After vSphere 5.1 was released the exam for the vSphere VCP-5DCV certification was modified to be “5.x agnostic.” Which meant you could know only vSphere 5.0 or only 5.1 and still be able to answer any question on the exam.

For practical purposes this meant several components of the initial 5.0 exam were removed and others had significant detail removed. For example, the initial VCP5-DCV exam covered VSA and Data Recovery appliance, when both had significant changes for 5.1 they were removed from the exam.

With the new exam covering 5.5 it is no longer “agnostic.” If you are considering taking the new exam you should be specifically studying 5.5. If you have taken a 5.0 or 5.1 course to qualify for the exam you should research all of the “What’s New” information that is out there, especially for 5.0-class attendees who will see the most difference, and will need to read over the “what’s new for 5.1” and “what’s new for 5.5” blogs.

The new 5.5 exam blueprint (ver 3.1 dated 1/6/14) the new exam has considerable coverage of:

Single-Sign On (mentioned in sections 1.2 and 1.5)

Web Client (mentioned in 1.2 and listed as a tool for every section)

Data Protection (all new 5.5, dedicated to VDP)

vCops (all new 7.3, dedicated to vCops)

vSphere Replication (mentioned several times in 5.5)

vFlash (mentioned in 5.3 several times)

hardware version 10 (not specifically in the blueprint, but to be expected)

No longer listed on the exam blueprint: Lab Manager. Note that while vCloud Director isn’t mentioned it can probably be inferred from section 1.1 where Lab Manager was mentioned:

Identify the various data center solutions that interact with vSphere (Horizon, SRM, etc.)

Left off VCP5-DCV blueprint: vSAN, VSA

With the new topics the VCP5-DCV exam is now 135 questions and 120 minutes (up from 85 questions/ 90 minutes). This bring it into alignment with the VCP-Desktop and VCP-Cloud exams which also clock at 135q/120min.

Which means where you had 1 min 3 seconds to answer each question on the old exam, you have 52 seconds to answer each question on the new exam.

Note that for a limited time when you sign up for the exam at PearsonVue’s website you will be presented with two options, the VCP510 (which is the 5.x “agnostic” exam at 85 questions and 90 minutes) and VCP550 (the 5.5 specific exam with 135 questions and 120 minutes). Choose wisely!

Both exam post at VMware