question Re: Personal developer question in Community Central forum

Personal developer question

jassminhas3 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:53:24 GMT

Hi There,

I have a general inquiry about PDI, I have got access to it and I am preparing for my CSA exam.

The PDI we use, from where I can get the data in it or Do I have to create the data on my own from scratch like everything from scratch?
By data I mean, incident records, requests records to practice on?

I hope I am making sense

Thanks

Re: Personal developer question

Rafael Batistot — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:55:47 GMT

Hi @jassminhas3

Your Personal Developer Instance in ServiceNow already comes with sample data.

You do not need to create everything from scratch.

You already have:

Incidents
Requests and RITMs
Changes and Problems
Users, groups, and roles
Catalog items and CMDB records

You can safely use, modify, or delete this data to practice for the CSA exam.

Re: Personal developer question

Tejas Adhalrao — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 02:40:12 GMT

hi @jassminhas3 ,,

To check if your PDI already contains data, navigate to:

Incident > All
Problem > All
Change > All
Service Catalog > Catalog Definitions
Knowledge > Articles

You should find some sample records in most PDIs.

For CSA exam preparation, I would recommend creating a few records yourself in addition to using existing sample data, as it gives you hands-on experience with forms, lists, filters, and administration tasks that are commonly covered in the exam.

Re: Personal developer question

Juhi Poddar — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:16:15 GMT

Hi @jassminhas3

Yes, you're making perfect sense. 😊

A Personal Developer Instance (PDI) typically comes with a good amount of sample/demo data out of the box, including records such as:

Incidents
Change Requests
Problems
Users and Groups
CMDB records
Knowledge Articles
Catalog Items and Requests (depending on the application and plugins installed)

To view existing data, you can simply navigate to the respective application modules (for example, Incident > All) and check whether records are already available.

If your PDI appears to have very little data, you have a few options:

Create your own records to better understand the relationships between tables and processes.
Reset or request a fresh PDI

For CSA preparation, I would recommend using a combination of the existing sample data and creating your own records. Creating Incidents, Users, Groups, Change Requests, and Catalog Items yourself is a great way to reinforce the concepts you'll encounter in the exam.

Good luck with your CSA preparation!

Thank You!

Juhi Poddar

Re: Personal developer question

jassminhas3 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:36:25 GMT

Thank you so much