resources¶

• Drupal 8 Beginner’s Course
• Drupal 8 Site Builder Course

Drupalize.me Resources¶

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.