In this new post to the PHPClasses.org blog, Manuel Lemos looks at the PHP Certification Exam - whether it's worth it, how can you take it and includes an interview with a ZCE, Mauricio Garcia about his experience with it.

Although I am certain that having a PHP certification is not the only way to demonstrate that a PHP developer is really qualified, I am sure that it helps hinting employers about his skills, and so become more open to negotiate better salaries. Having a PHP certification also helps a developer stand out from the crowd of developers that apply to a job but do not have any certification.

In the interview Manuel talks with Mauricio (a Brazilian PHP developer) about whether or not he feels the certification is worth it, how a developer can take it and what they need to do to prepare for it as well as a mention of a book that might help.

Michael Kimsal has also posted some of his own thoughts on the certification issue (and of the comments made during the interview).

Alex Netkachov has written up some of his experience with the Zend Certification Exam in a recent post to his blog:

Zend Certification is an important step for a PHP developer. It is a very good chance to evaluate your skills, show your experience to your co-workers and potential customers.

He points out Zend's resource for all things ZCE, using the ZCE Yellow Pages to find others in your area and the process he went through to prepare for and take the exam. Oh, and in case you're wondering - yes, he passed.

The Zend Developer Zone has posted today about a new webinar from Zend touting "everything you need to know" about the PHP 5 certification exam that the company offers.

Zend Certified Engineers are the most sought after PHP developers. [...] To become a Zend Certified Engineer developers must pass the Certification exam covering a wide range of PHP topics. Attend the Zend Certified Engineer Webinar and hear all the details about the exam.

The webinar will happen on January 30th at about 9am (PST) and will be hosted by Beth Gomez. You can reserve your spot today by signing up over on Zend's pages on Webex.com or just get more information about it from this page over on the Zend site.

Joseph Crawford has posted some of his thoughts on the mock testing that the folks over at php|architect are offering to help people prepare for Zend's PHP 5 Certification Exam.

So are you getting prepared to take the new PHP 5 Certification Exam offered by Zend? I have yet to see any books released for the preparation like i did with the PHP 4 exam, however there is something new and very cool. php|architect offers a Mock Tesing Environment which is powered by Vulcan Web Testing System.

Joseph talks about his experience, noting how he took the test and some of the topics that it covered. He definitely suggests taking it, too, as it provides a good glimpse into what you can expect come exam day.

php|architect has posted the schedule for the exams happening at this year's php/db|works conference.

The examination schedule for the new Zend PHP 5 Certification Exam at php/db|works is now available from the conference website.

As always, the new Zend PHP 5 Certification Exam will be available to all attendees at no charge.

There are a total of nine testing periods over the four days of the conferece (including one on the Tutorials day). Seating is limited and it's on a first come, first serve basis for each of the day's tests. Be sure and sign up at the registration desk for your time.

With a "post-exam post" today, Jad has come back from the testing center fresh out of the new Zend PHP5 Certification exam with a few comments.

I just came back from the test centre; The exam was really great and joy to take, all topics were equally covered but if you are planning to book then I'd suggest not to make a general read but read in details about everything even stuff you aren't likely to use or you are not used to use in your daily dose of code.

He gives examples of questions of different types - syntax, general functionality differences, differences between PHP4 and PHP5, etc. He also specifically mentions some of the questions covering exceptions, SOAP, inferfaces, SimpleXML and more. He recommends reading up on pretty much every topic on their list.

For those out there that have complained that the Zend Certification Exam is just "so PHP4", you might want to check out what's coming up from Zend.

Two years after launching the industry standard for PHP Certifications and certifying over 1,300 engineers, Zend has once again teamed with a group of leading PHP experts to bring you the "Zend PHP 5 Certification" exam.

Topics that will be covered by this new exam will include:

• PHP Basics - syntax, constants, control structures
• XML and Web Services - SimpleXML, XPath, SOAP
• Functions, Arrays, Strings, Pattern Matching
• Design and Theory
• Streams and Network Programming

and much, much more. So, keep an eye out for Zend's announcement of the new exam's release. We'll post it here as well.

Tobias Schlitt has responded to our own post talking about the PHP5 "certification" that Brainbench is offering.

As Markus did, I took the so-called "Brainbench PHP 5 certification" yesterday night after some beers. ;) Nevertheless, the result was, that was I still "scored higher than 90% of previous examinees".

I have pretty much the same feeling about this exam that Markus has. I don't really see a point in testing how familiar people are with the docs, but that seems to be the main purpose of the exam.

He also notes that even the examples with code weren't written well, being either too long or using deprecated functions to accomplish the taks.

Over on Brainbench.com, there's a new free certification they're offering for those out there looking to flex their PHP5 skills.

Our PHP 5 test measures your knowledge of scripting in PHP Hypertext Preprocessor 5. Designed for experienced programmers, this test covers the following topics: Communication Functions, Databases, General Functions, HTML, Language Functions, Language Structure, Object Oriented PHP.

The test covers topics such as the communications functions, language functions, object oriented concepts, database programming, and the language structure. You can take the test here.