Bad news for anyone pursuing the Advanced Developer Certification. There is such a huge backlog, that I was just informed that I will not be able to register for the June, 2014 programming assignment as I had been expecting. Because of the backlog, I will now not be able to register until September, 2014. That sucks and I wanted to share this with you all.
According to Salesforce the following schedule now applies:
- Candidates who completed the multiple-choice exam prior to December 1, 2013 and have not yet attempted the programming assignment and essay exam will be invited to participate in June, 2014.
- Candidates who completed the multiple-choice exam prior to April 1, 2014 and have not yet attempted the programming assignment and essay exam will be invited to participate in September, 2014.
- Candidates who completed the multiple-choice exam after April 1, 2014 and have not yet attempted the programming assignment and essay exam will be invited to participate in December, 2014.
- Candidates who have previously attempted the programming assignment will be invited to register for the programming assignment and essay exam in December, 2014, or in earlier windows as capacity is available.
For anyone stressing out about getting through with their multiple choice exam, you might want to factor this news into your preparation.
Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news, but I guess this just goes to prove how valuable this certification is – Salesforce is overwhelmed by the number of people attempting it. Capacity is limited to only 200 people per round.
saramorgan.net 
Thanks for update Sara. Are you sure it’s only 200 people per round – so we’re talking around 600 or 800 per year?? That sounds incredibly low..
Yes, the email I received from Salesforce stated so. In fact, this is what they said exactly –
Darn. Thanks for the heads up.
Darn. Thanks for the heads up.
Thank you for your participation in the Salesforce.com Certification program. Demand for the Certified Advanced Developer program has been steadily growing, and we have been working on increasing capacity for the programming assignment component. Currently, the approximate wait time to complete the exam is three to six months from either the completion of the multiple-choice exam or the last attempt of the programming assignment and essay exam. It’s possible that a candidate gets invited to earlier window as capacity is available.
We appreciate your patience as we work to improve the registration processes for this exam.
For additional information, please visit: http://certification.force.com/pkb/articles/Public_KB/Registration-Policy-for-the-Certified-Force-com-Advanced-Developer-Programming-Assignment-and-Essay-Exam/
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns. Thanks.