Tips on How To Pass UiPath RPA Certification

Remember those annoying school exams that increased your heart rate and made your hands sweat? Maybe you still have test anxiety. If the fear or perhaps finances or qualification expiration dates have put you off training to progress, I have good news for you—getting your UiPath Certification isn’t scary or expensive, and the certifications don’t expire. In this blog, I’ll share my personal experience on how to prepare for the new UiPath Associate Certification exam, make this process enjoyable, and ultimately become a UiPath Certified Professional. 

Background

As a senior test lead and active member of Yorkshire's testing community, I’ve always had a good relationship with technology. At the same time, I'm always looking for ways to go the extra mile, expand my areas of knowledge, and bring more value (both for the companies I work for and myself).

One day, I asked a recruiter friend to take a look at my LinkedIn profile and advise me on the new skills I should pay attention to. I was curious to find out the direction for development that would add to my competitive advantage in the job market of the future. They recommended Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as an emerging skill that would be useful to start looking at – that’s how my RPA path began. 

I had read about UiPath before as it’s a well-known name for RPA. Therefore, once I uncovered the opportunity for automation skills, I registered for UiPath Advanced Developer certification (a legacy UiPath certification) and . . . didn’t pass. With the benefit of hindsight, I understand that an advanced level was just a step too far for me because I lacked the hands-on development experience to achieve it. That’s why, when I saw an email from UiPath announcing their new UiPath Certified Professional program with RPA Associate exam, I signed up immediately and got to work. 

Why UiPath Certification?

At this point, let me take a step back and tell you a story. Back in the 1990s, my uncle Martin had to leave the army after an electrical accident that made further service impossible. My uncle had a growing family that he needed to look after. At that time, computing and information technology (IT) had just started to take off. Despite not being trained, my uncle spotted a growing industry and seized his opportunity. He retrained as a database administrator (DBA) and has never looked back. Throughout this time, he has never struggled to find work. Decades have passed and his technical skills remained relevant and in demand.

RPA feels like it could have the same game changing potential to pivot people into careers in automation. Over the coming years, I believe automation will be considered crucial not only for people in technical roles like testers or developers but practically for every role you can think of. 

RPA is about helping everyone who is struggling with monotonous tasks – I've been that administrator, that data entry clerk, and believe me it is not fun. 

RPA has the potential to become one of the pivotal skills that puts you ahead of the curve in the job market and in your own career path, and getting this advantage now feels like a no brainer. For me, obtaining UiPath Certification means a gateway for sustainable and successful future employment that I’d be foolish to ignore.

If I were to summarize the key factors that influenced my decision to take the UiPath Certification exam, they would be: 

• No expiry date – you receive interminable proof of your automation expertise 

• Easy-to-learn materials – UiPath Academy provides you with all necessary (and free!) training you need to get certified 

• Certification from an industry leader – to me, UiPath is a synonym for RPA, so getting UiPath Certification means staying on top of this emerging industry with a qualification that employers will be asking for

Tips on preparing for UiPath Certification

Tip #1 – Leverage free UiPath resources 

Forget about endless online searches for expensive test books and training materials. UiPath Academy provides all you need to succeed in gaining essential automation skills and achieving Certification. What I like most about the Academy is that all the content available there is broken down into clear chapters which tell you how long it takes to complete each of them. Moreover, all the content is very well written and straightforward, which makes the learning process genuinely fun and memorable. 

I followed the advice on the UiPath Certified Professional page(check Associate exam details) and took the following training:

• RPA Starter 

• RPA Developer Foundation 

• UiPath Documentation on Workflow Testing and Logging

Another helpful resource for me was the UiPath Forum. It’s a nice place to get help and collaborate with other learners. UiPath Forum has a great variety of different RPA-related topics – you can choose the one that fits your current needs and start a discussion (although luckily for me all the help I needed had already been provided). 

Tip #2 – Practice, practice, practice 

The Associate exam is 90 minutes long, with 60 multiple-choice questions, and has a 70% passing score. You might think “pff, multiple-choice questions, what could be easier?” However, it’s not as simple as it may look at a first glance. That 70% passing score means learning and reviewing all content available on the UiPath Academy - there weren’t any areas that I could not cover.

You cannot just focus on theory – downloading UiPath Automation Cloud for community, playing with UiPath Studio and UiPath Orchestrator, and creating simple automations is an integral part of the training process. Follow the examples on the Academy: if you’re a visual learner then watch the videos and demos. If you are more of a technical-focused person then check the code or transcript. Take advantage of the fact that someone has put a lot of effort into providing training material in a variety of different formats, and it’s all free and available to everyone.

Taking the online practice test also helped me a lot. This is very similar to the actual exam format and very detailed. Passing the test gave me a bit of confidence that I was moving in the right direction. Overall, I recommend downloading and trying everything you can to understand how it all fits together. I’d never pass the exam just by being theoretically savvy.  

Tip #3 – Take your time 

I really enjoyed the possibility of self-learning as a concept UiPath is promoting through its free resources. You have all the necessary materials handy—just go and use them. However, it’s important to give yourself enough time to learn. From my experience, the main thing to complete is the RPA Developer Foundation learning plan. Everything you need is there, but don’t rush it. Instead, take your time and try to absorb every single bit of information. 

Tip #4 – Revisit learning materials 

On the day of the exam, review all the content you’ve learned so far. I made sure I looked at different chapters on UiPath Academy as well as code examples and tried to memorize them. I went through everything and my efforts helped with the one or two questions that made the difference between a pass and a fail. 

At this stage, my recommendation would be to cover as much ground as you can in the time available to you. Ideally, don't leave out reviewing any sections. As I’ve mentioned earlier, although it’s an Associate exam, it’s not an easy multiple choice. You have to know the detail to pass it successfully. 

Tip #5 – The home exam is a game changer 

In these hectic times, the ability to learn and validate your expertise from home has become as important as ever before. UiPath Certified Professional offers proctored exams both online and at 6,000 in-person testing locations globally. Why not take advantage of it?

In my case, taking an exam from home was a real eye opener. For me, the whole experience is much better than going to the exam center. If you suffer with nerves, being in your own environment really helps – that’s very true and very applicable to my process of getting UiPath Certification. 

UiPath provides you with an opportunity to pass the exam at any time and from the place that’s the most comfortable for you, be it a kitchen or a living room. You can schedule your exam for any time of day (or night) which is great to work around childcare commitments. Moreover, you receive a helpful explanation on how to set up your workstation before starting the exam that you can prepare for well in advance. All these nuances make the home examination just so much nicer – you don’t stress because of an unknown location or difficulties with someone else's equipment. 

Useful Resources

Here’s a list of useful resources recommended by UiPath which I used to successfully pass the UiPath RPA Associate Certification:

• UiPath Certified Professional page - the overall program description 

• Associate exam description - target audience, exam topics and sections, environments, etc. This has all the key details you want to know. 

• Associate exam online practice tests - get a taste of what the Certification exam looks like 

• Recommended training list - list of materials to help you get prepared for the exam 

• UiPath Academy training: RPA Starter, RPA Developer Foundation, UiPath Documentation on Workflow Testing and Logging