Exam Overview
Exam ID
Level
Duration
Questions
Passing Score
Cost
Key Focus: Storefront & UI Development
This certification is technical and code-focused, not admin or business based. It validates your skills in Magento themes, layouts, templates, JavaScript (RequireJS, Knockout, jQuery), LESS styling, and UI components. You need hands-on experience customizing the storefront and understanding how frontend changes affect user experience.
Who Should Take This Exam?
Perfect For Theme & UI Specialists
If your daily work involves Magento themes, layouts, JavaScript customization, and storefront UI development, this certification is a strong fit for you. It validates your ability to create beautiful, performant, and user-friendly e-commerce experiences.
Recommended Experience
You should have 1-3 years of hands-on Adobe Commerce front-end development experience and the ability to translate task requirements into technical solutions.
Basic understanding of Magento's front-end architecture and layout system
Experience with HTML, CSS, LESS, and responsive design
jQuery, Underscore, RequireJS, Knockout, mage widgets
Extending/overwriting styles, layouts, JS files, theme hierarchy
CMS Blocks, Widgets, Pages, Category, Product, Cart, Checkout, Dashboard
bin/magento commands, Grunt, cache, deploy modes, Composer
Browser caching, cookies, local storage understanding
Basic understanding of Adobe Commerce Cloud and CLI tools
Technologies You Should Know
Exam Sections & Objectives
Section 1: Theme Management
16%Theme hierarchy, image configuration, translations
- Describe Adobe Commerce theme folder structure and how it relates to folder based themes
- Demonstrate the ability to create a new theme (Inheritance/Fallbacks, design exceptions, theme properties)
- Demonstrate ability to extend existing themes
- Demonstrate ability to customize transactional emails
- Demonstrate ability to apply translations
- Given a set of use cases, identify when to place files in app/code or app/design
Section 2: Layout XML & Templates
22%phtml templates, layout instructions
- Demonstrate the ability to utilize layout XML instructions
- Demonstrate the ability to create new page layouts
- Understand the difference between extending/merging and overriding XML
- Demonstrate how to pass and utilize arguments to templates
- Demonstrate ability to create and customize templates
- Apply template security (escaping output)
Section 3: Styles
18%LESS, CSS, styling hierarchy
- Identify the purpose of styles-m.less, styles-l.less, print.less
- Describe the difference between specific partial files (_extends.less, _extend.less, _theme.less, _widgets.less, _module.less)
- Demonstrate the ability to override or extend Magento LESS
- Explain the core concepts of LESS
- Demonstrate the ability to style emails
- Explain the hierarchy of styles (lib, modules, themes)
- Demonstrate the ability to implement and customize LESS library components
- Identify the differences between client-side vs server-side compilation and how it works
Section 4: JavaScript
22%Mage widgets, mage library, customer data module, Knockout templates
- Demonstrate the ability to initialize and call JavaScript components
- Distinguish use cases for different JavaScript components
- Demonstrate the usage of RequireJS
- Demonstrate the ability to implement different types of mixins
- Describe how to add a translation in JS
- Describe interactions between UI components
- Demonstrate the usage of Knockout JS
- Demonstrate the usage of jQuery widgets
- Demonstrate the usage of JS components using Layout XML
Section 5: Admin Configuration & Page Builder
12%Page Builder customization, optimization, admin tools
- Demonstrate the ability to customize Page Builder content
- Describe front-end optimization
- Customize transactional emails
- Demonstrate the usage of admin development tools
Section 6: Tools (CLI and Grunt)
10%Command line, Composer, deploy modes, Cloud tools
- Demonstrate the usage of basic bin/Magento commands
- Describe the usage of Composer commands (install, update, require, remove)
- Differentiate the appropriate use case for deploy modes
- Define Grunt setup and usage
- Describe additional tools that cloud provides (Fastly, downloading database, content deployment, branching using UI)
Recommended Study Path
| Phase | Topic | Weight | Focus Areas | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Layout XML & Templates | 22% | Layout instructions, page layouts, template security | 2 weeks |
| 2 | JavaScript (RequireJS, Knockout, jQuery) | 22% | UI components, mixins, widgets, RequireJS config | 2 weeks |
| 3 | Styles (LESS/CSS) | 18% | LESS files, compilation, style hierarchy | 1.5 weeks |
| 4 | Theme Management | 16% | Theme structure, inheritance, translations | 1 week |
| 5 | Admin Config & Page Builder | 12% | Page Builder, optimization, email templates | 1 week |
| 6 | Tools (CLI & Grunt) | 10% | bin/magento, Composer, deploy modes, Cloud CLI | 3-5 days |
| 7 | Practice & Review | - | Mock exams, hands-on practice, weak areas review | 1-2 weeks |
Study Resources
SwiftOtter Study Guide
Free comprehensive PDF study guide covering all exam topics with detailed explanations.
Download PDF →Adobe Certification Portal
Official exam information, registration, and preparation resources from Adobe.
Visit Portal →Adobe Commerce DevDocs
Official documentation for frontend development, themes, layouts, and JavaScript.
Read Docs →GitHub Practice
Hands-on practice by creating custom themes and modules on a local Magento installation.
Explore Code →Comparing Frontend Certifications
| Aspect | AD0-E720 (Front-End Expert) | AD0-E717 (Developer Professional) |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Themes, Layouts, JS, CSS, UI Components | Backend, Architecture, Database, PHP |
| Level | Expert (1-3 years) | Professional (0-12 months) |
| Key Technologies | Layout XML, LESS, RequireJS, Knockout, jQuery | PHP, DI, Plugins, Observers, MySQL |
| Best For | Theme Developers, UI Specialists | Backend Developers, Full-Stack |
| Passing Score | 29/50 (58%) | 34/50 (68%) |
Ready to Start?
Begin your journey to becoming an Adobe Commerce Front-End Developer Expert!
