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Ayoub Alouane for This is Learning

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MuleSoft Associate Certification: Essential Tips and Key Concepts

I was a little stressed, do you know why? Because I forgot the date of the exam. Fortunately, I had a small reminder from my agenda 30 minutes before the exam. I tried my best to quickly review the documentation I wrote when I was preparing for the exam.

Make sure to have a good internet connection, and it might be helpful to restart your laptop. This will close all running programs that could potentially interrupt the browser required for taking the exam, which you will need to download before starting.

The first thing you should know is that the associate certification tests your knowledge of Enterprise Integration concepts. You need to understand why we use MuleSoft, not just how to implement a listener and an object store. These technical details are important but not sufficient for the associate exam.

It's also about your knowledge of cloud solutions. Having a good understanding of the differences between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and knowing when to use them, will be beneficial. I can say that I had two or three questions about cloud solutions, including CloudHub and PCE. You should understand the differences, as well as the why and when of using these solutions.

Before starting the exam, make sure you are familiar with the structure of a YAML file. You might have a question about that, as well as about JSON and XML. Additionally, review communication protocols such as gRPC, REST, and SOAP. There will be questions on these topics as well.

Understanding systems such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Content Management Systems (CMS) is crucial. You should know the purpose of each system and read some scenarios of their use to have a solid understanding of the differences between them.

Knowledge of project management methodologies is essential. You should understand what Kanban, Waterfall, Agile, and Scrum are. These concepts might seem irrelevant for a MuleSoft certification, but they are not. You will get at least one question about these concepts, so don't forget to review them.

A thorough understanding of Integration Patterns, such as Consolidation, Orchestration, Aggregation, and Choreography, are unavoidable. A good understanding of these concepts is required because the exam focuses heavily on them. My advice is to thoroughly read about each one and try to implement them, which will give you a solid understanding of these patterns.

Finally, ensure you know the components of the Anypoint Platform including Anypoint Exchange, Anypoint Runtime Plane, Anypoint Control Plane, Anypoint Runtime Manager, Anypoint API Manager, Anypoint Design Center, and Anypoint API Designer...Knowing the use of each component will help you answer at least three or four questions in the exam.

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