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Node.js Certification: My Experience and Advice

Konstantin Komelin on May 11, 2020

In the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown I made a decision to use the isolation for self-improvement and invest time in something future-proof, so...
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Manny

I appreciate this post, @kkomelin ! And congratulations on the cert!

Now, almost a year later, what are your thoughts on having the JSNAD certification? Has it opened up roles/opportunities for you?

I recently signed up for the JSNAD and I am preparing right now.
I appreciate you sharing tips on setting up VSCode upon start, thank you for that!

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Konstantin Komelin

Hi @mannyluvstacos ,

Sorry for my later response. Missed the notification.

To be honest, I prefer frontend more and this certificate didn't open new opportunities with the frontend. However, I was contacted by a few recruiters who offered me Node.js roles after I shared my certification experience.

For me, this certification helped understand Node deeper but, as a web developer, I would also consider JSNSD certification because it's more Web-focused.

Best of luck with your exam!

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Ian

Congrats and thanks for the helpful hints Konstantin!

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Konstantin Komelin

You're welcome Ian!

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Ali Khan

Thank you for these tips!
May I know, what learning resources you follow everyday inorder to prepare for the test ?

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Konstantin Komelin • Edited

Of course Ali. It's everything I mentioned in the Preparation section. Node Cookbook is good, in particular.

Here is how I would work with the book:
1) Read an article.
2) Try to understand everything from it.
3) Learn NPM documentation for each package mentioned in the article.
4) Refer to Node docs if anything is still unclear (Node 10).
5) Try to solve all problems from the article yourself (at least reproduce solutions from the article).

And what's more important from my perspective is to practice regularly. Don't skip a day. If you decided to take the exam, schedule it and prepare to it every day at least for 30 mins. Immerse yourself in the context of Node, even if your daily work is not related to it. It's like with language learning.

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Ali Khan

Thanks Again!😊

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Tobias Totz

Congratulations! Doing a certification is a really good idea, especially in the current situation.

Thank you for sharing your insights :)

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Konstantin Komelin • Edited

Thank you Tobias.
Exactly. Many of us have gotten extra spare time (commute, etc), so it might be a good idea to invest it to self-improvement.
You are very welcome!

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Daryl Fong

Good tips. Thanks. I wonder anyone has sat for the Service Developer.

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Konstantin Komelin

You're welcome Daryl. I know a person who was going to take the Service exam but no results yet.

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Andres Lopez

Congrulations !!!! 🎉

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Konstantin Komelin

Thank you Andres!

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John Doe

Good tips, thanks a lot!

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Konstantin Komelin

You're welcome Daniil.

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Raghav Misra

Congratulations! I will look into the JSNAD certification. Thanks for sharing. 😁

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Konstantin Komelin

Thanks! Sure. It's my pleasure.

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Babacar Cisse DIA

this actually motivates me to get mine too! thanks for sharing your experience

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Konstantin Komelin

You're welcome Babacar. Good luck for your exam!

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Clement134

Thank you for your feedback about this certification.
Do you have any precision about your Node.js level before preparing this certification? (how many years of experience? daily use?)

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Konstantin Komelin • Edited

As I remember, the Linux Foundation recommended having two years of experience with Node to successfully pass the exam but I think you can have less.

As for my personal prior experience with Node, I had built an API project with Koa and worked with Next.js for about a year before the exam preparation. Also written a couple of chat bots with Express and maybe something else. Node is everywhere today, so I also used it occasionally for frontend projects, for example to configure Server Side Rendering for React apps, etc. Besides that, I had worked with different backend and frontend tech for 13 years, so my case may not be that typical to make conclusions.

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Duarte Lucas

Hello, @kkomelin ,

Great insight!

How much time do you have to schedule the retake?

Thanks in advance!