Appendix C. Exam day guide
Time allocation
You have 50 minutes for 30 questions, an average of 1 minute 40 seconds each. In the promotion exam, you must proceed in order and cannot revisit confirmed answers, so "come back later" is not a workable strategy. Judge each question fully and confirm it before moving on. If one question takes more than 2 minutes 30 seconds, choose the best option based on your judgment so far and move on. Dwelling on it takes time away from easier later questions. [3 points] questions tend to have more conditions, so a little extra time is reasonable.
How to read a question
- Look at the conditions in bold first. Bold phrases such as "first" and "while preserving the record" determine the answer.
- When there are two or more conditions, find the option satisfying all of them. Satisfying only one usually means a wrong answer.
- Check numbers and the environment. Facts such as plan, sharing, whether commits were pushed and whether data structures changed can change the answer.
Tips by format
- Combination choice: judge each listed statement true or false separately, then choose the combination matching those judgments.
- Statement evaluation: assess conclusion and reason separately. A correct conclusion with a wrong reason is not a correct statement. Check whether the question asks for correct or incorrect statements.
- Ordering: ask "What must exist before this step?" The conditions stated in the question determine one order.
- Matching: eliminate definite pairs first, then use the possibility of an unmatched item to distinguish the last two.
Common patterns in wrong answers
Most wrong answers in this exam reflect one of these misconceptions.
| Misconception | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Mistaking passing for done | "Tests passed, so it is finished" |
| Mistaking claims for evidence | "The agent said it was certain" |
| Mistaking concealment for repair | Deleting tests, suppressing errors, increasing retries without fixing causes |
| Mistaking deletion for invalidation | Only committing deletion of a key, or only cleaning history |
| Mistaking advice for enforcement | Believing instruction files or string-matching rules block dangerous actions |
| Mistaking code recovery for total recovery | Believing rollback restores data and settings too |
| Excessive permissions or procedures | Allowing everything; heavy processes even for one-line changes |
Final check
Key point
When in doubt, return to these questions: "Can this action be checked? Can it be undone? Does it grant only the permissions needed?" The option answering yes to all three is usually correct.