This foundational-level certification is required before taking any of the more advanced certifications and training programs. It will test your knowledge of the concepts in the Daml Fundamentals certification path through a written exam and capstone project. Candidates must successfully complete the Daml Fundamentals certification path prior to taking the exam.

The exam should take approximately 90 minutes to complete, though candidates can take as much time as they need. Candidates are welcome to reference the Daml Fundamentals curriculum, Daml developer documentation, and SDK as aids during the exam.

There are 30 exam questions, separated into three categories, one category for each course in the Daml Fundamentals certification path curriculum. Within each category, questions are 50% theoretical, and 50% technical in nature. All questions carry the same weight, and add up to your total score. To be Daml-certified, you must have a total exam score of 75%. Candidates may have two attempts to pass the exam, before being required to retake the Daml Fundamentals certification path again.

Exam Topics:
1. Functional Programming in Daml (14 questions)
- What makes Daml unique
- How to reason about functional programming and why it is important for creating applications in Daml
- SDK setup and configuration
- How to create and leverage functions
- Primitive data types
- Collection data structures
- Typeclasses and records
- Conditional control flow
- Iterative control flow
- Type variables

2. Canton Ledger Programming in Daml (11 questions)
- How to reason about the Canton ledger model and its components
- How to write and test templates
- How to identify and retrieve contracts
- Transaction trees
- Functor, applicative, and action
- Actions and loops

3. Testing in Daml (5 questions)
- How to reason about testing Daml code
- How to leverage Navigator for testing and debugging
- How to design test scripts
- How to use debug, trace, assert, abort, ensure, and handle exceptions

After passing the exam with a score of 75% or higher, you will be able to start the Capstone Project. The project should take about 60 minutes to complete, and candidates will have up to 2 weeks to submit their project.