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.