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ashleysarnacki
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

New year, new Alteryx Designer Core Certification! Well, not entirely new.  

  

At the dawning of our Certification program we introduced the Designer Core Certification exam, which has become our most popular certification, with over 25,000 users worldwide earning the certificate. Over the years, Designer has changed, been updated, and grown in its abilities. Our users have also grown in number and abilities, and a whole new generation of users has joined our Community. With all of this in mind, we decided the time has come to revisit the Core Certification exam and give it a refresh!  

  

The original exam focused on assessing a user's general Alteryx Designer knowledge and ability to use the Tool Palette. The updated version of the Core exam will feel similar, but there are a few new areas of focus and a shift in the assessment type. There will still be practical application questions, but there will now be content to assess a user's ability to collaborate well with others and run efficient workflows. There will be fewer questions about the specifics of Designer’s features and more questions aimed at ensuring a user is ready to pull in data and build a workflow that runs with few errors.  

 

While the target of the exam has shifted slightly, our users will find the aim to be exactly what is needed to reflect their skills and abilities. The new exam blueprint is included at the bottom of this blog and provides more details about the changes. As always, the exam is free, online, on-demand, and open-book.   

 

The changes will not take effect until the end of January, so if you plan to take the exam soon and prefer to take it in its current form, do not worry. There is still time! The Exam Prep Guide outlines what is covered in the current exam.  

 

If you have already earned your Designer Core Certification, you only need to retake the updated exam once your Certification is near expiration and you are due for recertification. You are also eligible to retake your Core exam without penalty after your 1-year anniversary of earning it. If you pass, your Certification will adopt the new expiration date. If you fail, nothing will change, including the expiration date, until the certificate expires.  

 

Certifications expire two (2) years after the date the certification is earned. The earned date is based on the most recent, highest-level exam passed. For example, if you became Core Certified in November 2021 and passed the Advanced exam on March 29, 2022, both of your certifications will expire on March 29, 2024. 

 

To maintain your certification, you must recertify before the expiration date. Alteryx provides two ways for you to recertify: 

 

  1. Pass the current exam for your certification status. For example, passing the current version of the Advanced exam if you are currently Advanced Certified. 
  2. Pass a higher-level exam. For example, if you are currently Core Certified, you could recertify by passing the Advanced exam. Note: The micro-credentials are not tied to other exams and cannot be recertified in this same manner.  

 

Just beginning your data analytics journey with Alteryx? We have numerous resources to help you get started. The Getting Started Learning Path, Interactive Core Certification Prep Guide, Core Certification Practice Test, and Weekly Challenges are all available to help you learn Alteryx Designer and prepare for certification. Be sure to check out the Certification page and scroll down to the Q&A section. If you have additional questions, contact our team at Certification@alteryx.com. 

 


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Core Blueprint

 

 

Domain 

% of the Exam 

I.     General Designer Knowledge and Optimization 

13% 

II.    Input/Output Data and Preparation 

36% 

III.   Blend Data and Parse 

26% 

IV.  Transform Data 

25% 

        TOTAL 

100% 

 

 

  1. General Designer Knowledge and Optimization – 13%  
    1. Use Designer search and resources  
      1. Help 
      2. Community 
      3. One tool examples 
      4. How to submit a support case 
    2. Navigate the user interface  
      1. Results window 
      2. Messages window 
      3. Configuration 
      4. Interface Designer 
      5. Canvas 
      6. User settings 
      7. Hiding/showing tools 
    3. Identify Alteryx native file formats  
    4. Share and export workflows  
    5. Optimize workflows and collaborate
      1. Document workflows  
        1. Employ the Comment tool 
        2. Customize annotations 
        3. Identify container functionality 
      2. Reduce runtime 
        1. Disable Browse tools 
        2. Cache and run a workflow 
        3. Enable performance profiling  
        4. Enable and disable the Alteryx Multi-threaded Processing (AMP) engine
  2. Input/Output Data and Preparation – 36%  
    1. Read and write data  
      1. Create text input 
      2. Navigate data connections 
      3. Input data options 
        1. Record limit  
        2. Output file name as field 
        3. Start data import online 
      4. Write out multiple files and sheets with the Output Data tool 
      5. Overwrite, append, or output new data 
      6. Differentiate between relative versus absolute versus Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) pathing 
    2. Interpret data  
      1. Common data types 
      2. View metadata  
      3. Browse tool 
      4. Profile data 
    3. Cleanse data, including but not limited to the following functionality:  
      1. Remove unnecessary characters 
      2. Find missing values 
      3. Impute values 
      4. Avoid truncated data  
      5. Delimit data 
      6. Remove nulls 
      7. Use the Data Cleansing tool 
      8. Remove duplicate values 
    4. Build formulas, including but not limited to the following functionality: 
      1. Reference formula documentation  
      2. If/Then statements 
      3. And/Or statements 
      4. Formula tool 
      5. Indexes (zero-based) 
    5. Filter and arrange data using the following tools: 
      1. Select tool 
        1. Handling unknown values 
        2. Changing data types 
      2. Select Records tool 
      3. Sort tool 
      4. Filter tool 
      5. Unique tool 
      6. Sample tool
  3. Blend Data and Parse – 26%  
    1. Perform unions, joins, and appends  
      1. Join by records position 
      2. Join with multiple keys 
      3. Set up and configure the Union tool 
      4. Differentiate between the Union and Join tools 
      5. Identify the appending process and output 
      6. Create an inner join 
    2. Leverage the Find and Replace tools  
    3. Convert data string formats to and from date formats  
    4. Delimit data with the Text To Columns tool  
    5. Troubleshoot, including but not limited to the following issues:  
      1. Duplication within joins 
      2. Incompatible data types 
      3. Mismatched fields
  4. Transform Data – 25%  
    1. Apply the Summarize tool, including but not limited to the following functionality:  
      1. Group By 
      2. Numeric and string operations 
      3. Order of operations impact on output 
      4. Count records 
    2. Configure the Transpose tool, including but not limited to the following functionality:
      1. Key columns  
      2. Data columns 
    3. Apply the Cross Tab tool, including but not limited to the following functionality:  
      1. Grouping data 
      2. Methods of aggregation 
        1. Row and column totals 
        2. Concatenation 
        3. Sum  
    4. Identify when to use the Transpose and Cross Tab tools in tandem  

 

 

 

Comments
mceleavey
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

I love that this is being constantly evaluated.

I may struggle to pass this...

TiffanyD
Alteryx
Alteryx

Super cool to see the new changes! Sounds like it's about time for me to get re-certified -- or pass the Advanced certification 🤠

DanielG
12 - Quasar

Can I re-take the Core to extend my Advanced?  😁

sanjay_shinde
8 - Asteroid

Although I am aiming for Advanced certification, I am more interested to re-take new Core certification, Looks exciting 😁

chriswilliams41
10 - Fireball
10 - Fireball

This definitely looks intriguing. I can't wait to see it. Let's get it!

dabalusi
5 - Atom

I just passed the core examine and waiting to get my certificate however, I only see the badge in my portal and not the written certificate. Does anyone have leads on how I can get my certificate. Any leads will be helpful. Thank you.

Sarahannee19
6 - Meteoroid

When is the CORE exam changing?  This is the only post I can find about the change. Will the training materials and exam prep guide also be updated?  About to take the exam but not sure I will make it in time for OLD exam and need more information on the NEW exam.

 

Thanks!

NeilR
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)