6.8.2025
Marcin Janik
Share thisIn this blog article, you’ll learn:
- The process of getting a Adobe Real-Time CDP certification through the eyes of an experienced technical Adobe specialist
- What topics are covered in an Adobe Real-Time CDP bootcamp
- An expert’s take on the certification process and Adobe’s overall architecture
- Thoughts on Adobe AEP & Real-Time CDP
- How we can help with these topics
In agency life, just like in marketing, the only constant is change.
One project wraps up, and before you know it, another one kicks off. Every now and then, though, you get a little breather between them - and that’s the perfect chance to catch up with what’s new and level up your skills.
The modern data stack and Customer Data Platforms (CDP) are essential parts of our service offering here at FELD M. As someone with a lot of experience in Adobe Experience Cloud, it felt like the perfect moment to dive deeper into CDPs and Composable CDPs I felt ready to push myself past “just” tagging and A/B testing. When a break between projects came along, I decided to take the opportunity to explore Adobe Real-Time CDP.
Getting certified was the natural next step.
Our CEO, Lutz, let me know that I could join the Adobe Real-Time CDP bootcamp by NetBuilder as it is free for Adobe Partners. The public course pricing is 1.200 USD.
Background
I approached the bootcamp with the following background:
- 10 years of experience with Adobe Analytics, Target, ECID, and Launch implementations
- Worked on an Adobe Web SDK project past the XDM definition phase
- General knowledge of SQL, but no experience with NoSQL data models
- No prior knowledge of Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs)
- Completed a project with another CDP and certification (Tealium EventStream, AudienceStream)
- Recently started exploring the differences between CDPs and Composable CDPs
- Experience working with a variety of other marketing and analytics tools
- Worked with Adobe Launch API
To fully benefit from the bootcamp, NetBuilder recommends:
- A working knowledge of Adobe Experience Platform
- Familiarity with database concepts
- A general understanding of APIs
Bootcamp
The bootcamp was held online and lasted three days. It was divided into thematic sections, which were interspersed with labs and QA sections.
Before the start of the course, participants were given access to a sandbox and a learning resources page. Particularly the latter was important because, as I found out later, the Adobe product was really changing before our eyes - kudos to the trainers who make changes on the fly, even months after the bootcamp! The bootcamp took place in October, but pages with all the materials are still available to me in June 2025, which is just fantastic!
Upon completion of the bootcamp, students are eligible for an examination voucher either for AD0-E602 Adobe Real-Time CDP Business Practitioner Professional or the more detailed, technical AD0-E605 Adobe Real-Time CDP Developer Expert which was my choice.
The first day served as an introduction to Adobe Experience Platform, covering key benefits, architecture, user profiles, and events. However, most of our time was focused on the LID methodology, which was new to me. LID, or Label - Identify - Denormalize, is the process of transforming data from a relational model (SQL) into a non-relational model (NoSQL) that Adobe uses. In the Adobe ecosystem, this model is known as the Experience Data Model (XDM).
Using a NoSQL architecture allows Adobe to achieve greater scalability and faster data availability - key advantages for real-time updates to user profiles. The speed of data reading and writing is crucial for quickly activating profiles and audiences. This real-time processing is a significant benefit of the platform beyond its CDP functionality.
It was all interesting stuff, but for a moment I questioned whether this was really the kind of work I’d be doing as a consultant. I wasn’t sure at the time, but I later came to appreciate its importance.
During the LAB, we were given the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) of a fictitious telecom company (see screenshot below) and, together with the instructors, we prepared step by step the data schema that was needed to implement the three scenarios with the help of RTCDP.
An Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) visually represents the structure of a database, illustrating entities (such as people, objects, or concepts), their attributes, and the relationships between them. It's a powerful tool for designing and understanding data models.
The scenarios were:
- Acquisition: Target profiles that visited a product page but haven’t placed an order or whose device isn’t an active line on their account. (1st party advertising)
- Upsell: Target profiles with high data usage over the past 6 months, averaging a significant amount per month, who aren’t on the ultimate phone plan. (1st party advertising)
-
Order cancellation: Reach out to profiles who ordered but cancelled within a week to promote similar products, coupons, or discounts. (email)
Possible usecases (thanks to NetBuilder for letting us use this chart)
The knowledge of primary keys, foreign keys, primary identifiers, person identities, 1:1, 1:M, M:M relationships as well as bridges, lookups help to understand how to put the colourful stickers properly 😉.
While discussing various scenarios, it quickly became clear that there are many decisions to make. The tool is marketed as “real-time”, but the reality is more nuanced. It’s crucial to understand how the Profile, Profile projection works and how the type of segmentation (Edge, Streaming, Batch) affects data availability.
What "real-time" means in Adobe RT-CDP
1. Data ingestion:
Adobe RT-CDP can ingest data in near real-time, especially from web and mobile SDKs. For example, behavioral data (like page views or clicks) can be ingested within seconds to minutes.
2. Profile updates:
Identity stitching and profile enrichment generally occur within minutes. Adobe claims sub-minute updates in ideal conditions, but in practice, this can vary based on system load, data volume, and connector latency.
3.Segmentation:
a) Streaming segments: These are updated as new events are ingested. They're the closest to "real-time" and typically refresh within seconds to a few minutes.
b) Batch segments: These update on a schedule (e.g., hourly or daily) and are not real-time.
Activation:
Real-time activation is limited:
a) Edge activation: Adobe's Edge Network can trigger personalization via Experience Edge with latencies around 100–300ms.
b) Destination activation: For third-party systems (e.g., ad platforms or CRMs), activation is often delayed by minutes to hours, depending on the destination type.
Understanding these nuances is crucial during the planning phase. Each use case may require a specific approach to be technically feasible. When working with AEP, it’s essential to start by defining the use case, understanding which data is available and from which sources, and then determining how it should be structured, collected, and ingested. The process should not be approached the other way around.
The second and third days focused on putting these concepts into practice. We created XDM schemas through the UI and used Postman to build them programmatically - essential for large-scale businesses running hundreds of campaigns. Using Azure Storage Explorer, we imported data into the platform and tested the results of Edge, Streaming, and Batch segmentation. We also experienced profile collapse firsthand and learned how to debug faulty datasets. It was a highly hands-on experience throughout.
Several days after bootcamp, I got the voucher code that let me schedule one of the mentioned exams. I used the sandbox to play around, repeat the LAB exercises and I used the exam preparation guide which is basically a list of documentation links, however ordered in a logical sequence, more suitable for a learner than an experienced consultant. Next up was the exam.
Proctored exam
If you’re new to this, here’s how the process works:
1. Visit the Adobe certification portal.
2. Choose your exam.
The certification page provides detailed information about the exam scope, required experience, and the process.
- You can take a practice test to get a feel for the difficulty. In my experience, the practice questions were slightly easier than the official exam.
- Schedule and pay for your exam, unless you have a voucher.
- You can reschedule the exam, but doing with less than 48 hours' notice incurs a fee.
- On the exam day, prepare your desk, download the required secure browser, and connect with the supervisor.
I scheduled my exam and carefully prepared my desk and computer as instructed. Before connecting with the examiner, I completed all the required steps. After connecting I showed ID, took photos of the room and showed my computer via a selfie. Yet the supervisor still asked me to remove a small piece of furniture from my desk and cover things under the desk with a blanket!
That felt only, only A BIT excessive. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fairness and academic honesty, but these extra demands only added to the tension, which is already quite high during Adobe exams in my experience. We’re specialists - we know our stuff and don’t need to pretend otherwise. If we have satisfied clients, isn’t that what really counts?
Certifications help us level up, sometimes out of personal drive, but often because of agency-partner obligations. That’s how it is - and honestly, it could sometimes be a bit easier.
After the room check, I was asked to show my Windows Task Manager to prove that no capturing tools are running in the background. After I confirmed that I am ready, the exam began...
Big NO for secret drawer prompters! I had to remove it from my desk.
I’ve done three other Adobe exams before (two in 2017 in the Pearson Learning Centre and one last year, like this exam). It gave me the same feeling:
Adobe really keep you on your toes. Just skimming the documentation? Nope. Even the bootcamp won’t cut it for the expert one. You’ve got to hit the documentation and practice. The questions aren’t just tricky, they make you really think and test whether this stuff is second nature to you. You need a good visual memory of where things are and what is possible in the UI.
Adobe tests your ability to handle real-time use-cases. You have to think critically as the questions are compound: they touch both the business side and platform details that are important for the final answer. Expect a mix of multiple-choice, true/false, and scenario-based questions as well as code examples or above mentioned Entity Relationship Diagram (ERDs). The expert exam consists of 68 questions and you have 2 hours 16 minutes to complete it.
Here’s a little mental workout to give you an idea:
Imagine you’re diagnosing an issue with a car, but you’re not physically in the garage. You’re on the phone with a mechanic who's in the driver’s seat, trying to troubleshoot the problem. The car has multiple systems—engine, transmission, electrical—and you must guide them through checking each one. You can’t just say, “-it’s the engine”, you need to help the mechanic understand which part of the engine is failing, how the other systems might be affecting it, and what signs to look for.
It’s not enough to know where the parts are; you need to understand how the systems interact and how to diagnose the problem step by step, without being able to physically see or touch the car yourself.
The mental workout reminded me of playing those intense board games that you want to win so much, or competing in trading card game tournaments back when I was a teen.
I was totally wiped out afterward, but hey, that’s how you know it’s real!
My thoughts on AEP
My first experience with Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) in 2023/2024 during the WebSDK implementation wasn’t exactly smooth. The terminology around the Experience Data Model (XDM) was somewhat precise and vague at the same time. The documentation and tutorials were overwhelming. Implementing complex Adobe Analytics tracking with help of Adobe Data Collection (formerly Launch) was not the most pleasant experience (you might have already read about problems with scalability, huge amounts of Data Elements and other pitfalls?).
Doing the certification forced me to get back to basics. It helped me to grasp the benefits of AEP. It encouraged me to see how it evolved, and I must admit I see a lot of improvements, mostly from the tag management perspective, since that’s where I spend most of my time: upgraded extension for Data Collection (Launch) with Update Variable, or Merge Object functionality which helps to scale the data collection. Also, a good practices patterns have emerged as the tool matured and the product team implemented more user feedback.
What about RT-CDP?
Having prior experience with webSDK is crucial. The more familiar you are with it, the easier it will be to grasp RT-CDP. Adobe’s architecture is complex, and fully understanding it is essential to providing effective recommendations on data activation.
The way Profile, Profile projection, and the three types of segmentation work significantly raises the entry barrier. To get started, you need a solid understanding of the platform's inner workings. If we’ve previously discussed the differences between s.prop, s.eVar, s.events, contextData, or Processing Rules in Adobe Analytics, RT-CDP is on a whole new level.
With that complexity comes flexibility. And just a heads-up: flexibility isn’t always easier to manage.
This platform demands a shift in mindset.
It’s a powerful tool, but to unlock its full potential, you need to elevate your approach. It requires close collaboration with technical specialists to help marketing teams achieve their goals. Ultimately, it challenges us as specialists to bridge the gap and move closer to the world of data engineering. I’m truly glad I took this step.
Do I feel like an RT-CDP expert?
Thanks to the bootcamp, I learned about the strengths of the platform as well as my weaknesses when confronted with it. The road to expertise requires time spent in projects, confronting the client's vision, the possibilities of what the tool offers, to see if the promise is fulfilled.
Do you have questions or need help with Adobe RT-CDP?
Don't hesitate to get in touch!