I want to be up front and honest: I suspect I’ll fail this. However, I’m going to try. I’m registered for it, so no backing out now. In this article, I’ll run through everything I’m doing to prepare…for the exam.

That’s right – exam. And a PostgreSQL one, at that.

What exam, you might ask? Isn’t PostgreSQL open source? Who could possibly provide a certification to open-source software? Enter the Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education, who recently started building out full independent certifications for PostgreSQL – as in, they’re not tied to a vendor or company.

They’ve just completed the first draft of an entry-level PostgreSQL certification, and the exam for that will be given for the first time at pgConf.eu in Valencia, Spain, this October.

And – more fool me – that’s the exam I’ll be taking.

Certifications and I

I’m not a fan of certifications. I’ve only earned a couple, way back in the early 90s (yes, we had computers then). They didn’t do much for me or my career. Then, I watched people get 2, 3, 20, certifications, frequently by studying question dumps – further devaluing the certification in my eyes.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that I’ve moved around and up within my career without ever having a certification. So, personally speaking, I see just shy of zero value for them.

However, to a whole slew of people, I’m just flat wrong. I won’t argue. In fact, here are some of the positives of certifications.

First up – and most importantly – nearly every certification gives you a study guide, a list of topics that you need to know. The Open Alliance cert is no different. Having a structured study guide helps a whole lot of people in their learning, so this alone is an invaluable resource. Even if you never take the test, just using the study guide helps you learn the tool – in this case, PostgreSQL.

Next, some employers truly believe in certifications as proof of knowledge, so having one (or more) can improve employment prospects. Maybe you need one to get your ‘foot in the door’, so to speak, or perhaps it acts as the tie breaker between you and other qualified candidates. It’s a good way to show “yes, indeed, I do have some knowledge” – and that’s especially helpful in the early stages of a career.

Some employers want certified people for more selfish reasons, too. For example, having a number of their employees certified on a specific platform could lead to a better partnership with the platform vendor.

It’s not necessarily the same in the open-source world, but even here, a consulting company may brag about the number of certified people just the same as they brag about having contributors and committers within the PostgreSQL community. Getting your certification could certainly help you progress within your organization.

Let me know if you think I was unfair with any of these positive reasons to get a certification, or if I missed any out, but I think I covered them well enough.

If I’m against certifications, why am I going for this one?

Fair question. First, I want to test my knowledge. I’ve done a ton with PostgreSQL over the last four years. I’ve taught courses, have written many articles, wrote half a book (the easy half), experimented, learned, and grew. I now want to see how I stack up against the certification.

I also see taking the exam as another way to support the PostgreSQL community – even if that’s just by just saying “hey, I’m taking this exam, maybe you should too.” Then, once I’ve taken (and probably failed) it, I can provide feedback to help make it better going forward.

Finally, it gives me fodder for a few articles, and maybe some presentations…but, urgh, I probably need to actually pass the thing for that.

How will I study for the PostgreSQL exam?

Here’s what’s included in the exam – so that’s everything I need to study. The very first thing I did was create a markdown checklist of those data points, marking the areas I believe I have a decent handle on (describe the role of schemas and search_path”, for example), and ones I’m less sure of. “Describe the role of the postmaster process” was left unmarked…

From there, I’m reviewing the stuff I marked and studying the stuff I didn’t. So, I’m using it as intended: a study guide.

Next up, I’m re-reading the Introduction to PostgreSQL for the data professional book I helped Ryan Booz write (he did the heavy lifting, I assure you). Sure, a bunch of my chapters I’m already familiar with, but I want to double down on Ryan’s chapters.

The book was written before this certification was created, but we pretty closely follow the structure of the study guide. Clearly, this will be a handy resource. The book is free to download, or you can pay for the paper.

The importance of official documentation

As usual, I’ll also be leaning heavily on the PostgreSQL documentation. I’ve said it before, will say it again, and will probably continue saying it – this is some of the best documentation I’ve seen. It’s extremely thorough, detailed, and I absolutely love it.

The one shortcoming I see in the documentation, though, is a lack of guidance. Just what are the most important topics? That’s OK for this situation, though, as I’ve got the study guide. For example, I can search the documents for VACUUM in order to meet the “explain what VACUUM is, and why it’s needed” requirement.

How I’m using AI to help me study for the exam

I’m also going to lean on AI as a learning tool. I already had it create my checklist markdown file, and I’ve just entered some of the requirements into the prompt (“describe the role of pg_stat_bgwriter and pg_stat_checkpointer”, for example.)

With that, I get a pretty detailed answer, and can then ask follow-up questions, get examples of how to better use these in a query, and more. I also plan to see if it can generate sample tests for me to take before the real thing.

Throughout this process I’m also focusing on running scripts against PostgreSQL. Hands-on is a very important part of learning.

To summarize, then: to prepare for the PostgreSQL exam, I’m reading, coding, and practicing, all using the guide provided.

The only thing I’m really missing is some video or voice content (or both). I’m going to see if anyone has a decent, relatively up-to-date learning series either on YouTube or a podcast. I can add that as I go.

Why am I revealing my participation in the exam?

I so very much wish I wasn’t publicly announcing my participation in this certification. However, some of the organizers reached out because, well, they wanted it promoted.

I also believe in the work the PostgreSQL community is doing, and I respect the people working on this particular project (the Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education). So, of course I had to say yes. I’m just going to be quite red in the face when I drop the ball and fail. Wish me luck.

I will, of course, announce my results (and my next steps for studying for the next opportunity to take the exam) afterwards.

Finally, are you going to pgConf.eu? You are? Great! Oh, and you’re going to sign up and take the exam with me?

Even better.