Hi folks,
If you are planning to prepare, are preparing, or are in your final stages of preparation for the much talked about, new member of the MuleSoft certification family "MuleSoft Hyperautomation Specialist" then this blog is for you. Many people have reached out to me asking on how to prepare for this exam, tips to clear this exam, and my overall experience, so let's jump right into it.
First and foremost, MuleSoft is now providing instructor-led training for this course and you can find more details at the link below.
https://training.mulesoft.com/course/hyperautomation
Moving on, if you want to prepare for this course on your own, or would like to know more about this certification after your training course, to better prepare for your exam then read on…
Who are MuleSoft Hyperautomation Specialists?
They are Administrators, Consultants, Developers and Architects who are responsible for designing solutions using Salesforce and MuleSoft automation tools.
Why is this certification challenging?
If you are used to working with Salesforce automation tools, you will need to then learn how to use MuleSoft automation tools, and vice versa.
What tools are we talking about?
All these tools follow the principle of no code-low code, and when used together can provide powerful yet simple to design solutions. Hence, the term "Hyper"automation!
Moving to the important question…
How to prepare for this exam?
Complete this trail offered by Salesforce, and finish all challenges and exercise questions.
A common question I get is
"There are a lot of trails in there. What are the important ones?"
It is advisable to look at them all - no one said it was going to be a breeze!😊
However, based on my experience with the exam, after preparing all the trails, I can suggest which section of exam is inclined to specific trails.
Topic 2 (No, I haven’t forgotten topic 1. We will come to it at the end, and you will understand why later 😉)
Use MuleSoft Composer to automate data integrations for Hyperautomation:
Prepare everything in this link
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/users/mulesoft-trailhead/trailmixes/mulesoft-composer
Go through the documentation in this link
https://docs.mulesoft.com/composer/ms_composer_overview
If you have composer access, practice making flows. In case you do not have access, do not worry - there are very good videos on solutions provided by Salesforce during the trails. These videos and the practice exercises helped me a lot in my preparation.
Expect questions on connector configurations (e.g. What are the access requirements to connect to RPA?), functions used (e.g. How would you convert string to date-time?), testing of flows (Best practice to test a composer flow?) etc.
Topic 3
Design, build, and manage MuleSoft RPA processes used for Hyperautomation.
Register and complete this self-paced course.
https://training.mulesoft.com/course/getting-started-rpa
Even if you do not have an RPA license you will be able to cover all features of RPA with this detailed self-paced course, filled with video demos, exercises and practice tests.
Once you have completed the self-paced course, this next RPA trail will be easier and a quick revision of your previous self-paced assignment.
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/users/mulesoft-trailhead/trailmixes/mulesoft-rpa
Expect questions on stages of RPA (e.g. At what stage can you review financial analysis of your process?), the individual tools of RPA i.e. RPA manager, RPA recorder, RPA builder and RPA bot (e.g. What are the mandatory BPMN symbols in a RPA process?), testing of RPA flow requirements, debugging flow in case of failures etc.
Topic 4
Use Salesforce Flow to build hyperautomation workflows.
Salesforce flow
You must complete the following links:
I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to complete all topics, hands on challenges and practice tests in this section.
Once complete, refer to this documentation
https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.flow.htm&type=5
You should practice as much as possible on flows with the Trailhead- Playground to build flows and deploy them during your practice. When you do so, you will get comfortable with terms like objects, records, fields and understand the building blocks of flow. For anyone new to Salesforce (like me) attaching meaning to your preparation content will help you remember more.
Expect questions related to building what flow helps for a particular requirement (e.g. what kind of flow is needed when sales manager needs to approve a case?), accessing external services (e.g. what are the steps to access external API’s in salesforce?) etc.
Einstein bots
Read this topic on setting up your Einstein bot
Go through this trailmix for understanding the capabilities of Einstein overall as a service.
In my experience the important topic to prepare is Einstein bots, the components in Einstein bot and how to deploy them. Do prepare one bot yourself. Making an AI chat-bot is fun! And it prepares you well for the exam.
Topic 5
Use Anypoint Platform to enable automated integrations for hyperautomation.
Register and complete this course if you are new to Anypoint platform, or want to brush up on your Anypoint platform skills
https://training.mulesoft.com/course/getting-started-mule4
There were no development questions in the certification exam, but the exam tests your knowledge on tools of Anypoint platform, API-led connectivity and knowledge on designing and mocking the API specifications.
If you are familiar with MuleSoft this should be an easy section to clear, and you can expect questions on API-led connectivity layers (e.g. Which layer would you connect your database?), questions on API design first approach (e.g. How could separate teams develop projects in parallel?). As you can judge, the questions will be mostly indirect. So read your questions well when answering.
Do visit this short trail to summarise this section
Topic 6
Use Anypoint Platform to manage and monitor Hyperautomation API endpoints.
If you are well versed with Anypoint Platform tools API Manager, Runtime Manager and Monitoring this should be an easy section for you to score well. This section tests your knowledge on everything you do with your API’s after development. Deploying, securing and monitoring API’s will be tested in this section.
Read these article once to get a grasp on all topics.
https://docs.mulesoft.com/api-manager/2.x/latest-overview-concept
https://docs.mulesoft.com/monitoring/
Expect questions on policies and sla-tiers (e.g. How will you make sure your API’s are protected from large number of requests?), questions on monitoring (e.g. How will you make sure your API’s are functional and running?) etc.
Topic 7
Use Anypoint Exchange to catalog (publish), share, discover, learn about, and reuse MuleSoft.
This will again test you on Anypoint Platform, but this time the tool is Exchange. The section tests your knowledge in publishing (this is different from deploying) assets to exchange both as public or private assets. Also it checks your knowledge on API versioning, making your asset accessible to external developers etc. In short you can expect anything and everything related to Exchange.
Do study this document to understand the capabilities of Exchange
https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/
Expect questions on lines of sharing your assets and how to reuse existing assets (e.g. How can an external developer access your published asset?)
Topic 8
Use Flow Orchestration to build parallel, multi-user, and multi-step Hyperautomation workstreams.
Topic 4 talked about flows, whereas this topic is all about using those flows for running multi-user multi-step process. Do remember multiuser multistep! Orchestration is also developed on Flow Builder, but it is used to accomplish complex business processes using flow orchestration.
This section needs proper preparation, especially if you are more familiar with MuleSoft and have not used flow-builder before. If you a more familiar with Salesforce, I am assuming this should be comparatively easy (though orchestration is a new product in Salesforce too).
You must complete this
You must read this
https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.orchestrator_flow_orchestrator.htm&type=5
Expect questions on ways to design orchestration (e.g. How can different exit criteria be defined?), object sharing models (e.g. How to assign work-items with different users?) etc.
Re-emphasizing, this topic should be prepared well if you are using orchestration for the first time.
Topic 1 (Yes! Now is the time)
Employ best practices when building Hyperautomation solutions.
Everything that you prepared up to now will help you clear this section. Now you know why I kept this for the end 😊
Do refer this
This section is very tricky and you can lose marks here if you are not careful, and do not use the tool for the intended solution.
This section looks for the right tool and the right solution, not wrong tool and right solution.
Some hints:
- Anypoint Platform is used for complex integrations, for simple integrations go with Composer.
- RPA is used to automate manual repetitive tasks, not for bypassing approved API’s with UI.
- On premise integrations should be done by Anypoint Platform and not Composer.
- Simple SaaS systems can be integrated with Composer out of the box connectors than using Anypoint Platform.
The best way to prepare for this section is when preparing for the other sections, keep asking yourself how you can use that tool to work with the other tools. And, why would you not use a tool in combination with other tools.
You should get the combination of right tool and right solution. This is what the overall exam expects you to achieve when you clear the certification!
When to give this exam?
Do not hurry and attempt only once you are ready and completed all topics.
Attempt this free of cost practice exam, and find answers for all questions.
https://training.mulesoft.com/certification/hyperautomation-specialist/practice-exam
If you have made this far, here are some tips on the exam questions based on my experience:
Expect more questions on best practices and best combinations to achieve a solution using Hyperautomation (i.e. Topic 1)
Expect questions based on steps to develop a particular solution. The options would have two to three steps for all choices. So there is more reading involved in these questions, and an understanding of tools. You should have practiced all tools and should have some hands on experience. The questions can come from any of composer/platform/rpa/flows/bot or combination of these.
The level of questions are on par or higher than the practice exam depending on your preparation. Do study the practice exam on the training platform and find the correct answers for all questions. Also understand why the other options are false. I saw some questions modified out of the practice exam. This will help you clear those questions.
Make sure you have a clear understanding of the UI in all tools, how their menu structure is and what is used for what? (E.g. In RPA where will you run your financial analysis?)
Prepare flows and orchestration well. Personally these were difficult for me as the Salesforce platform is new to me.
To summarise, there are more questions on combinations and steps followed by approx. equal weightage for Orchestration, Flow, RPA, Composer, Anypoint and one or two questions on Einstein bot.
In case you fail your first attempt like I did (Yes! I scored poorly in flows and orchestration ☹, and that is the reason I keep reiterating to prepare them well) Do not lose heart as there is one extra free attempt for you to prepare on your weak points and give it a retry 😊
When I started my journey to prepare for this certification I had no clue about what to expect with absolutely no resources or guidance available on the internet for preparation. I sincerely hope this blog helps you learn from my experience and enables you to clear your certification in your first attempt.
All the very best!!
