The Administrator Skills certification validates the ability of a developer or technical expert to design, industrialize, secure, and maintain high-volume PrestaShop projects in a demanding production environment.
This level certifies not only advanced technical skills but also mastery of an industrialized approach to delivery and operations.
Key Information
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Format: 65 to 70 multiple-choice questions (MCQ)
- Available Languages: EN / FR / ES / IT / PL
- Passing Score: 80%
Certification Objective
This certification aims to validate that the candidate is capable of:
- Designing robust and scalable PrestaShop architectures
- Industrializing development and deployment workflows
- Securing environments, data, and access
- Maintaining an e-commerce site under real production conditions
- Ensuring performance, stability, and quality over time
It attests to advanced operational expertise focused on operations, performance, and reliability.
Positioning in the Certification Path
This level is considered a Master level.
A certified candidate is capable of supervising highly technically complex projects, overseeing best delivery practices, and operating in critical environments.
Evaluated Topics
1. Advanced Git Workflows & CI/CD Deployment
Objective: Ensure the candidate masters advanced collaboration workflows and can set up and maintain a reliable CI/CD pipeline for PrestaShop.
Skills evaluated:
- Mastery of advanced Git models (Gitflow, trunk-based, branching strategies)
- Pull / Merge Request conventions (reviews, pipelines, tests)
- Implementation of complete CI/CD pipelines (build, tests, artifacts, cache, deployment)
- Environment management via branches (dev, staging, production)
- Management of the source of truth (Git > server)
- Automation of deployments and rollbacks
2. Environment Management & Configuration
Objective: Ensure the candidate knows how to isolate environments, properly configure a server, and secure access and secrets.
Skills evaluated:
- Understanding isolated environments (dev → preprod → prod)
- Secure management of .env files, API keys, and credentials
- Appropriate server configuration (PHP, cache, database, sessions)
- Best synchronization practices (database, media, assets)
- Concepts of scaling and scalable architecture
- Management of SSH access, tunnels, private keys, and permissions
3. Maintenance, Updates & Rollback Strategy
Objective: Ensure the candidate knows how to maintain a PrestaShop site up to date and secure without risk of downtime.
Skills evaluated:
- Maintenance strategies for a PrestaShop e-commerce site
- Differences between Core updates, third-party modules, and overrides
- Dependency management via Composer
- Implementation of tests and validations before production deployment
- Complete rollback processes (backups, versions, database reversion)
- Planning maintenance windows and risk management
4. Security & System Best Practices
Objective: Verify mastery of essential application and server security best practices.
Skills evaluated:
- Management of system permissions (files, directories, processes)
- Securing sensitive files (settings.inc.php, .env, API keys)
- Application of security patches (PHP, PrestaShop Core, modules)
- Protection against common vulnerabilities (XSS, SQL injection, CSRF, RCE)
- Backup management (snapshots, incremental backups)
- Incident response processes (diagnosis, containment, correction)
5. Performance, Logs & Advanced Diagnostics
Objective: Ensure the candidate can analyze performance, identify bottlenecks, and use advanced diagnostic tools.
Skills evaluated:
- Reading and analyzing logs (web server, PHP-FPM, database, reverse proxy)
- Identification of bottlenecks (SQL queries, heavy hooks, cache)
- Cache management (APCu, PrestaShop cache, CDN, browser)
- Application performance analysis (TTFB, CLS, FID)
- Use of profiling tools (Blackfire, Tideways, Lighthouse…)
- Setting up monitoring, alerting, and instrumentation
Who is this Certification for?
The Administrator Skills certification is primarily intended for:
- Experienced PrestaShop developers
- Tech leads and technical managers
- Experts in charge of high-volume or high-business-impact projects
- Agencies wishing to structure and industrialize their technical delivery
Recommended Resources to Prepare for the Certification
To succeed in the Administrator Skills Certification, we recommend the following resources for your preparation:
1. PrestaShop Developer Documentation (key resource)
The PrestaShop Dev Documentation is the official reference for understanding PrestaShop’s internal workings and administration best practices.
👉 https://devdocs.prestashop-project.org
It notably includes:
- General PrestaShop Architecture: Understanding the roles of the Core, modules, and themes.
- Back Office Management: Store configuration, catalog management, orders, customers, taxes, and carriers.
- Multistore Configuration: Best practices and common use cases.
- User Permissions and Roles: Securing and organizing administrator access.
- Maintenance and Best Practices: Cache, performance, updates, production environment.
💡 Tip: Focus on sections related to PrestaShop versions v8 and v9, which are covered by the exam.
How to Contact Us?
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