Which exams are part of the Windows Phone Certification (MCPD)

The mobile market is an increasingly fast-paced industry with many big businesses looking to tap into the millions of mobile users worldwide. The Windows Phone Certification allows developers to certify their skills in developing apps for the Windows Phone series.

As with other developer certifications, the Windows Phone Certification is part of the MCPD group. There are 3 exams required to achieve the MCPD status for Windows Phone: Two of them are MCTS exams and the last is the MCPD exam.

Although it's not always the case, many people consider the MCTS exams to be foundation exams that provide building blocks for other higher exams. They usually focus on a particular area of development such as data access or a particular platform. The last exam, the MCPD, is usually a higher level exam focusing on good practices and architecture.

The following exams are required to achieve the MCPD Windows Phone Developer

70-506
MCTS prerequisite – Silverlight 4 Development
Developing software using the Silverlight framework

70-516
MCTS prerequisite – Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
Using LINQ, SQL, Entity Frameworks, Stored Proecdures, XML

70-599
MCPD requirement – Designing and Developing Windows Phone Applications
High level exam focusing on design and development principles

You must pass all of these exams.

As with other Microsoft certifications, you do not have to take the exams in any particular order but you will only achieve the MCPD once you have passed all three. This certification also required re-certification every 2 years.