CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer Certification

CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer certification is a professional certificate that measures your ability to accomplish coding and design tasks related to advanced topics of the C programming language, as well as advanced programming techniques, including the library functions and the usage of the preprocessor.

A test candidate should demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skills in the following areas:

the historical evolution of C, including new C11 keywords, trigraphs, digraphs, and function declarations,
variable parameter management,
fundamentals of low-level IO,
advanced memory and string handling,
process and thread management,
numerical types and computations,
basics of network socket programming,
specialized programming considerations, such as const and volatile variables, the goto statement, non-local jumps, sequence points, assembly instructions, addressing undefined behaviors, and more.

Exam Information

Exam name:

CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer

Exam code:

CLP-12-01

Associated certifications:

CLE – C Certified Entry-Level Programmer,

CLA – C Certified Associate Programmer

Pre-requisites:

CLA – C Certified Associate Programmer Certification

Exam version:

CLP-12-01 (Published)

Duration:

65 minutes (exam) + approx. 10 minutes (Non-Disclosure Agreement/Tutorial)

Number of questions:

Format:

Single-choice questions, multiple-choice questions

Passing score:

70%

Full exam price:

USD 295

Languages:

English

Courses aligned:

1. C Advanced - Skills for ALL

2. C Advanced (Advanced) (Edube, self-enroll/self-study)

Exam delivery channel:

Pearson VUE

Exam policies:

Click here to view Exam Policies

Exam syllabus:

Click here to view Exam Syllabus

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CLP – C Certified Professional Programmer Certification: Exam Syllabus

Exam block #1: Applied Evolution of C Programming

Topics covered in the block

Key milestones: ANSI C, C89, C95, C99, C11
Analysis of obsolete yet valid language elements
Changes in function declarations over time
Understanding trigraphs and digraphs
New C11 keywords: __Noreturn, _Alignof and _Alignas, _Bool, _Exit, _Complex, _Pragma, __func__, _Generic

Exam block #2: Variable Parameter Management

Topics covered in the block

Insights into calling conventions, parameter passing, and stack operations
Implementation of va_start(), va_arg(), va_end(), va_copy()
Key functions: vsprintf(), vprintf(), vfprintf(), vscanf(), vsscanf(), vfscanf()

Exam block #3: Fundamentals of Low-Level IO

Topics covered in the block

Overview of POSIX, API, ABI, WINAPI, and other interfaces
Essential system calls: access(), open(), errno, close(), read(), write(), lseek(), dprintf(), stat(), symlink(), link(), readlink(), unlink()
Application of fcntl() and ioctl() in IO operations

Exam block #4: Advanced Memory and String Handling

Topics covered in the block

Techniques for manipulating memory blocks
Utilizing string manipulation functions: strchr(), strrchr(), strstr(), strtok()
Sorting and searching algorithms: qsort(), bsearch()
Memory allocation strategies: aligned_alloc(), calloc(), malloc(), realloc()
Memory copying and setting functions: bcopy(), memcpy(), memccpy(), memmove(), bzero(), memset(), memcmp()
Approaches to Internationalization (I18N), dealing with UNICODE, UCS, UTF-8
Wide character support in C dialects, use of strcoll() and wcscoll()

Exam block #5: Process and Thread Management

Topics covered in the block

Comprehensive definitions, implementations, and history
Thread safety and environmental interactions
Managing Unix and Windows processes
Introduction to POSIX and Windows threads, and C11 threading model

Exam block #6: Numerical Types and Computations

Topics covered in the block

Deep dive into IEEE-754 standards and concepts of NaN, infinity, zero
Evaluation of floating-point reliability and numerical precision
Introduction to multi-precision libraries (GMP, MPFR, MPIR)

Exam block #7: Fundamentals of Network Socket Programming

Topics covered in the block

Fundamentals of socket technology and network protocols
Key concepts in data transmission, including servers, clients, and endianness
Socket operations: setup, communication, and client-server interactions

Exam block #8: Specialized Programming Considerations

Topics covered in the block

Const vs. volatile variables: usage and distinctions
Critical analysis of goto statements
Handling non-local jumps: setjmp() and longjmp()
Exploring advanced topics such as array indices, initializers, and variable-length arrays
Sequence points, assembly instructions, and addressing undefined behaviors

First published: December 9, 2017

Last updated: June 5, 2024

Aligned with Exam CLP-12-01