How to become Google Certified Mobile Web Specialist 🚀

How to become Google Certified Mobile Web Specialist 🚀

I am so overwhelmed with happiness while I’m writing this post because I have passed the Google Mobile Web Specialist Exam and got my certificate and digital badge.

I took the exam in March of this year and after 45 days of the grading process, I finally got the successful result approved by the Google Developers Team.

About exam

There is info from the official website:

The Mobile Web Developer Certification is a performance-based exam that challenges mobile web developers to write code in response to real-world tasks. Based on extensive job task analyses, candidates earning this certification have shown that they have the skills expected of an advanced-level mobile web developer, and are capable of writing performant and responsive applications for the mobile web.

Exam content

The exam covers 8 main topics:

• Basic Website Layout and Styling

• Front End Networking

• Accessibility

• Progressive Web Apps

• Performance Optimization and Caching

• Testing and Debugging

• ES2015 Concepts and Syntax

• Mobile Web Forms

You can find a detailed description and links to the study materials in the Study Guide.

There are 20 coding tasks (2–3 for each topic). During 4 hours you need to solve all of the mentioned tasks and then you have to complete the exit interview.

Preparation for the exam

When I decided to take the exam, the first thing that I did was set the exam date. Thus, I was more motivated to be prepared for the appointed date. Yes, it worked 😃. Realizing that I had the exam in a month, I could focus on the necessary coding skills to practice and to pass the exam successfully.

I started my preparation journey after the exam date was set and the fee of $99 USD was paid. I had one month roughly to go through all items in the Study Guide. MDN Web Docs and Web Google Developers resources helped me a lot. I went through all links recommended by the Study Guide in order to know what to expect in the exam. Due to the fact that the challenge contains coding tasks, be ready to get your hands dirty on real coding examples. It is not just about the theory reading, but it’s more about the practicing and coding real examples as much as you can. This approach made me confident during the examination.

Exam itself

The exam takes place in a Linux-based environment (supplied by Google Chrome and Atom). You have to review and step through each challenge writing the code in Atom and testing it in Chrome.

As I mentioned above you have 4 hours to complete all tasks. So that, it is better to find a quiet place without any distractions for that period of time. You can google the functions syntax and general topics, but you can not copy-paste entire code blocks, because it will likely cause you to fail. You can find the example of the task in the Study Guide.

Remember, you need to take the exit interview after your answers submission. The interview itself lasts for ten minutes and consists of five questions about the exam in order to prove actually that you are a person who just took the exam.

When you completed the exit interview, you need to wait some time for your results. In my case, it took maximum days — 45! Then you should receive an email telling you whether you passed or when can schedule your next available attempt. Here what I have found in my mailbox: “Congratulations, you are now a Google Certified Mobile Web Specialist!”.

Now I have the digital badge and my credential, which are available online. As a side effect I got more knowledge and experience in PWAs (Progressive Web Apps), Service Workers, Performance Optimization and Caching, Testing and Debugging, Accessibility and many others topics 😃.

Are you going to get this certification to prove your mobile web skills? If you have any questions regarding the exam or any other topics, you can reach me via comments here or through DM on twitter @olefyrenko. Thank you!