MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1

A MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect must have the ability to handle an organization’s Anypoint Platform implementation and the technical quality, governance, and operationalization of the integration solutions. However, the MCIA – Level 1 exam examines that an architect has the knowledge and skills to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders for translating functional and non-functional requirements into integration interfaces and implementations. 

Further, candidates getting certified with this will be able to:

• Firstly, build high-level design of integration solutions and guide implementation teams on the choice of Mule components and patterns for using in the detailed design and implementation.
• Secondly, choose the deployment approach and configuration of Anypoint Platform with any of the available deployment options.
• Thirdly, plan and design Mule applications for any of the available deployment options of the Anypoint Platform runtime plane.
• Next, apply standard development techniques covering the full development lifecycle for ensuring solution quality. This includes project preparation, analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, and support.
• After that, advise technical teams on performance, scalability, reliability, monitoring, and other operational concerns of integration solutions on Anypoint Platform.
• Lastly, plan and design reusable assets, components, standards, frameworks, and processes for supporting and facilitating API and integration projects.

MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 Interview Questions

Exam Format

MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 exam is a closed book exam that will have 58 multiple-choice questions. For completing the exam, there is a time duration of 120 minutes. To pass the exam, there is a minimum passing score of 70%. The exam will cost you around $375 (USD). And, the exam can be given in the English language. However, the exam has a validity of 2 years and you can take the exam a maximum of 5 times, with a 24-hour wait between each attempt.

Schedule the Exam

For scheduling MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 exam, you have to log in to your learner account. Then, purchase the certification exam, prepare for the exam, and take the certification exam. And, MuleSoft no longer supports taking certification exams at physical test centers.

Exam Course Outline

MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 exam validates candidate’s performance on the basis of the following topics:

1. Configuring and provisioning Anypoint Platform

• Configure business groups, roles, and permissions within an Anypoint Platform organization. (Reference: Business Groups, Organization, Roles)
• Select Anypoint Platform identity management vs client management for the correct purpose. (Reference: Client Management, Identity Management)
• Identify common and distinguishing features and usage scenarios for CloudHub VPCs and public worker cloud. (Reference: VPC Network Architecture, Virtual Private Cloud)
• Suggest the number of Mule runtimes needed for a Mule application given performance targets and HA requirements. (Reference: Mule Runtime High Availability (HA) Cluster, Hardware and Software Requirements)
• Define a performant and HA deployment architecture for Mule applications in on-prem deployments. (Reference: On-Premises Deployment Model, Deploy Mule Applications)
• Select monitoring options for all available Anypoint Platform deployment options. (Reference: Configure and Enable Anypoint Monitoring for Mule Apps, Enable Monitoring for Mule Apps Deployed to CloudHub)

2. Selecting integration styles

• Given a description of an integration problem, identify the most appropriate integration style. (Reference: Enterprise Integration Patterns Using Mule)
• When designing an integration solution, select the most appropriate interface/data technology and interface definition language for all integration interfaces.
• Design parts of an integration solution using general message-based integration or event-driven architecture (EDA) using message brokers or streaming technologies.
• Recognize scenarios where message correlation is necessary.

3. Designing and documenting enterprise integration architecture

• For a given organization and its preferences and constraints, select the most appropriate Anypoint Platform deployment option. (Reference: Deployment Options)
• Design parts of an integration solution using any SOA-based integration approach.
• Identify the information that should be included in any integration solution architecture document. (Reference: Flow Architecture in a Mule Application)
• Simplify a large-scale enterprise-wide integration architecture so that it can be effectively communicated to semi-technical stakeholders.
• Identify the persistence mechanism and durability used for watermarks in different Mule runtime deployment options. (Reference: Migrating Watermarks)
• Identify integrations scenarios when to use batch. (Reference: Batch Processing)
• Design for short or long retries using reconnection strategies. (Reference: Reconnection Strategies, Configuring Reconnection Strategies)
• Identify common and distinguishing features and usage scenarios for CloudHub DLBs and public CloudHub LBs. (Reference: Dedicated Load Balancer Architecture)

4. Architecting resilient and performant integration solutions

• Recognize requirements that are best addressed using transactions (single-resource and XA). (Reference: Single Resource Transactions, XA Transactions)
• Define transaction considerations where needed in a solution design including the requirement for an external transaction coordinator.
• Specify the connectors that can participate in the different types of transactions. (Reference: Transaction Management)
• Recognize the purpose of various fault-tolerance strategies for remote calls.
• Design parts of an integration solution using general batch-oriented integration or ETL to/from files or databases.
• Determine if horizontal scaling will help a Mule application meet its performance targets.

5. Handling events and messages

• Identify scenarios in which to use different storage mechanisms including persistent and non-persistent ObjectStore, in-memory ObjectStore, cluster-replicated in-memory OS, hashtables, and disk-persisted OS. (Reference: Different Types of Object Stores)
• Select suitable storage mechanisms for IDs (correlation IDs, message IDs, transaction IDs) in Mule applications deployed to CloudHub or on-premises.
• Use Mule 4 constructs to make effective use of Enterprise Integration Patterns. (Reference: Enterprise Integration Patterns Using Mule)
• Use the streaming to handle large payloads within Mule applications. (Reference: Streaming in Mule Apps)
• Predict the runtime behavior of messages queued internally for processing for load balancing or to achieve reliability. (Reference: Manage Queues, Reliability Patterns, Flow Processing Strategies)
• Predict the runtime load-balancing behavior of messages sent to the public URL of a Mule application deployed to multiple CloudHub workers.

6. Designing applications with Anypoint Connectors

• For a given Mule 4 connector (Premium, Select, and MuleSoft Certified), identify its purpose, the network protocol it uses, and whether it supports incoming or outgoing types of connections. (Reference: Introduction to Anypoint Connectors)
• Specify the requirements that would require the use of domain-level connectors. (Reference: Shared Resources, Domain Support for Mule 4 API Proxies)
• Specify when a Mule application would require persistence and select an appropriate persistence solution. (Reference: Manage Application Data Storage with Object Stores, Create and Manage a Cluster Manually)
• Identify possible failures when a component (such as an API client) invokes a remote component (such as an API implementation). (Reference: Mule Errors)

7. Designing networks for Anypoint Connectors

• For a given connector, recognize whether it will typically connect to/from an external system across organizational boundaries. (Reference: External Organization Access)
• Use transport protocols and connectors correctly and coherently when and where applicable. (Reference: TCP Transport Reference, Available Transports)
• Match protocols with networking constraints and API layers.
• When incoming and outgoing HTTPS connections with mutual authentication are used, identify what certificates are needed in what stores in different environments. (Reference: Mutual Authentication with Anypoint Platform, Configure TLS with Keystores and Truststores)

8. Handling integration implementation lifecycles

• Identify the Anypoint Platform components where various types of API-related assets and artifacts are maintained or published. (Reference: Create an Asset, Publish Assets Using the Exchange API, Mule Components)
• Recognize the advantages and disadvantages of storing and managing properties in properties files in Mule applications. (Reference: Configuring Properties, Manage Properties for Applications on CloudHub)
• For a given API or integration, identify the steps that need to be taken in order for testing to occur. (Reference: Testing Strategies, Introduction to Testing Mule)

9. Implementing DevOps

• Specify the purpose of various MuleSoft products in the area of DevOps and CI/CD. (Reference: Continuous Integration)
• Identify differences, advantages, and disadvantages of DevOps based on deployable Mule applications versus container images.
• Formulate an effective source code management strategy including branching and merging. (Reference: Synchronize API Specifications with Design Center, Fork a Project in the Text Editor)
• Specify testing strategies that use both mocking and invoking of external dependencies. (Reference: Simulate API Calls with the Mocking Service, Mocking Resources for Your Tests, Testing Strategies)

10. Operating and monitoring integration solutions

• Specify the type of metrics for API invocations and API implementations that can be monitored with Anypoint Platform. (Reference: Reviewing Analytics Usage, API Analytics Dashboards, Anypoint Monitoring Overview)
• Identify metrics and operations exposed by default via JMX. (Reference: JMX Management, JMX Service, JMX Agent Monitoring)
• Identifying the differences in monitoring and alerting between customer-hosted and MuleSoft-hosted Anypoint Platform. (Reference: Anypoint Monitoring Overview, Alerts)
• Identify ways of transmitting IDs between components in remote interactions and capture this in the interface design of the remote interaction.

Check MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 Exam FAQS

Exam Terms and Conditions

MuleSoft’s Certification Exam provides various terms and conditions that are applied for all certifications. Some of them are

1. Eligibility

For taking MuleSoft Certification exams, candidates must be 18 years of age or older. There should be only one exam account. However, if there are multiple exam accounts then, a violation of this agreement will be there.

2. Reschedule or canceling the exam

• Firstly, log in to your account at training.mulesoft.com. Then, click on Dashboard from the top menu.
• Secondly, click on Certification Exams under Enrollments. Then, locate the exam you want to reschedule.
• Thirdly for rescheduling the exam, click the BLUE calendar icon. This is available next to the name of the exam. After that, choose a new date and time.
• However, if you need to cancel your scheduled exam, then, locate the exam you want to cancel and click the RED calendar icon with an “x” inside of it.

MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 Exam Study Guide

Understanding the Exam Topics

The MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 exam measures your knowledge and skills in various areas. These areas consist of topics and sections that will help you understand the areas as well as you will be able to apply your practical knowledge and skill in these. However, the topics for the exam are:

• Firstly, Configuring and provisioning Anypoint Platform
• Secondly, Selecting integration styles
• Thirdly, Designing and documenting enterprise integration architecture
• Then, Architecting resilient and performant integration solutions
• Handling events and messages
• After that, Designing applications with Anypoint Connectors
• Then, Designing networks for Anypoint Connectors
• Handling integration implementation lifecycles
• Implementing DevOps
• Lastly, Operating and monitoring integration solutions

Instructor-led training

The instructor-led training course is recommended as the most effective method of preparation. This is a 5-day class course that offers private, public, onsite, and online classes. However, the course covered here is:

Anypoint Platform Architecture: Integration Solutions

This course will help experienced solution and technical architects or lead/senior developers to learn the process of designing integrated solutions for meeting functional and non-functional requirements using Anypoint Platform. This will create an experience in developing and deploying Mule applications. However, at the end of this course, candidates will have knowledge of:

• Firstly, selecting the best Mule components and patterns for integration solution designs.
• Secondly, choosing the deployment approach and configuration of Anypoint Platform with any of the available deployment options.
• Thirdly, designing Mule applications for the various deployment options of the Anypoint Platform runtime plane.
• Then, designing the technical quality, governance (ensuring compliance), and operationalization of integration solutions.
• Lastly, advising technical teams on performance, scalability, reliability, monitoring, and other operational concerns of integration solutions on Anypoint Platform.

Exploring Inregration Architect Learning Paths

MuleSoft offers various learning paths from which you can start preparing according to the role you have applied for using the step-by-step pathway. However, this integration architect learning path is for both beginners and experienced user who wants to succeed in their role. Moreover, here, you can make project-level decisions and this also provides you an exam pattern in which you can select the exam according to your skills and experience.

Assessing yourself using Practice Tests

Using the practice tests will help you to find out your weak areas and it will improve your answering skills. Further, practice tests also enhance your knowledge level help you get a strong revision by evaluating after every topic. So, start practicing using the MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 practice exam tests and pass the exam.

Prepare for MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect – Level 1 Exam Now!