Microsoft SQL 2005 Exam 70-441

By Kalman Toth, Business Intelligence Architect

August 4 , 2007

Microsoft Exam 70-441 is titled PRO: Designing Database Solutions by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005. It is the first required exam for the MCITP: Database Developer certification.

The exam has a new twist to it: 6 business cases(testlets, scenarios, case studies). There are no general questions Altogether 6 individually timed sections. The questions against the business cases are multiple selection items, most radio buttoned, some check marked. At least I did not get pulling blocks to their places. The 6 business cases start whereby you get a complete description of a business operation, small, medium or large, with technical and business requirements, including performance, and you are asked 5-13 questions (17-45 minutes typical for each business case).

There are 55 questions altogether on the 2 1/2-hour test. Important to remember: each business case has its own time limit! When finished with a business case, you can go back a review all questions in that section, change the answers, however, once you are out of a section, you cannot go back it and the time leftover is just gone. Time remaining is shown in the upper right corner. The question number of total number of questions is shown on the lower right corner.

The entire exam is extremely practical in nature; there are no “trick” questions. A SQL Server 2005 development expert can pass it easily. Also a beginner who mastered “SQL 2005 Grand Slam”, or "SQL 2005/2000 & BI Triple Crown" can breeze through it. For beginners though probably requires a couple of tries.  Perusing Microsoft exam prep books helpful but I am quite doubtful that they are sufficient for passing. Also helpful internet available exam preps. While some of the exam preps usually have old, obsolete test questions, nevertheless, they are good to practice, get used to timing, buildup confidence and also some of the explanations may prove to be good knowledge. Occasionally though the exam preps may be giving the wrong answer and the wrong explanation. Buyers beware!  Also some of the blogs discussing exam experiences maybe helpful.  Just Google it.

The business case studies are really interesting. After a page or two of description existing environment, problems and business requirements, you are given a few to as many as 13 questions. You cannot select the answer based on the question. You have to go back to description part and check, for example, the solution requirement for system response time. Basically you have to select a practical solution. There are no bits and bytes on this test, only real-world-like solutions. Long-running report interfering with production? Practical solutions maybe running it on a different server or scheduling it to run at night. Brush up on sprocs, UDFs, triggers, computed columns, web services and more.

The passing score is 700.

Overall 70-441 is a very well-done, practical and moderately enjoyable test. If you don’t pass the first time make sure you have paper and pencil for writing down the items you missed as soon as you leave the exam center(braindump). Do some studying and read some practical SQL 2005 application books in Barnes and Noble, and schedule a retake within 1-4 weeks.  When you take the second time you have several advantages: some of the questions will be the same, you are also used to the style of exam and time management.

Here is a helpful hint: when 3 of the radio-buttoned answers are from SQL Server 2000 and one is a new feature of SQL Server 2005, the likelyhood is very high that the SQL 2005 answer is the correct one.