Exam Preparation for ServiceNow Certified System Admin (CSA)

As a ServiceNow certified professional, you gain industry recognition, competitive differentiation, greater productivity and results, increased user satisfaction, and a tangible return on your educational investment. 

There are four different ServiceNow certification types: Mainline credentials, Expert program, Micro-certification, and Accreditation.

This video provides details about these certification types and their different categories.

Certified System Administrator (CSA) is commonly the entry point to the ServiceNow certification journey and the most recognised certification in the market with the highest number of ServiceNow certification holders. 

Whether you want access to personalised content on the ServiceNow website, joining the ServiceNow community, enrolling courses on the Now Learning site, or starting to build on the ServiceNow Developer site, you will need a ServiceNow account.

You can access ServiceNow's Now Learning website to take the prerequisite courses for your certification exams.

There are many on-demand courses, learning paths, simulators and live classes that can prepare you for the exams.

ServiceNow works with Kryterion using its Webassessor platform for some exam registrations and organisations.

The Webassessor account is only used for mainline certifications with proctored exams, such as the CSA.

ServiceNow Docs is the Product Documentation site for the ServiceNow platform and applications.

The site provides detailed documentation for most features and functionality and the changes introduced in each release.

A dedicated Personal Developer Instance (PDI) with admin access is the best way to quickly test, build, and deploy on the Now Platform.

You can play around, break and fix things, create new features or rebuild a capability. 

It also enables you to practice as an admin and gain the necessary skills and experience for the ServiceNow certification exams.

This video shows how you can request a Personal Developer Instance (PDI) from the ServiceNow Developer site.

It will also explain how to:

• Activate plugins

• Manage your instance email property

• Release your instance

• Remove the demo data

• Change the user role

• Reset and wipe your instance

• Manage your admin password

• Upgrade your instance

• View the history of activities on the instance

• Get help to resolve issues with your instance

ServiceNow publishes the percentage of questions in each domain so you can see how they are distributed.

Here is a rough estimate of the number of questions with a plan to provide a breakdown so you have a good idea of the exam's structure.

This is about Platform Overview and Navigation, which explores the below subdomains:

• ServiceNow Platform Overview covers general information about the platform.

• Platform Capabilities and Services are used to create custom business logic, manage and secure data, and build user interfaces.

• The ServiceNow Instance is about managing and working with ServiceNow instances.

• Next Experience Unified Navigation is used for improved navigation to access records and data. It provides an intuitive and personalised experience to improve efficiency and productivity across the ServiceNow platform.

Here is a sample question about the Next Experience Unified Navigation.

You can answer this question if you have some experience on the platform as a user.

This is an example of a multiple-choice question where you must select the best answer from at least four options.

This is about Instance Configuration, which covers three main topics:

• Installing Applications and Plugins is about activating components that provide specific features and functionalities within a ServiceNow instance.

• Personalising or customising the instance refers to the platform changes to suit a user's or business-specific needs and requirements.

• Common User Interfaces in the Platform refers to the commonly used UIs and portals on the platform, such as the Core UI, Next Experience UI, Workspace and Service Portal.

This is a sample question about personalising or customising the instance.

The question refers to a common scenario in which new tables are created to address a business requirement.

Configuring Applications for Collaboration covers some core platform features and capabilities,  starting with the basics,  such as tags, filters,  lists, forms,  templates,  and tasks, then moving on to some of the core platform features, such as notifications, Visual Task Boards, reports,  and dashboards,  and finally,  the more advanced topics, such as form configuration and Performance Analytics.

• Lists, Filters, and Tags are about managing and configuring lists, filters and tags on the Now Platform.

• List and Form anatomy is about the look and feel of the lists and forms on the Now Platform.

• Form Configuration is about configuring the forms, their design and layout.

• Form templates and saving options involve creating and using a form template and different ways of saving data on the form.

• Advanced Form Configuration allows admins to go deeper and configure more complex form operations.

• Task Management is all about managing tasks, including creating, updating, assigning, collaborating, etc.

• Visual Task Boards (VTBs) transform the navigation of lists and forms into an interactive graphical experience.

• Visualizations, Dashboards, and Platform Analytics allow you to optimise processes and increase productivity. They are also used to present analytics on dashboards through reports and Performance Analytics widgets.

• Notifications are used to manage system email, create system notifications, and configure how your system responds to inbound emails.

This is a sample question about  Reporting, Dashboards, and Performance Analytics.

It covers a scenario where users can visualise a subset of data within a report.

This is about Self Service and Automation. Please note there are other ServiceNow exams that cover them in more detail from an implementation perspective, such as the Certified Implementation Specialist exam for  IT Service Management, which covers the Service Catalogue,  and separate micro-certificate exams for  Flow Designer and  Virtual Agent.

There are four topics here that we'll be exploring:

• Knowledge Management enables sharing information in knowledge bases with articles that provide users with information, such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution.

• Service Catalogue enables customers to request catalogue items such as service and product offerings. It also allows you to standardise request fulfilment to ensure the accuracy and availability of the items in the catalogues.

• Flow Designer is the default Now Platform process automation builder that enables process owners to automate work.

• Virtual Agent provides a friendly messaging interface featuring pre-built conversations powered by artificial intelligence to improve your enterprise productivity.

This is a sample question about Knowledge Management. 

It is a multi-select question, and the question specifies how many correct answers you should select.

Please note: there is no partial point here; either you get it all right, or you do not get any points.

This is about Database Management and Platform Security, which has the most question weight in the ServiceNow CSA exam.

Here are the topics that are covered:

• Data Schema shows how data is organised and classified. It also defines both the data contents and relationships.

• Application/Access Control enables you to control who can access what on your instance and when they can access it.

• Importing Data allows you to import data from external systems and transform it into Now Platform record data.

• CMDB/CSDM, for which CMDB is a centralised source that gives you complete visibility into your IT environment, and the CSDM provides standard terms and definitions for your CI and any IT services you use.

• Security Center

• Shared Responsibility Model

This is a sample question about the CMDB or CSDM subdomain.

The question asks for a fundamental definition of a configuration item class.

This is about Data Migration and Integration. It is a more technical domain compared to others, and there is a separate mainline exam that is the Certified Application Developer,  or  CAD, that delves into this and is more suitable for those who are interested in taking on a developer role as the next step or enjoy scripting or troubleshooting.

Here are the topics that are covered:

• UI Policies dynamically change the behaviour of information on a form and control custom process flows for tasks.

• Business Rules are server-side scripts that run when a record is displayed, inserted, updated, or deleted or when a table is queried.

• System update sets are a group of configuration changes that can be moved from one instance to another.

• Scripting in ServiceNow is used to extend the instance beyond standard configurations and automate processes, add functionality, integrate with an outside application and more.

Integration allows you to integrate third-party applications and external data sources into the Now Platform.

This is a sample question about UI policies.

It is about a client-side logic in UI policy that sets different field attributes.

This video describes the different ServiceNow certification paths and what's coming after achieving the CSA certification:

• System Administrator

• Developer

• Implementer

• Application Specialist

• Architect

This video explains how to maintain your ServiceNow mainline certification, such as the Certified System Administrator (CSA).

It also details the ServiceNow Delta exam and what you should expect to see in these annual exams.

This video explains how you can verify ServiceNow certifications and where to opt in or opt out from the Certification Verification Portal.

Thank you, and congratulations!

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