Estimate of Number of Exam Questions per Module
Module Qs 1:Overview of Service and Cloud Technologies 1
2: Querying and Manipulating Data Using Entity Framework 4
3: Creating and Consuming ASP.NET Web API Services 3
4: Extending and Securing ASP.NET Web API Services 3
5: Creating WCF Services 7
6: Hosting Services 3
7: Windows Azure Service Bus 1
8: Deploying Services 4
9: Windows Azure Storage 2
10: Monitoring and Diagnostics 1
12: Scaling Services 1
A: Designing and Extending WCF Services 4
B: Implementing Security in WCF Services 2
C: “Classic” XML and ADO.NET 4
D: LINQ 2
Total questions in exam 42
It appears that there will be some modifications to the 70-487 exam. Thank you Sean for posting information on April 15, 2014 regarding changes to the test.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/9/D2916465-BB39-4CC2-8CB4-872FB70B40F6/OD_Changes-487.pdf
Exam Overview
130 minutes total
42 questions in total
22 in main section
2 case studies (9, 11 questions)
Training for the Test
Definitely leverage the Plural Sight videos mentioned before if you can. However, if this is not an option, there are courses that cover Azure and WCF located within many of the sites that I mention in this post: Awesome and Free Online Learning for Microsoft Products
Much of the practice that I did for this test consisted of writing code and demos for the topics that I mention below. I recommend the same to anyone that does not have a lot of experience with the subject matter as it will force you to run into and resolve complications involved in implementing the various technologies. If you run into any weird issues when writing your code sample, I would be more than happy to help if you reach out to me through the comments, twitter, or my email (available on my about page).
Overall, I probably put around 30 hours into studying for the test, with the majority of my time spent studying the Azure concepts and going though the Microsoft code samples available. If you’re new to Azure, the Virtual Academy is a great place to start… and best of all… IT’S FREEE!!! Thank you Microsoft: Microsoft Virtual Academy – Introduction to Windows Azure.
Testing Structure
As was the case for the 70-486 test, this test consists of multiple choice A – D questions, multiple choice / multiple answer questions (checkboxes), and drag and drop answer sets. Furthermore, the test also contains case studies. Case studies consists of a fictional project concept that consists of business requirements, technical requirements, and code samples. The questions will be related to the case study (scenario) and range from questions about debugging the code samples, questions about adding new functionality that meet the technical requirements and business needs, to conceptualizing / architecting scalable solutions.
Test Content
As mentioned before in this post, many of the questions are focused on WCF. It is stated to only be 19% of the test, but I recall it being a much larger percentage in my case. Be prepared for more advanced WCF comments. I appologize that my study guide does not provide too many links for this. This subject is more of my strong suite, so I did not study as much for this. I apologize if I emphasize this too much, but over studying is always better than understudying.
Many of the questions surrounding deployment cover not only the tools in Visual Studio for deployment, but also features in IIS. Many of these questions are more conceptual in nature as well in regards to the various deployment strategies available (FTP, HTTP through Web Deploy, etc).
Below are some links for training content. Sorry again for it not be as extensive as my previous posts. I was hesitant to even post this, but hopefully what is here at least helps a bit. Please provide any useful links you find in the comments below and I will be sure to include them.
Other Online Study Guides and Blogs
Check out these other great online study guides:
- alertcoding: MICROSOFT EXAM 70-487 STUDY GUIDE – Study guided created and recommended by a reader
- Microsoft Exam 70-487 Study Notes – Notes & examples study guide for the test that was provided to me by a co-worker
Accessing Data (24%)
When to use blob, tables, queues, sql db (see Data management section on
Querying and Manipulating Data by Using the Entity Framework (20%)
Designing and Implementing WCF Services (19%)
Creating and Consuming Web API-based services (18%)
Deploying Web Applications and Services (19%)
- Strategies (automated build from TFS, XCopy, IIS install package, VIP swap, sets of configs) (Basics and Source control sections in http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/azure-websites)
- SetParameters to setup IIS app pool (http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/deployment/web-deployment-in-the-enterprise/configuring-parameters-for-web-package-deployment)
- Web.config transformations (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465318(v=vs.100).aspx)
- NuGet (http://gregorsuttie.com/2011/01/03/using-a-nuget-local-repository/)
- Interning (http://books.google.se/books?id=I-dHxFjfbi8C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=aspnet_intern&source=bl&ots=QwT46tKHiJ&sig=R89bFg8wZJeQI0UewxSyAqDvBz8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a3DtUIqLH6iE4gTsiIDwAw&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=aspnet_intern&f=false)
- Strong naming (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wd40t7ad.aspx)
- Deploy to GAC (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yf1d93sz.aspx)
- Assembly versioning (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/51ket42z.aspx)
- Assembly binding redirects (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/433ysdt1.aspx)
Conclusion
Although it is not extremely extensive, I hope you find this post to be helpful. The comments below are open for link contributions. Even if it is blog post that you put together that covers the topics in more detail, please pass me along anything you found to be helpful. I would much rather pass along my Google page rank to posts that will be more helpful to readers.
