C# Coding Specialist Certification

Candidates for this exam are developers with at least one year of experience programming essential business logic for a variety of application types, hardware, and software platforms using C#.

Candidates should also have a thorough understanding of the following:

• Managing program flow and events
• Asynchronous programming and threading
• Data validation and working with data collections including LINQ
• Handling errors and exceptions
• Working with arrays and collections
• Working with variables, operators, and expressions
• Working with classes and methods
• Decision and iteration statements

1. Manage Program Flow

Implement multithreading and asynchronous processing

Use the Task Parallel library, including theParallel.For method, PLINQ, Tasks; create continuation tasks; spawn threads by using ThreadPool; unblock the UI; use async and await keywords; manage data by using concurrent collections

Manage multithreading

Synchronize resources; implement locking; cancel a long-running task; implement thread-safe methods to handle race conditions

Implement program flow

Iterate across collection and array items; program decisions by using switch statements, if/then, and operators; evaluate expressions

Create and implement events and callbacks

Create event handlers; subscribe to and unsubscribe from events; use built-in delegate types to create events; create delegates; lambda expressions; anonymous methods

Implement exception handling

Handle exception types, including SQL exceptions, network exceptions, communication exceptions, network timeout exceptions; use catch statements; use base class of an exception; implement try-catch-finally blocks; throw exceptions; rethrow an exception; create custom exceptions; handle inner exceptions; handle aggregate exceptions 

2. Create and Use Types

Create types

Create value types, including structs and enum; create reference types, generic types, constructors, static variables, methods, classes, extension methods; create optional and named parameters; create indexed properties; create overloaded and overridden methods

Consume types

Box or unbox to convert between value types; cast types; convert types; handle dynamic types; ensure interoperability with code that accesses COM APIs

Enforce encapsulation

Enforce encapsulation by using properties; enforce encapsulation by using accessors, including public, private, protected, and internal; enforce encapsulation by using explicit interface implementation

Create and implement a class hierarchy

Design and implement an interface; inherit from a base class; create and implement classes based on the IComparable, IEnumerable, IDisposable, and IUnknown interfaces

Find, execute, and create types at runtime by using reflection

Create and apply attributes; read attributes; generate code at runtime by using CodeDom and Lambda expressions; use types from the System.Reflection namespace, including Assembly, PropertyInfo, MethodInfo, Type

Manage the object life cycle

Manage unmanaged resources; implement IDisposable, including interaction with finalization; manage IDisposable by using the Using statement; manage finalization and garbage collection

Manipulate strings

Manipulate strings by using the StringBuilder, StringWriter, and StringReader classes; search strings; enumerate string methods; format strings; use string interpolation

3. Debug Applications and Implement Security

Validate application input

Validate JSON data; choose the appropriate data collection type; manage data integrity; evaluate a regular expression to validate the input format; use built-in functions to validate data type and content

Perform symmetric and asymmetric encryption

Choose an appropriate encryption algorithm; manage and create certificates; implement key management; implement the System.Security namespace; hashing data; encrypt streams

Manage assemblies

Version assemblies; sign assemblies using strong names; implement side-by-side hosting; put an assembly in the global assembly cache; create a WinMD assembly

Debug an application

Create and manage preprocessor directives; choose an appropriate build type; manage program database files (debug symbols)

Implement diagnostics in an application

Implement logging and tracing; profiling applications; create and monitor performance counters; write to the event log

4. Implement Data Access

Perform I/O operations

Read and write files and streams; read and write from the network by using classes in the System.Net namespace; implement asynchronous I/O operations

Consume data

Retrieve data from a database; update data in a database; consume JSON and XML data; retrieve data by using web services

Query and manipulate data and objects by using LINQ

Query data by using operators, including projection, join, group, take, skip, aggregate; create method-based LINQ queries; query data by using query comprehension syntax; select data by using anonymous types; force execution of a query; read, filter, create, and modify data structures by using LINQ to XML

Serialize and deserialize data

Serialize and deserialize data by using binary serialization, custom serialization, XML Serializer, JSON Serializer, and Data Contract Serializer

Store data in and retrieve data from collections

Store and retrieve data by using dictionaries, arrays, lists, sets, and queues; choose a collection type; initialize a collection; add and remove items from a collection; use typed vs. non-typed collections; implement custom collections; implement collection interfaces

A critical part of the exam development process is the beta exam. By taking the exam in its beta format, candidates provide us with useful information to evaluate the technical accuracy, relevance, and psychometric characteristics of the questions before we score examinees.

Get 80% off the CSCS beta exam. If you take the beta exam, Knowledge Pillars will send a 25% discount voucher to the same email that you use to register for exams AFTER the beta exam has been scored. You can apply that voucher to your next Knowledge Pillars exam registration. 

Note Participation in the beta is on a first come, first served basis. Due to popular demand, we recommend that you register as soon as the beta registration period begins. 

Candidates located in China, India, Pakistan, or Turkey are not eligible to participate in beta exams for security reasons.

Preparing for a beta exam

You will have access to the Exam Details page that lists the skills that will be assessed on the exam. Knowledge Pillars does not currently offer training materials for its exams.

People interested in beta exams usually have access to other resources, are experienced with the technology, or work with the beta product. We recommend that you consult peers, community resources, and early-adopter articles for support if you need additional preparation materials.

Beta exam scoring and results

When you complete a beta exam, you do not receive a score immediately because the scoring model for the exam is not yet finalized.

You usually receive your exam score within 2-3 weeks after the exam becomes available worldwide—this can be up to 16 weeks after you take the exam, depending on when in the beta period you took the exam. This time frame reflects the comprehensive process used to evaluate the beta exam results, including statistically analyzing the data to evaluate the performance of each question and reading and evaluating all comments provided during the beta exam. The rescore process starts on the day that exams go live, and final scores are released approximately 10 days later.

Note Participation in beta exams is voluntary, and Knowledge Pillars makes no promises or guarantees regarding the beta exam process, availability of your scores, or the timing of your results. Generally online proctored exam results are presented within 72 hours.

Passing the beta exam

Passing a beta exam in your certification exam counts toward your transcript. You do not need to retake the exam in its final version and you will receive a digital badge as confirmation of your passing score. Make sure that you take another exam within a year so you can take advantage of the 25% discount you earned for taking the beta exam through our beta exam discount program.

If you do not pass the beta exam, you cannot retake the beta exam. If you are interested in earning a certification that requires successful completion of that exam, you must wait to retake the exam at regular cost when it’s live, or you can apply the 25% discount that you received for taking the beta exam through our beta exam discount program.