CLAD Exam Experiences

[SercoSteveB]

As at least a couple of 'The Daily CLAD' regulars have now sat the NI Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer exam,  I thought I would create this post so that people can comment on their experiences.

Some things which I would like to know are listed below, but please feel free to comment with anything you feel is relevant:

1. Comment on their experiences
2. Views on the exam
3. Exam format (40 questions in 1 hour, PC or Paper based etc.)
4. Future topics to cover in 'The Daily CLAD'

CLAD 2017 Preparation Resources

CLAD Preparation Guide using LabVIEW 2017

LabVIEW and DAQ evaluation resource from mon3am

Training Links from Hooovahh via the Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines document

Hardware Basics

LabVEW Basics

DAQ Application Tutorials

3 Hour LabVIEW Introduction

CLD Preparation Resources

Study Guide and Sample Exams

Following the update to the CLAD Exam in July 2017 the links below are no longer available.

An excellent collation of the CLAD Preparation material available from NI.

Check out the Sample CLAD exams on ni.com; the Answer Sheet, at the end, includes links to information relating to each question, which is really cool (no link to 'The Daily CLAD' though....not so cool).

http://download.ni.com/pub/devzone/epd/clad_sample_exam1.pdf

http://ftp.ni.com/pub/devzone/epd/clad_sample_exam2.pdf

Lots of resources here from Jarda

More resources here from HuiRu

[LordNobady]

I think that you are missing that the data contains some bytes telling the size of the array. ( 2x 4byte ( U32 is array index ) ) that will explain the 8 bytes you are "missing".

[crossrulz]

LordNobady wrote:

                       

I think that you are missing that the data contains some bytes telling the size of the array. ( 2x 4byte ( U32 is array index ) ) that will explain the 8 bytes you are "missing".

                   

Actually, the index is an I32.  But that is still 4 bytes per index.

[XJonX]

Thanks SercoSteveB for the daily CLAD

I took my CLAD today and passed it!

1) Experiences: Tricky questions. Read all the questions carefully. I had more wrong answers than i expected.

2) The exam is alright, not as difficult and what other people said. (if you studied)

3) I used a PC

Advice: Read through labview 1 and labview 2. Make sure you understand EVERYTHING. Then do the 5 sample exams. Dont just do it, understand them. ask yourself: "even though the right answer is A. but in what case is B, C, D correct"

About 35% comes from the sample exam. I had 3+ multiple answer questions. I thought i had it right, but once again, read thoroughly. Tricky tricky tricky.

About 8+ questions have some sort of program on it.

To be honest, I only studied labview for a week. I think I could have gotten better grades if I took my time and studied them.

SercoSteveB's daily CLAD is VERY VERY useful. The questions are tricky and it'll help you build up your confidence in your answers. Even though most of the questions are more advance, do them! It will help you understand labview better.

That's it. Thanks Steve.

[SercoSteveB]

Nice one XJonX, you are welcome and thanks for the tips.

1 week of study, a LabVIEW guru in the making I think .

[john111]

Hello!

I passed CLAD today. Do i get some sort of paper or something to proof it? Or it is just that my name will be on that list? When do they put it on the list?

TX

[crossrulz]

You can expect stuff within a month or so.  Congratulations.

[mini09]

Cong John111, as crossrulz said you will receive a mail with the certificate and the logo of CLAD. You can use them in your resume and business card.

[john111]

Thank you. I allready recieved the stuff. This time i passed CLAD..because the first time it was 65%..just a bit not enough..but now i was well prepaired so this time it was 90% The daily clad is a really good way to prepare yourself to the exam..and especially try to experiment a bit with LV on yourself..not just go through the questions..

[Ajay_MV]

Hi Daily CLAD,

I'm happy to say that I have cleared CLAD exam with good margin.  97.50%.  Whoooo..!  I should say thanks to The Daily CLAD.  I was tryign out all questions in this community for past 3 days before going to exam had helped me a lot.  Thanks again team.

Regards,
Ajay.

[SercoSteveB]

Nice one Ajayvignesh_MV and congratulations.  Do you have any CLAD Exam Experiences to share?

Steve

[mini09]

Cong Ajay....

[Ajay_MV]

Yes I do have some CLAD experiences to share.  I guess one should be very attentive to the wordings in CLAD because skimming through the question would lead to misunderstanding of the question.  So always pay good attention to the question.  I had corrected three questions at the end of exam which I flagged as "Might be wrong".  All the way in my practices I found I'm very inattentive and complete the test in 40 minutes.  So, I planned to use last 20 minutes to recheck all my answers.  I also recommend lot of practices before the exam, good experience in LabVIEW devleopment and this The Daily CLAD too.

Thanks,

Ajay.

[Ajay_MV]

Thanks Ganesha Moorthy Arunagiri

[sportscliche]

I took and passed CLAD this week.  My story:

I'm a university faculty member (physics).  Because I had a lot of self-taught LabView experience, I was assigned to teach it as part of a one-semester undergrad lab course.  Realizing that my credentials to do this were likely sub-optimal, I used our substantial academic discount to take Core 1 and 2.  At that point, I became interested in CLAD.  My department didn't ask me to get certified, but I took the test anyway to experience first-hand how difficult it is. I'm trying to determine whether or not to push our LabView training in that direction, ie. get students to the point where they could get certified if they are so inclined.  The problem is there is only so much that can be covered in a semester (or two) and if LabView gets strongly emphasized, other material will suffer.  Does CLAD have any significant value in the workplace or grad school to warrant emphasis in a course?  Or is it better to give students just a taste of what the software can do and let them decide if they want to pursue it independently?  I don't know the answer.

My advice to potential CLAD test takers is similar to what others have posted.  Having the Core 1-2 manuals is probably essential.  It looks like everything in there is fair game, although I did not encounter any questions related to DAQ interfacing, project explorer, or stand-alone executables.  I was only able to locate three practice exams and recognized maybe 4 questions out of the 40 on my test.  A few questions were a bit ambiguous in their wording, but I correctly guessed what was being asked for.  The expected test themes were all there: mechanical action of Booleans, charts and graphs and how they interact with arrays/loops, data flow programming, property nodes, the advantages of various architectures (especially state machines and producer-consumer).  There was a question that required knowledge of strict control refnums and another on property nodes with value signaling.  These were not covered in my week-long training class, although thanks to this blog I was prepared for them.  I suspect that a thorough understanding of Core 1 and 2 along with the practice exams is enough to pass.  If you are shooting for perfection, or close to it, then carefully study all the problems in this blog.  You'll learn a lot of LabView and be able to take the exam with confidence.

[ashwinilele]

hello everyone ,,

I want to share one thing that I have cleared CLAD cirtification exam last week ..

Big thanks to everyone on Daily CLAD blog ...especially SercoSteveB who starts this blog .

because of ur discussions and lots of questions ..I got cleared my concept...

thank you very much  to all.......................

[Sumithra_Nagappan]

Hi...

I'm a CLAD certified now,

I had my CLAD exam yesterday in online,Earlier in India we don't have online exams,but now it is available.I got my result immediately after successfull completion.

Even though i have experience in programming using LabVIEW,Posts in DAILY CLAD helped me out in covering most of the functions available, which also an source which made me to pass.

Most of Questions in my exam was a reasoning type & properties of functions,i felt bit difficult too.

I missed exactly 12 and passed out the exam with 70%.

I like thank Serco Steve who brought wonderfull concept for preparing CLAD,Daily CLAD will definitely be an good moderator for whom doesn't know where to start and how to prepare for the exam.

[RustyStrings]

I finally got around to taking the CLAD test

I passed and only missed 3 of the questions

This was an online test the format was very similar to the practice exams, however many of the questions were quite different

[RustyStrings]

One of the questions I missed had to do with methods

the answers were something like this:

a) property node

b) method node

c) invoke node

d) front panel

I chose property node because I never heard of a method node

I don't think I have ever used an invoke node, maybe some practice questions about them would be useful!

[crossrulz]

RustyStrings wrote:

                       

One of the questions I missed had to do with methods

the answers were something like this:

a) property node

b) method node

c) invoke node

d) front panel

I chose property node because I never heard of a method node

I don't think I have ever used an invoke node, maybe some practice questions about them would be useful!

                   

A property node sets or reads a property.  An invoke node implements a method.

[RustyStrings]

Another question I missed had to do with how many x and or y scales you can have for charts or graphs

I have never used more than on scale so I was unaware of multiple scales

here is a little info about that:

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/lvhowto/addingmultiplexandyscales/

[sportscliche]

A question I got wrong went something like this (paraphrasing): You are have three Boolean controls on the front panel.  How best to group these?  The choices were: a) cluster, b) array, c) ring, or d) matrix.  I wasn't sure what "best" meant, although I narrowed the choices to array or cluster.  I figured since all data types were the same that it would be logical and convenient to have them in an array, allowing easy indexing and manipulation on the block diagram.  But I also understand that a cluster is more amenable to future program expansion with a type def, custom control design, unbundle by name, etc.   I picked array.  The correct answer was not revealed, but I assume it was cluster.

[RustyStrings]

I think you are right that it would be cluster

also to me the word "group" seems to imply a cluster

[Sumithra_Nagappan]

I too had the same question,We can add multiple scale on both graph & chart.

[LordNobady]

I just received the results of my exam. I Passed with ease. the questions that threw me of most. ( hat 2 of them ) is about the graph and charts. I need to listen more to the GraphMaster.
I did watch the core 2 videos as preparation and did not reread the daily CLAD or read anny Sample exam.

The exam was a paper based one that has been send to the USA to be graded.

took them 22 day's to grade a multiple choice exam.

[Alan_w_global]

HI Everyone,

I took my CLAD and passed today, I know that the daily clad made a difference, I only used it for the last few days, but it really helped me to focus.

Now i'm contemplating CLD with eager anticipation.

I have a question:

I am a self-employed engineer (RF analogue test etc.) I want to get contracts/work with a strong Labview bias. Have any of you gone this route, got CLAD/CLD approached companies, Ni associates etc, If you feel like it, please tell me/us your story. It always seems mutually benificial to know other engineers/programmers, we never know when we might need each others skills, so please feel free to repond.

A massive thanks again for all help and Steve.

Alan

[#27]

Congratulations on passing the CLAD  exam, Alan. As you prepare for the CLD exam you may want to consider adding a book to your Christmas wish list; Effective LabVIEW Programming (http://www.ntspress.com/publications/effective-labview-programming/). It is written with the CLD exam as a goal and explores a number of the practice exams.

No I don't get commission for promoting the book, but I am reading it at the moment and can recommend it 🙂

[SercoSteveB]

Hi Alan

Congratulations.  Sorry I can't help with the contrat work, I have always been a permy.

Steve

[canonboy]

Just took the CLAD yesterday and passed!  Good to have it done now... Thanks so much for this blog, it really helped being able to understand principles and concepts more in depth.  I downloaded the CLD recert practice exams (in the last link in the description for this post) thinking that they were CLAD recert practice exams and was really discouraged when I pretty much didn't know anything (scored 50%), and was glad when those types of questions weren't on my CLAD yesterday. 

My advice would be similar to what others have stated, read the questions carefully, even when it looks like there is a question from one of the practice tests, they can change a word or two around to make it mean something different, or it could be a different way to say the same thing...

Thanks again for the hard work put into this blog and responding to posts and questions from newbies that come along .

[kdharanya]

Hi,

I am  taking up CLAD Exam next week.

DAILY CLAD is so much useful for my preparation.

Hope to clear CLAD.

[mini09]

Congrats canonboy!!!! Happy to have your experience.

All the best kharanya!!

[mohammed_awney@hotmail.com]

kurt.rightler could you again share the link of 5 practice exam, thanks advance

[mini09]

I just took my CLAD exam again today and passed. But when I look at the score I was not happy, need to learn a lot.

The part I failed was in finding the best answer for the question. I would suggest you to learn more about timer functions, graphs.

[SercoSteveB]

Congratualtions gnshmrthy

[Ihab]

Congratulations. gnshmrthy Keep pushing.

I passed the CLAD as well in  October 2014. But I still not satisfied with my level. I need to work on many sections in the near future.

[JoeTubo]

Thanks to everyone here. You definitely helped me a lot to pass the CLAD exam.

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations Ihab

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations JoeTubo

[clendon.gibson@canrig.com]

Passed the CLAD last Friday.

Multiple choice test. Some of the questions were the same as the practice exam, so difinitely get those and review.

I had problems with memorizing certain aspects of LabVIEW that I always look up when it comes time to use it. For example, when building arrays in nested For loops, which is first, row or column? Which mechanical action of boolean buttons does what?

As other have said the multiple answers can be tricky. If you don't remember if something is this way or that way, the odds are good you will see both answers in the choices.

Steve, you might want to cover Dynamic Data types. This was on the practice exam, but not the CLAD exam I took. I had not heard of them before.

[RustyStrings]

I know what you mean, I often find myself looking up/using debug methods to determine things that you need to memorize in order to pass the test

As far as rows and columns go there was a good discussion about that here:

https://decibel.ni.com/content/blogs/DailyCLAD/2012/03/28/nested-for-loop-operation#comment-20938

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations again clendon.gibson@canrig.com.  Thanks for the Dynamic Data tip, look out for a series of questions starting on or about the 29th December.

[faisalm88]

I passed my CLAD exam with a 95 just before Christmas!

I'm relatively new to LabView, besides doing a couple to assignments back in college I've never really used it. I prepared for the exam in about four weeks, I took LabView Core 1 and Core 2 online and did all the provided exercise material. After trying out the two sample exams provided by NI I did almost all the questions on Steve's DailyCLAD. The questions on the blog are totally awesome, most of them reinforce your concepts in a constructive way, which in my opinion is exactly what is required to pass the exam.

The format of the exam was usual 40 questions, 3 of them had more than one answer, at least 5 of the questions were quite similar to if not same as questions in NI sample exams. There were a couple of questions based on the concepts presented in the 'Most missed CLAD concepts' video/webinar provided by NI. I felt that most of the questions were conceptual, if you have programmed with LabView for a while I'm sure they'll appear to be obvious.

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations faisalm88.  Thanks for the overview of your experience, it looks like those multiple answer questions, that everyone enjoys so much, are still part of the exam.

[sahils]

I passed  the Certification exam today!!! I am so happy. Was taught by an amazing Application Engineer from NI at a bootcamp. Learnt Core 1 and Core 2 in span of 3 and half days. Also I found @SercoSteveB 's  Daily CLAD. It would not have been possible without all these amazing people putting out their best effort. Few questions were  tricky but many of them were directly from the Sample Exam.

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations sahils.  Do you have any suggestions for future 'The Daily CLAD' topics from your experience of the exam?

[Yamoussa]

I passed  CLAD in February, after eight months of using LabVIEW. When I started to prepare for the exam, in January, I trained three times on clad_samples_exam while respecting the timing. And I found the full complement repeating the exercises proposed by Steve.

I plan to start preparing the CLD next Summer.

Thank you Steve !

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations Yamoussa, nice one...you are welcome.  

Good luck with the CLD. 

Do you have any suggestions for future 'The Daily CLAD' questions?

[Yamoussa]

I had difficulty answering the questions on Handling Error . I suggest future candidates to pay attention to it.

[sharkawy]

hey guys ,

Yesterday I took my CLAD in NI HQ in Egypt, it was computer based, and I passed with 85%, I am still new with LabVIEW only one month expereince but you have to read carefully NI sample exams they have I think around 5 exam samples try to understand them not memorizing , and you will be ok

[TGNGC]

Just passed the CLAD. Do we get some type of certificate of completion? I googled CLAD certificates and saw what appeared to be legit certificates signed by NI people? Could anyone confirm this, do they come in the mail, is there a place to print them off, etc.?Thanks! By the way, Steve thanks for posting the daily CLAD, that was basically all I used to study!

[SercoSteveB]

Congratulations sharkawy, nice one. A really good effort with only 1 month experience.  Do you have any suggestions for future The Daily CLAD topics?