You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
DELL TECHNOLOGIESDell PowerScale Design v2
The Dell PowerScale Design v2 certification validates your ability to architect and design scalable, high-performance PowerScale storage solutions that meet enterprise demands for massive unstructured data growth. Built for storage architects and solution designers, this credential proves you can translate business requirements into resilient, efficient PowerScale designs. Earning it demonstrates your expertise in one of the industry's leading scale-out NAS platforms, positioning you as a trusted advisor for modern data-intensive workloads.
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
DeliveryPearson VUE
Free questions279
Content last reviewed 30 July 2026 · Up to date
The certification
What POWERSCALE-DESIGN-V2 proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
5domains
13objectives
81concepts
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The Dell PowerScale Design v2 certification is a Specialist-level credential within the Dell Proven Professional program. It validates your ability to design PowerScale storage solutions that address the challenges of massive unstructured data growth, from initial requirements gathering through to solution sizing, performance planning, and high-availability design. This certification is for storage architects and solution designers who need to create robust, scalable, and efficient storage architectures for enterprise environments.
Earning this certification demonstrates that you can analyze customer requirements, select the appropriate PowerScale hardware and software components, and design a solution that meets performance, capacity, and availability targets. You will also be equipped to plan for data migration and integration with existing infrastructure. This credential signals to employers and clients that you have the advanced design skills necessary to architect PowerScale solutions that drive business success.
Who it’s for
This certification is designed for storage architects, solution designers, and pre-sales engineers who are responsible for designing PowerScale storage solutions for enterprise customers. It is ideal for professionals who need to translate business and technical requirements into a scalable, high-performance, and resilient storage architecture. You are likely someone who already has a solid foundation in storage technologies and is looking to specialize in PowerScale design. You understand concepts like NAS, scale-out storage, and data protection, and you want to demonstrate your ability to architect complex solutions that meet the demands of modern unstructured data workloads.
Recommended experience
Dell recommends that candidates have a strong understanding of storage architecture concepts and experience with PowerScale solutions before taking this exam. Experience designing and implementing storage solutions; Knowledge of PowerScale hardware and software components; Understanding of scale-out NAS architecture and concepts; Familiarity with data protection and high-availability design principles
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective Dell Technologies measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official Dell Technologies exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements
- Capture and analyze the technical requirements for performance, capacity, and features that most accurately fit the business and solution needs
- Identify the use cases where PowerScale would be useful
PowerScale Infrastructure Design and Plan
- Provide a solution and subset of software features that best suit the customers requirements
- Apply networking recommendations to a customer based on workload requirements
Platform Infrastructure
- Illustrate the use cases and operational functions performed by the OneFS Job Engine across cluster maintenance, data protection, and feature support
- Explain PowerScale filesystem structure
- Explain PowerScale networking (smart connect)
- Architect a PowerScale cluster based on available node types and network components
PowerScale Management, Identity Management, and Advanced Applications
- Account for specific customer continuity and protection requirements
- Differentiate between different security features and their proper use cases for data governance and compliance
- Identify client access permissions, client authentication and client protocol access on the PowerScale cluster
Monitor and Workflow Analysis tools
- Choose the correct tools to assess performance of the customer environment
- Determine the correct method to monitor and analyze a PowerScale solution
On the day
The exam itself
Everything Dell Technologies publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
Exam codePOWERSCALE-DESIGN-V2
CertificationDell PowerScale Design v2
Exam formatMultiple choice and multiple response
DeliveryPearson VUE
LanguagesEnglish
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path Dell Technologies lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to Dell PowerScale Design v2
Credential earnedDell PowerScale Design v2 Certification Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. Dell Technologies maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by Dell Technologies
Exam registration
Register for the exam through Pearson VUE, Dell Technologies’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official Dell Technologies certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
Is there a hands-on lab component in the D-PSC-DS-01 exam?
The official exam page does not specify a hands-on lab component. The exam format is typically multiple choice and multiple response, but you should verify the latest details on the official Dell exam page.
What is the retake policy for the D-PSC-DS-01 exam?
Dell's retake policy is not detailed in the provided source material. For the most accurate and current retake policy, please refer to the official Dell certification website or Pearson VUE.
How does this exam relate to the previous PowerScale Design exam version?
This is the v2 version of the PowerScale Design exam. The specific differences from the previous version are not detailed in the provided source material. Check the official Dell exam page for a comparison of objectives.
What job roles does the Dell PowerScale Design v2 certification map to?
This certification is designed for storage architects, solution designers, and pre-sales engineers who are responsible for designing PowerScale storage solutions.
Can I schedule the D-PSC-DS-01 exam online?
Yes, Dell offers both online proctored and test center options for this exam through Pearson VUE. You can schedule your exam through the Pearson VUE website.
Are there any regional restrictions for taking the D-PSC-DS-01 exam?
Dell certifications are available globally, but availability may vary by region. Check the Pearson VUE website for the most up-to-date availability in your country.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2026-07-30 Up to date
Practice free questions 279 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept Dell Technologies measures — each one written out.
5domains
13objectives
81concepts
62free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official Dell Technologies exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
1Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements33 questions
2PowerScale Infrastructure Design and Plan36 questions
3Platform Infrastructure109 questions
Illustrate the use cases and operational functions performed by the OneFS Job Engine across cluster maintenance, data protection, and feature support8 concepts · 4 pagesOpen →Explain PowerScale filesystem structure7 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Explain PowerScale networking (smart connect)9 concepts · 7 pagesOpen →Architect a PowerScale cluster based on available node types and network components6 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →
4PowerScale Management, Identity Management, and Advanced Applications75 questions
Account for specific customer continuity and protection requirements7 concepts · 5 pagesOpen →Differentiate between different security features and their proper use cases for data governance and compliance13 concepts · 9 pagesOpen →Identify client access permissions, client authentication and client protocol access on the PowerScale cluster3 concepts · 3 pagesOpen →
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Capture and analyze the technical requirements for performance, capacity, and features that most accurately fit the business and solution needs5 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
22 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
279 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
279questions
62pages
13objectives
Freealways
Start anywhereCapture and analyze the technical requirements for performance, capacity, and features that most accurately fit the business and solution needs 22 questions · 5 pages
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements33 questions
2PowerScale Infrastructure Design and Plan36 questions
3Platform Infrastructure109 questions
4PowerScale Management, Identity Management, and Advanced Applications75 questions
5Monitor and Workflow Analysis tools26 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
81concepts
279free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from Dell Technologies
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
1official link
81concepts mapped
The source
Dell Technologies’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official Dell Technologies outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 13 objectives, 81 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When Dell Technologies changes the outline, this page changes with it.
13objectives on the outline→81concepts written→279free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.