Disclaimer: This may
be brag post
Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate
- Two hours
- Multiple choice, response, and True/False
questions
- 30 knowledge based and 20 hands-on
- Measures tool knowledge and usage
Tableau Desktop Certified
Professional
- Three hours
- Hands on building and analyzing dashboards
- Measures understanding of dashboard and data
visualization best practices
A preparation guide can be downloaded for each of the
tests. I highly recommend using them as
your study guide; if you do, you shouldn't have a problem passing both exams. As a self-taught Tableau user, the hardest
part of the Qualified Associate exam was knowing the vocabulary. Otherwise, with a few years of experience,
the test was relatively easy. The
Certified Professional exam was another story.
It was a very intense three hours of frantic typing and viz building (tip
– don’t drink any liquids during the exam, you’ll regret it after three hours!)
The exam provided a very unique
situation that differs from the expectations of most people’s day jobs. You’re rarely expected to create multiple
full-featured dashboards in under two hours.
There are also multiple questions where you critique views and explain
what’s good/bad about them and what you’d change. The difficult aspect of those questions is
getting a sense of how detailed you should be.
Please post in the comments section if you’d like any advice on
preparing for the exams.
