Overview
WDE™ – Certified Entry-Level Web Developer
The WDE™ – Certified Entry-Level Web Developer certification is a professional credential that validates the candidate's foundational understanding and practical application of HTML, including document structure, text formatting, multimedia integration, basic web form creation, and an introduction to web accessibility. It showcases the ability to construct functional, user-centric web pages that are optimized for various devices and screen sizes.
The WDE certification meticulously covers essential HTML topics across five blocks, designed to equip candidates with the skills to create well-structured and semantically accurate web pages. It underscores the importance of clear, maintainable code and offers insights into effective multimedia usage and hyperlink creation, ensuring all content adheres to basic accessibility standards.
Earning this certification not only demonstrates a candidate’s capability to handle foundational web projects efficiently but also lays the groundwork for further professional development. It marks the beginning of a journey into more specialized areas of web development, preparing candidates to expand their skills in advanced HTML functionalities, CSS styling, and JavaScript implementation.
By achieving the WDE certification, candidates validate their problem-solving skills, particularly in identifying and correcting common HTML errors and implementing responsive design adjustments. This foundational knowledge primes them for advanced studies, aligning with industry best practices that emphasize optimization, responsive design, and user-centered development.
This certification reflects a comprehensive grasp of basic web development principles, making it an ideal starting point for individuals aiming to deepen their technical expertise in web development. It confirms that the certified individuals are well-prepared to take on more challenging projects and continue their education in dynamic web technologies, thus paving the way for a successful and evolving career in the tech industry.
Exam Specifications
- $59 (Exam)
- $76.70 (Exam + Retake)
- Purchase exam voucher
OpenEDG Testing Service (TestNow™)
Exam Specifications
The WDE – Certified Entry-Level Web Developer certification exam evaluates the following topic areas and assesses the following skills:
Focus: Understand HTML's foundational aspects, including syntax, document structure, and character encoding.
Objectives covered by the block:
- Describe the basic structure of an HTML document, including the <!DOCTYPE> declaration.
- Understand the distinction between block-level and inline elements.
- Identify and correctly use basic HTML entities.
- Explain the importance of character encoding.
- Utilize comments to document HTML code.
- Demonstrate the use of basic tags (html, head, title, body).
Focus: Master text formatting, the creation of lists, and the implementation of tables in HTML.
Objectives covered by the block:
- Implement text formatting tags such as strong, em, u, del, sup, sub, and mark.
- Demonstrate the use of headings (h1-h6) and their importance in structuring content and enhancing accessibility.
- Structure content with paragraphs (p) and manage text flow.
- Apply line breaks (br) and horizontal rules (hr) for content separation.
- Use the blockquote, q, cite, and abbr tags appropriately.
- Employ code, pre, kbd, and samp tags to display preformatted text, format code snippets and user input.
- Create and manipulate ordered (ol), unordered (ul), and definition lists (dl), including nesting.
- Create and manipulate tables (table, tr, td), focusing on headers (th), cell merging (colspan, rowspan), captions (caption), and table attributes (e.g., summary).
Focus: Embed images, audio, and video in web pages and create effective hyperlinks.
Objectives covered by the block:
- Embed images with img tag (src), focusing on alt text (alt) and basic responsive design attributes (srcset, sizes, width, height).
- Create hyperlinks using the a tag, covering internal and anchor links, external links, email and telephone links, and link-specific attributes (href, target, download, rel, title).
- Embed multimedia content using audio and video elements (src, controls, width, height, autoplay, loop, preload), including considerations for cross-browser compatibility (the source element) and responsiveness (poster, media).
- Design interactive image maps with map and area tags.
- Utilize figure and figcaption for associating media with captions.
- Embed external web content with iframe, including making iframes responsive.
- Integrate multimedia elements as clickable links.
- Integrate favicons for brand identity and user recognition.
Focus: Design HTML forms and apply basic styling to HTML elements.
Objectives covered by the block:
- Design forms (form, label) with a variety of input types (input, type, name, id, text, email, url, number, password, checkbox, radio, submit, reset, textarea) and understand their specific use cases.
- Discuss form submission methods (GET vs. POST) and their appropriate use cases.
- Implement field grouping with fieldset and legend tags for enhanced form usability and use form-specific attributes to customize form behavior and appearance (value, placeholder, disabled, readonly).
- Use validation techniques and attributes (e.g., required, min, max, maxlength, autocomplete, etc.).
- Create dropdown menus with select and option tags.
- Apply CSS for styling HTML elements, including the use of inline styles (the style attribute) and internal stylesheets (the style element).
- Explore the use of CSS classes (class) and IDs (id) for element styling.
- Incorporate color (color, background-color) and font properties (font-weight, font-size, font-family, font-style) for consistent website styling.
- Differentiate and apply the use of span and div for styling and layout.
- Incorporate basic styling attributes to manipulate the appearance of containers (border, padding, margin).
Focus: Emphasize accessibility, adhere to best practices, and explore advanced HTML topics.
Objectives covered by the block:
- Explain the core principles of web accessibility and the importance of following WCAG guidelines.
- Utilize ARIA roles (role), states, and properties (aria-expanded, aria-checked, aria-hidden) to make web content more accessible.
- Implement semantic markup and integrate modern HTML5 structural elements for document organization (header, nav, main, article, section, aside, footer).
- Apply microformats (hCard, vCard), microdata, and schema.org (itemprop, itemscope) for enriched content semantics.
- Understand and apply the basics of HTML APIs (Geolocation, Web Storage) in web applications.
- Utilize SVG for scalable vector graphics, focusing on its benefits and basic syntax.
- Discuss HTML5 development best practices, focusing on code readability and performance.
- Understand and apply the basics of testing web accessibility.
WDE Certification Holder Profile
Holders of the WDE – Certified Entry-Level Web Developer certification possess a strong foundation in web development skills. Their expertise is demonstrated across various technical areas, making them well-prepared to start a career in web development and continue growing in the field.
Technical Profile:
- HTML Fundamentals:
- Possesses a solid grasp of HTML's basic structure and syntax.
- Can accurately utilize tags, attributes, and document structure to create simple web pages.
- Understands essential elements like <!DOCTYPE>, html, head, and body.
- Text Formatting:
- Competent in using HTML for text formatting and list creation.
- Understands the importance of semantic markup for accessibility.
- Appropriately employs tags like p, strong, em, ul, ol, and table.
- Multimedia and Hyperlinks:
- Capable of embedding images, audio, and video into web pages.
- Ensures basic accessibility standards are met.
- Understands how to create internal and external hyperlinks using the a tag.
- Forms and Styling:
- Possesses foundational skills in creating web forms with basic input types.
- Applies simple styles using inline CSS or internal stylesheets.
- Understands the form submission process (GET vs. POST) and basic form validation.
- Accessibility and Modern Practices:
- Aware of web accessibility principles and applies basic best practices.
- Familiar with using semantic elements like header, footer, and nav.
- Ensures content is structured logically for screen readers.
Problem-solving and Debugging:
- Error Identification:
- Proficient in identifying and correcting simple syntax errors in HTML code.
- Responsive Fixes:
- Has a basic understanding of responsive design principles.
- Can apply simple fixes to ensure content is viewable across different devices.
Best Practices and Standards:
- Coding Standards:
- Adheres to basic HTML coding standards.
- Uses proper indentation and lowercase tags.
- Optimization:
- Understands the importance of optimizing web page load times.
- Practices image optimization and minimalistic use of scripts.
Professional Competencies:
- Learning and Adaptability:
- Demonstrates a willingness to learn new HTML5 features, CSS styles, and JavaScript functionalities.
- Documentation and Communication:
- Proficient in documenting HTML code for clarity.
- Effectively collaborates with team members on web development projects.
Earning the WDE certification indicates that the individual is well-prepared to begin a career in web development and lays the foundation for ongoing learning and specialization in this dynamic field.