On this occasion, the editor has not only updated the certification content, but also the title given to certified people, which becomes "Zend Certified PHP Developer" when we were called "Zend Certified Engineer". Although this change can be considered as cosmetic, I 'm happy about it as it seems important to emphasize that "developer" is a real job. It is a difficult one, so it is rewarding to see it recognized by a certification.
Despite these slight changes, the nature and structure of this new certification have not fundamentally changed compared to the previous version, based on PHP 5.3 . Many topics remain the same, while others has been updated to challenge candidates on the coolest new features, such as the sections related to Traits, Namespaces, Password Hashing API, or the magic methods (list of topics) .
One can be surprised that the term "generators" is missing as it is one of the biggest news for PHP 5.5 (with its famous new keyword "yield", which I am sure will give us a hard time during training sessions :)). This is explained by the fact that this subject is covered by the topic "Spl" which is what « generators » are in the end. No worries then, this new version will include many questions about them, and I can tell they won’t be that easy.
The challenge promises to be interesting. For those who wants to be among the firsts to take the exam and become Zend Certified PHP Developers ", please note that it will be proposed to ZendCon Europe attendees. To put the odds in favour of these brave first candidates, you can take a full day tutorial on the first day of the event, two sessions of three hours of preparation to pass the exam. And I will have the pleasure of hosting it!
Please note, seats are limited, both for the tutorial and for the exam itself, so I recommend that you register as soon as possible!