Exam Guide for 1D0-520 v5 CIW Site Designer
Important program notice
The CIW v5 Site Designer exam 1D0-520 was released on November 30, 2005. The previous exam, CIW Site Designer 1D0-420, was retired on June 30, 2006. The CIW v4 Associate certification and the CIW v4 Site Designer exam can still be used to earn higher-level CIW certifications.
- Credit Toward Certification
- Prerequisites
- Exam Information
- Skills Measured
- Exam Preparation Tools
- Taking CIW Exams
- Exam Retake Policy
- Exam Retirement
CREDIT TOWARD CERTIFICATION
Passing the CIW v5 Site Designer exam is a requirement for the following CIW certifications:
- Master CIW Designer
- Master CIW Web Site Manager
- CIW Certified Instructor - for those teaching CIW Site Designer content
CIW v5 Associates who pass the CIW v5 Site Designer exam also earn the following CIW certification:
- CIW Professional.
PREREQUISITES
The following are required for candidates taking the CIW Site Designer exam:
- The CIW Certification Agreement is required for CIW certification eligibility. The candidate must submit this agreement after taking the exam by logging on as a CIW Candidate to the CIW Candidate Information Center. This agreement needs to be completed only once, but no CIW certification will be awarded without it, even if the candidate passes the exam.
- Earning the CIW Associate certificate by passing the CIW Foundations exam 1D0-410 or the CIW v5 Foundations exam 1D0-510 is required for those candidates to achieve CIW Professional, Master CIW Designer, and/or Master CIW Web Site Manager certification designation. Students may take the CIW Site Designer exam prior to the CIW Foundations exam; however, it is recommended that students take (and pass) these exams in sequential order.
EXAM INFORMATION
Students who have taken CIW courses are encouraged to continue their studies and apply their new skills before attempting the CIW v5 Site Designer 1D0-520 examination. Skills taught in the CIW courses are best reinforced with real-world experience.
The candidate is responsible for learning the content and achieving a passing score on the CIW v5 Site Designer exam. Comments regarding course delivery should be referred to the training company or educational institution that delivered the course.
CIW v5 Site Designer exam 1D0-520 will be subject to the following:
- The examination period will be 75 minutes
To achieve a passing score on the CIW v5 Site Designer exam 1D0-520, candidates must:
- Correctly answer at least 49 of the 70 questions to achieve a total score of 70% or greater
| Section | Number of items |
| Site Development Essentials | 11 |
| Web Design Elements | 13 |
| Basic Web Technologies | 26 |
| Advanced Web Technologies | 20 |
| Total Scored Items | 70 |
Each multiple-choice item offers four answer choices (one correct answer and three distracters). Exam candidates must select the one best solution for each item.
SKILLS MEASURED
CIW Site Designer skills objectives are not product-specific or system-specific. The skills objectives are a combination of basic technical and non-technical skills and knowledge required for those interested in Web site development and design. The CIW v5 Site Designer exam 1D0-520 tests the following common core of Internet skills:
Domain 1: Site Development Essentials
- 1.1 Identify and manage elements of the Web site development process.
- 1.2 Meet customer expectations with Web site project and design.
- 1.3 Identify ethical and legal issues relevant to Web development and design.
Domain 2: Web Design Elements
- 2.1. Use Web design principles to evaluate and develop a site's aesthetic qualities and its ability to enhance viewer experience.
- 2.2 Use Web design principles to enable navigation, usability and accessibility.
Domain 3: Basic Web Technologies
- 3.1 Use basic HTML and XHTML (X/HTML) to develop a series of Web pages.
- 3.2 Use X/HTML and extended technologies to enhance Web page structure, format and usability.
- 3.3 Create image files, and use images in X/HTML pages and site design.
- 3.4 Create Web sites using GUI site development applications.
- 3.5 Publish and maintain a production Web site.
Domain 4: Advanced Web Technologies
- 4.1 Use multimedia and plug-in technologies to enhance a Web site.
- 4.2 Use client-side and server-side programming to enhance Web site functionality.
- 4.3 Connect Web pages to a database
EXAM PREPARATION TOOLS
Official Curriculum
Instructor-Led Training
Practice Exam Sites
CIW does not endorse Web sites that list study guides or practice questions for CIW exams. All CIW examinations are copyrighted material. To maintain the security and value of our program, we reserve the right to decertify and/or prohibit from examinations any individuals who republish or distribute our copyrighted certification exam questions.
Official Practice Exams
Official CIW Online Practice Exams allow students and instructors to instantly evaluate the level of IT knowledge achieved. This tool provides students with an additional method of review and assessment to enhance the learning experience. It can also be used as a pre-assessment, practice exam and quiz administration tool to help instructors evaluate their students' knowledge.
Third-Party Books, Web Sites, and Newsgroups
The following resources are suggested as supplements to your studies, and will reinforce the skills and concepts learned with CIW official course materials.
- "Bugs," RichInStyle. http://www.richinstyle.com/bugs.
- Campbell, Bruce. Sams Teach Yourself Dynamic HTML in a Week.
- "Cascading Style Sheets, level 1: W3C Recommendation," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/.
- "Cascading Style Sheets, level 2: CSS2 Specification," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS - specs/.
- Chisholm, Wendy, Gregg Vanderheiden, and Ian Jacobs. W3C Recommendation: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Cambridge, Mass.: World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.
- Connolly, Dan, Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin. "The Evolution of Web Documents: The Ascent of XML," World Wide Web Journal, Special Issue on XML, Vol. 2, No. 4, Fall 1997, pp. 119-128. http://www.w3journal.com/xml/.
- "CSS Authoring Tools," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ - editors.
- "CSS Master Compatibility Chart," WebReview.com. http://webreview.com/wr/pub/guides/style/mastergrid.html.
- "CSS1 Test Site," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/.
- "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Recommendation," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.
- Heinle, Nick. "Absolute Positioning with CSS in Web Coder," Web Review. http://www.webreview.com/97/06/27/coder/index.html.
- "HTML 4.1 Specification." World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/.
- Neilsen, Jakob. "Cost of User Testing a Website," Alertbox. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980503.html.
- Neilsen, Jakob. "The Increasing Conservatism of Web Users," Alertbox. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980322.html.
- Robie, Jonathan. "What is the Document Object Model?" World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-DOM-Level-1-19981001/introduction.html.
- Siegel, David. Creating Killer Web Sites, Second Edition. http://www.killersites.com/.
- St. Laurence, Simon. XML: A Primer. Foster City: MIS Press, 1998.
- Von Hagen, Bill. SGML For Dummies. Foster City: IDG Books Worldwide, 1997.
- Webb, Martin. "Dynamic HTML," Web Review. http://www.webreview.com/wr/pub/Dynamic_HTML.
- "Working Draft: XML Linking Language (XLink)," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xlink.
- "Working Draft: XML Pointer Language (XPointer)," World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xptr.
TAKING CIW EXAMS
CIW exams are delivered through Prometric and VUE testing centers worldwide. Contact Prometric or VUE to register and schedule exams at your convenience. For more details, please see Taking An Exam.
EXAM RETAKE POLICY
The CIW Exam Retake Policy outlines the conditions under which a candidate may retake a CIW exam. A waiting period between retakes of a single certification exam maintains the security of the exam and strengthens the value of the CIW certification. Each CIW exam is defined by a unique exam ID (e.g., IDO-520). A retake is any subsequent sitting of an exam with the same CIW exam ID by the same candidate at any authorized testing center.
In the event that a candidate passes a CIW exam, the candidate will not be allowed to retake that CIW exam. If the CIW exam objectives change, the exam ID will change to reflect the new exam version. Candidates who have passed an exam may sit a newer version of the exam that may have the same title but a different ID number.
In the event that a candidate fails a CIW exam on his or her first attempt, a 24-hour waiting period is required between the first and second sittings of that CIW exam. Candidates are required to wait for a period of no less than thirty (30) calendar days from the date of the previous sitting before any third or subsequent sitting of the same CIW exam.
Exams administered in any ways that do not comply with the CIW Exam Retake Policy shall be considered invalid and ineligible for a refund.
In the event that a candidate has violated this Exam Retake Policy, the candidate may be deemed ineligible to register for or schedule any CIW exam for a minimum period of twelve (12) months from the date of such determination.
In addition, any candidate determined to have violated the CIW Exam Retake Policy may be subject to any or all of the following:
- Denial of a specific CIW certification for a period of twelve (12) months from the date of such determination;
- Revocation of a specific CIW certification, if such certification had been previously granted to the candidate;
- Revocation of all CIW certifications previously granted to the candidate;
- Ineligibility to receive any CIW certification for a minimum of twelve (12) months from the date of such determination;
- Any other appropriate actions, including legal remedies, deemed necessary or appropriate to enforce the CIW Exam Retake Policy.
EXAM RETIREMENT
No retirement date has been announced for exam 1D0-520.
COMMENTS
To make a comment or recommendation about CIW certification exams, please contact our CIW certification department.

