AEM Sites Developer Expert

It is a proctored multiple-choice exam delivered through Adobe's testing partner, with both single-answer and multiple-response questions. Some items are scenario-based, presenting a configuration or code snippet and asking you to identify the outcome or the fix. Adobe publishes the current delivery options and interface details on its certification site.

Adobe does not publish a fixed count in its public materials, and the number can change between releases. Rather than plan around a specific figure, check the official certification page for the current blueprint before you schedule. Budget your practice runs so you can answer scenario questions in roughly a minute each.

Candidates who pass typically have six months to a year of hands-on AEM Sites development, including at least one project through authoring, templating, and deployment. The difficulty comes from breadth: you need working knowledge of Dispatcher, permissions, and translation alongside core component code. Pure frontend or pure Java backgrounds usually find one domain noticeably weaker.

Underestimating editable templates and policies, guessing at Sling Model injection strategies, and treating Dispatcher as pure theory. Another frequent miss is permission evaluation, where candidates forget how ACL inheritance and rep:glob interact. Read each scenario twice; distractors often describe a plausible but wrong layer of the stack, such as fixing a caching issue in HTL.

Start with architecture and component development, since templates, HTL, and dialogs all build on it. Then cover templates and policies, followed by Sling Models and client libraries. Add authoring configuration, then workflows and replication. Finish with Dispatcher, multi-site and translation, and security, which are easier to absorb once you understand how content and code flow through the system.

Yes, retakes are generally permitted, though Adobe and its testing partner set the waiting period and fee for each attempt. Those terms change, so confirm the current retake policy on the official certification page before you rebook. Use the score report's domain breakdown to target the weakest areas rather than rereading everything.

Install a local AEM SDK author and publish instance, then build a small site end to end: editable template, policy, Sling Model-backed component, dialog, workflow, and Dispatcher configuration. Break things deliberately, such as a wrong injection annotation or a bad Dispatcher rule, and debug them. Pair this with Adobe's official documentation and tutorials.

Adobe sets validity periods and pricing, and both have changed over time, so the official certification site is the only reliable source. Check it before budgeting or scheduling. If your credential has a renewal path, note the deadline early, since renewal requirements and continuing-education options differ by program.

It can be, if you work in HTL, client libraries, and component dialogs within AEM rather than only in a separate frontend stack. The exam still assumes comfort with Java-based Sling Models, OSGi configuration, and Dispatcher behavior. If those are unfamiliar, gain project exposure first or expect to study them specifically.