This may seem weird for some of you but I have never tried to take the ASP.NET MVC exam although I've developed several applications both personally and professionally, this very same website was built with it and I have published several articles on it.
Why not before?
To be honest I have never been comfortable with certifications, I don't want to learn by heart or use brain dumps. What I like is to learn by doing, problem is it takes time.
My journey with ASP.NET MVC started 7 years ago, summer 2009, with ASP.NET MVC 1.0. Since then I went through all the versions on various projects.
By the way ASP.NET MVC 3 was the real usable version!
So why passing Exam 70-486 only now?
The most important point for me is the last one, because I didn't want to pass an exam knowing it will be retired shortly.
For now, it is not planned to be retired and don't think it will be retired soon. Sure it will be updated but I don't think it will be retired.
Also now it is included in ASP.NET Core and is 90% identical to the original.
Considering all this we can see long-term and I consider this exam as a good investment (time/money) because you are not going to lose all your knowledge tomorrow.
Passing the exam and result
I bought the Microsoft Certification Booster Pack (exam + 4 retakes) and I scheduled an online proctored exam.
I did not study before the exam and all those years developing with ASP.NET MVC paid off.
After two and an half hours I successfully passed the exam at the first shot! All the questions made sense, case studies were interesting. Yes as often there are some tricky questions but overall it has been a great way to validate my knowledge, it is very satisfying.
Also it was my first online exam, it is convenient to schedule after work at 6pm and pass it at home. However it is very serious, and the work-area scan by the greeter was pretty epic!
Final thought
I'm glad I did the move, it is rewarding. So if you are in a situation similar to mine I encourage you to go ahead and validate your knowledge.
Please feel free to comment or contact me if you have any question. Of course don't ask me about to the content of the exam, as you know Non-Disclosure Agreement apply for Microsoft Certification Exams.
Hi, in https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/membership/application-development-competency in "Competency requirements"
show the exam 70-486 will be retired in September 30 in this year, is correct?
@Ricardo Now I have doubts! I checked exams scheduled to retire here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/retired-certification-exams.aspx and 70-486 is not part of it.
I was planning to take exam 70-486 , but I have questions before I take, is this any entry level exam to pass before take any MCSD certification exam this was running through in my mind please advise
@Satish We can consider it as an entry level exam in the path to get the MCSD: App Builder certification as you first need to get the MCSA: Web Applications and 70-486 is one of the 3 exams to get it.