Acquia Back End Specialist (D10) study plan

Acquia Back End Specialist (D10) · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 6 hours per week

Week 1

Drupal 10 back end development (site building, module development, theming, performance, security)

Map the Drupal 10 back-end exam objectives to your current skill gaps and rank them by weakness
Build a custom module from scratch with a routing file, a controller, and a service registered in a services YAML file
Implement a plugin (block or field formatter) using annotations or PHP attributes and verify it appears in the UI
Configure a local Drupal 10 site with Composer, Drush, and a settings split for development

A working custom module repo with a controller, a service, and one plugin, plus a written gap-analysis checklist

Week 2

Write hook implementations for entity CRUD events and form alters, then trace when each fires
Define a custom content entity with base fields and a bundle configuration, and query it with an entity query
Create a custom configuration entity and export/import it with Drush config commands
Implement an update hook and a post-update hook and run them against a test database

A custom entity module with config export/import and two update hooks, verified end-to-end with Drush

Week 3

Write a PHPUnit kernel test and a functional test that exercise your custom module
Add a functional JavaScript test and a unit test for a service, then run the suite with the project's test runner
Implement caching correctly using cache tags, contexts, and max-age on a render array
Debug a cache invalidation problem by inspecting cache metadata and bubbleable metadata

A green test suite (unit, kernel, functional) covering your module plus a short write-up of a cache-tag debugging fix

Week 4

Override a theme template and add a preprocess function with correct cacheability
Build a custom theme with a libraries YAML file and attach a library to a specific template
Apply the render pipeline (render arrays, lazy builders, placeholders) to a listing page
Audit a page for XSS by sanitizing output through Twig and the appropriate filters

A custom subtheme with one template override, one library, and one lazy builder, with a security review note

Week 5

Harden a site: configure permissions by role, text formats, and a CSP or security-header strategy
Profile a slow page with a cache enabled and identify one performance bottleneck
Explain how Drupal's configuration management maps to a multi-environment deployment
Set up a local Acquia Cloud IDE or a Cloud-equivalent environment and push a branch

A performance and security audit report for your test site plus a working cloud IDE branch

Week 6

Deploy a code change through dev, stage, and prod using the platform's pipeline and a config import
Use the platform CLI to inspect environments, pull a database, and run a Drush command remotely
Configure environment-specific settings and secrets without committing them to the repository
Trigger and interpret a code or database backup and a restore

A documented deployment runbook executed once across all three environments, including a rollback

Week 7

Configure a CD environment or pipeline and run automated tests on a pull request
Set up a cron job and a scheduled task on the platform and verify execution in logs
Diagnose a failed deployment by reading build and deploy logs and fix the root cause
Tune caching and search services for the hosted stack and confirm the effect

A CI pipeline that blocks a failing pull request plus a resolved deployment-failure postmortem

Week 8

Take two full-length practice exams and score each domain separately
Re-drill every missed objective until you can explain the correct answer without notes
Write flashcards for the ten facts you keep missing across both domains
Do a timed final review of deployment and configuration-management workflows

A scorecard showing improvement over both practice exams and a final one-page review sheet

Week 2: You can build a custom entity module with config and update hooks from memory in under 90 minutes

Week 4: Your custom module passes unit, kernel, and functional tests, and you can explain cache tags and contexts on a render array

Week 6: You have deployed code and configuration through dev, stage, and prod and successfully rolled back once

Week 8: Both practice exams show domain scores above your week-1 baseline, with no unaddressed weak objective