Darrell Norton's Blog [MVP]

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Took the 70-340 Beta exam

I finally took the 70-340 beta exam. Overall I thought it was appropriately challenging. Like others have mentioned, there is a good bit on cryptography. I hope this is more geared toward an MCSD, since there were both winform and webform questions, whereas an MCAD can choose to concentrate on one or the other.

So how did I prepare? First, I had previously read Writing Secure Code, 2^nd Ed. Second, I had already read Building Secure ASP.NET Applications and Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures. So to review for the test, I watched the DevDays 2004 DVD presentations for both the web security and smart client tracks. Although the OpenHack source code (a more recent version is available on the DevDays DVD) is a great security implementation reference, don’t spend too much time studying it.

Published Apr 30 2004, 01:47 PM by darrell

Comments

Jason Row said:

I took the beta today (Monday) and found the experience enlightening. Since I haven't worked on that many projects with Visual Studio.NET it gave me some insight as to the things that I can look for and apply to future coding, once i figure out which of the answers were the correct ones.

I'm going to get a copy of Writing Secure Code as it seems to be required reading even for those not planning to write the exam.

I'm fairly certain I didn't pass the beta so I'll be preparing to take the exam again once it goes live.

# May 3, 2004 3:09 PM

Jason Row said:

I must be tired from my hockey game tonight. I forgot to comment about the audience. Darrel I do think the exam is geared towards MCSDs simply because it did cover both Windows and Web forms. My exams was heavier on Web forms but you need experience with both to understand the scenarios. The sections dealing with cryptography were over my head so I didn't do well on that part. There were quite a number of questions dealing with cryptography.

# May 3, 2004 3:13 PM