Online CLD Experience - useful tips for interested test takers

[itstalhaperacha]

I am going to share my experience of the online exam and share some useful tips.

1. Most of the people had the problem of shortcuts not working. I managed to find a remapping solution to that after an effort of 2-3 days.

However, the proctor didn't allow me to setup my environment. Moreover, I had the remapped shortcuts written on a paper. I had to set those shortcuts (which I could remember) during the exam time. I lost my precious initial 10 minutes in setting up. If I fail by a narrow margin, I am going to take up this issue with the certification team.

2. I took the test over WiFi and it worked almost seamless. Its not going to be as crisp as your local development system. .

3. I used a big screen with a laptop. I used a separate camera. You have to close the laptop lid and you are good to go.

4. I was not informed about the remaining time at any point. At the end, my connection was lost. When I connected back, I asked for the remaining time. At that point, I was told that I have 14 seconds left. You can imagine the frenzy afterwards.

5. Overall it was a good experience. I would strongly advocate to Practice as much as you can.

[leahmedwards]

Thanks for posting @HyperSol - I really wish I read this before taking my online CLA!

I too found it quite convenient, but I did find some aspects bizarre e.g. proctor giving you a number to call if you find it hard to re-access the system after your internet drops out, but you're not allowed to save the information or write it down.

Thought I'd add a few tips of my own:

1. Would reiterate to wear a watch as the lack of timing system really threw me off. The system clock shows a random time that seems un-related to the real time.
2. Yes, separate camera is useful for panning around the room. I disabled my laptop camera in Device Manager.
3. Program wise, there is no Windows snipping tool and print screen didn't seem to work. Only found this out as I like to snip the front panel sketch next to my UI VIs while I'm working on them. Instead I made an additional copy of the PDF so I could have the sketch open next to the instructions.
4. Full screen the browser window BEFORE the test is started. When my internet connection dropped out, I exited full screen mode and it was all blurry once it came back.
5. Launch the test nice and early - it took me half an hour-ish to do all of the check-in stuff and wait for approval. Maybe that was longer than average, who knows, but I was getting twitchy as my test start time came and went.
6. You can drink water from a clear glass - I okayed this with the proctor.
7. Some of the shortcuts seemed buggy, but others worked. I had some problems with copy and paste for GObjects at 1 point, but CTRL+Click+Drag was still okay.
8. You can take a comfort break with the proctor's permission but you are still on the clock. Luckily I didn't have to do this. Useful to know the option is here though - 4h is a long time!

Wishing you all the best for your results.

[DoctorAutomatic]

Since I recently (finally) pushed myself to pursue official certification, I wanted to pass on my experience with the online exam as of October 2024.

• Overall the experience was far better this time around (Examity) than my experience when I randomly took the CLAD years ago for the second time (PSI). On that note, the only reason I retook the CLAD was because my employer was willing to pay and my prior cert had expired and I thought I needed it in order to take the CLD. You don't anymore (and I don't think even when I took the CLAD) but there are still tons of un-updated documents floating around on NI's site that still say the CLAD is a prerequisite, that's really annoying, NI please fix it! It is even on the very first page of the CLD exam prep guide that is linked on the main CLD certification page (first link under "Step 2, Prepare for Your Exam").
• I had some slight trouble getting my ID to be close enough and focus for the proctor to read (which is weird b/c my webcam specifically advertised a "Show mode" for being able to focus on objects held close to the camera). Unlike my PSI experience years ago where the proctor went entirely overboard in busting my balls about my environment (a totally sterile touchdown office), my experience this time was far more reasonable even though I was in a most certainly picked up but not sterile environment of my own house. If you definitely want to avoid using your laptop's screen, having an external webcam is pretty key for a smooth experience. Make sure you sort out how to configure your system to use an external monitor with your laptop being closed.
• As I half expected, I was not offered the opportunity to setup the dev environment before time started, and when I asked to be given the opportunity the proctor seemed to have no idea what I was talking about and we already had enough of a language barrier (I think he was from India) that I decided not to push things and just accept that I would eat the 5min to setup. Honestly, the timer seemed tied directly to access of the VM, I'm not sure how I would be given any time to setup as I couldn't even see the VM until I pressed the button which also started the timer. It would be better to just remove this apparent extra setup time completely, nothing worse than a "surprise" on exam day. If you practice enough, are at a CLD level of proficiency, and if you do attempt to mostly use LV with most settings as default in your normal line of work (which I recommend), it's not going to make or break your CLD exam score. The main settings I changed were to disable feedback nodes when you make a cyclic wire and uncheck controls as icons (can we agree that this shouldn't even be default!!!???).
• The one thing I did wish I could have had some time to sort out was the display scaling between my monitor and the VM. I was using a 4K monitor and I still had to scroll to see the bottom taskbar of Windows (thus I also had to scroll up to see the top ~1inch if I did scroll down to use the taskbar). I think it probably had something to do with my display scaling setting or the VM's setting, but I didn't dare open my settings panel and I didn't want to waste time fussing with it and possibly making it worse. It would be nice to somehow be able to test the experience before actually doing the exam (as in, if NI had a test server we could login to days in advance to make sure something like display settings would work)
• I was thoroughly confused by the existence of two copies/folders of the exam. See THIS THREAD for an explanation of what I mean.
• At first the connection seemed a little laggy/slow. I don't know if I just got used to it or if it improved, but it seemed to get better to the point that I stopped noticing as time passed. I ran a 100ft Cat6 cable to my desk from my gigabit router for the test, and I have gigabit fiber service. Prior to the exam I ran a speed test, once on WiFi, then on wired. There was a significant difference in speed (I was getting nearly the advertised gigabit speed of my ISP with wired). I have a feeling this probably doesn't matter that much but I wanted to remove any potential problems, I have one of those mesh WiFi networks and occasionally I feel like it's a source of intermittent issues.
• As for the exam, it was very much in line with the sample exams. Not sure what to say about. If you run out of sample exams you could literally make your own based on numerous devices/machines/utilities you interact with on a daily basis. I almost want to try to make one for fun (might even be a good way to prepare but that ship sailed for me now). I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the ways NI helps to standardize & automate the exam grading is the use of a file that needs to be loaded and run by your solution. So you can bet there will be some form of file I/O (txt, csv, ini), probably some parsing of the contents (think string to number sort of things), and when they grade it they just replace the file with their own that tests a lot of the desired functionality (and probably some edge cases you may not have thought about given the contents provided in the file for the exam, like zero values, additional/fewer line items, contents that are jagged arrays, etc).
• I have yet to see a CLD without a timer. I just get used to making one with pause functionality and use it whether that pause functionality if necessary or not.
• Also, it turns out that while you aren't allowed paper/pen, you can have a dry erase board (you must erase it in front of the proctor at the end of the exam). I must have missed that part, I would definitely have appreciated a way to plan things out that way. I did not check whether the notepad app was available, it would have been of no value to me (I prefer "drawing" out my plans).
• Make the following process a habit: Create SubVi>Ctr-I (VI properties>Documentation, write quick blurb)>Ctrl-S (save VI)>Ctrl-Space (quick drop)>Ctrl-K(set VI icon to name).
• Also, I believe my LabVIEW version was 2020, which sort of surprised me, was expecting something newer, but 2020 is what I happen to use the most anyway so it was more than fine for me.

Awaiting my results still (only day 7 post exam).

[JJeremy]

DoctorAutomatic,

Did you receive your results back?  Just wondering what the current turnaround time is.  I've heard it's 4 weeks or less.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[DoctorAutomatic]

---

@JJeremy wrote:

DoctorAutomatic,

Did you receive your results back?  Just wondering what the current turnaround time is.  I've heard it's 4 weeks or less.

Thanks,

Jeremy

---

Yes, i think it was only 12-14 calendar days, so quite fast. I passed by a healthy margin (don't remember the score off the top of my head), and feel I could have gotten a better score if I hadn't got bogged down in parsing some aspect of the input file (one of those things where once I had a realization I was angry with myself for how easily I could have solved it had I made a very simple observation, instead of wasting so much time). The time I lost on that (and not being able to setup the IDE before the exam started) would have been spent mostly on tidying up my block diagram and fixing a very minor bug that I assume was probably discovered by exam graders if they fed my program with an input file that tried to test some corner cases that were evident to me but just didn't have time to address.

 I got dinged a small amount for too many wire bends also. Honestly, I think my code looks the same or better than most NI examples, so I have no idea what exactly was the reason for it. I ran VI analyzer near the end and didn't have many cosmetic warnings. Wouldn't be surprised if the QMH template, which I used, was ironically the source of this "too many wire bends".

[RickyJ]

Could you chose to avoid PSI?
We just had a guy take the exam and it was called off because of "our?" internet connection being sub par and constant audio issues from the Proctor. Ironically these audio issues were followed by the mic icon not showing up, almost as if someone forgets to unmute and only seemed to be one way. 
I took it long enough ago with all the same stupid, unprofessional and downright embarrassing issues, and I'm soon up for a re-exam. And would REALLY like to avoid PSI, as all indicators seem to suggest literally nothings changed since I took it. 

Back then I was also told my internet was the issue, in video, over zoom, via my internet...
Luckily it was remedied enough it wasn't called off. Though I also suspect this was called off because the proctor doesn't remember to unmute themselves. I had a ton of other issues instead with random disconnects (some I caused because of course CTRL+W has a very predictable outcome in Chrome) but most I didn't.
Sorry about the trauma dump.
And not to throw shade, but we're from Denmark, if zoom works, the likelyhood it's our internet in regards to quality or stability, is really really really (did I mention really?) low. Though I suspect along with the proctor, the server we're connecting to is somewhere in India.