In this article, we will discuss all Microsoft Certifications paths in a way that helps you to drive on the correct road, to meet the requirements of the current job career growth or the job that you plan for.
Why get Certified?
Before discussing the different Microsoft Certifications paths, we need to know why should we get certified?
An important point to mention here is that not being a certified specialist does not mean that you are not qualified as an expert in your field. But what encourages me to discuss that subject is the number of questions I received recently about the best certification path and the new changes performed by Microsoft in the certification process. This article will help you in clarifying these new changes and encourage you to start taking new certificates.
As an expert, becoming a Microsoft Certified specialist helps in verifying your current skills, where these certificates will help you to be noticed and recognized globally and become a target for any new opportunity that matches your skills. In other words, the certificate will unlock new opportunities for you, shape your resume, and simplify your job interviews.
If you already have your dream job, getting certified helps you in getting promoted and jumping to the next step in your career path faster. It is an indication of your proactivity and productivity.
If you are stepping up in your career path ladder and starting your journey, getting certified helps you widely in choosing the best career path for you, verifying the gained skills gradually, showing your proactivity sooner, and opening new opportunities that match your skills.
Microsoft Certifications Retirement
Due to the rapidly changing information technology field, Microsoft keeps continuously reviewing the current certification programs, retiring the old ones, and introducing newer ones to make sure that these certificates reflect the latest Microsoft technologies that are verified within these certificates.
At the beginning of the next year, 31st of January 2021, Microsoft will retire the MCSA, MCSE, and MCSD certificates and the associated exams completely, which means that you will not be able to attain the certification exams.
The happy news here is that, if you have already earned the retired certificate, it will remain active for you. For a complete list of Microsoft retired certificates, check the Retired Microsoft Certifications.
Microsoft Certifications Paths
Microsoft provides you with the ability to start a specific certification path that matches your job role from one side, and your plan in improving your skills. The Microsoft certificates can be categorized by the job role, as we will discuss below, by the certificate type or level. When talking about the certificate level, the Microsoft Fundamental certifications are recommended for those who plan to start a new technology or change the current career path. The Microsoft Associate certifications require a minimum of two years of practical experience in the certificate subject. For the Microsoft Expert certifications, you need to have up to five years of deep practical experience on that technology to be certified in that field.
Let us discuss these paths so that it will be easy for you to decide where to go.
Microsoft Certifications for Developers
If you are responsible for designing, building, testing, and maintaining cloud-based solutions, you can improve and verify your skills by taking the below exams:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900): Ensure that you have the main knowledge of the different cloud services, provided by Microsoft Azure. The main points that are measured here can be found in the Skills Measured page
- Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204): This exam helps in measuring your skills in designing, building, testing, and maintaining the different types of cloud solutions using the Microsoft Azure services. Passing this exam, you will earn the Azure Developer Associate certificate
For more technology-specific developers’ certificates and exams, check the Developer Certification Path page.
Microsoft Certifications for Administrator
Azure Administrators are responsible mainly for implementing, size, and performance monitoring, and maintaining the different types of Microsoft solutions, that are built using the Microsoft Azure services, such as the Compute, Security, Storage, and Network services. Your skills can be improved and validated using the number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104): This exam measures different administration skills such as implementing, managing, configuring, deploying, and monitoring the Microsoft Azure services and resources. For the complete list of measured skills, check the Skills Measured page. Taking this exam, you will be an Azure Administrator Associate
- Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solution (AZ-400): This exam measures different development, implementation, and code management skills that can be found under the Skills Measured page
Passing both (AZ-104 or AZ-204) and AZ-400, you will be certified as DevOps Engineer Expert.
For more specific Administrator certifications and exams, check the Administrator Certifications page.
Microsoft Certifications for Solutions Architect
Solutions Architects are responsible for reshaping the business requirements in the form of cloud solutions. This helps in designing and implementing different types of solutions that are built over Microsoft Azure services, includes the computing, network, storage, and security Azure services. Your skills can be improved and validated using the number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-300): This exam measures your skills in deploying, implementing, configuring, and creating the apps based on the Microsoft Azure Services. You can check all measured skills from the Skills Measured page
- Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-301): This exam measures the design part of the solutions that are built using Microsoft Azure Services. Check the Skills Measured for a complete list of covered subjects
Passing both AZ-300 and AZ-301 exams, you will be certified as Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
- Note: Take into consideration that you both AZ-300 and AZ-301 will be retired on September 30, 2020.
For more specific Solution Architect certifications and exams, check the Solutions Architect page.
Microsoft Certifications for Data Engineer
Azure Data Engineers are responsible for designing, implementing, management, monitoring, securing, and maintaining data-related solutions. Your skills can be improved and validated using the number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Implementing an Azure Data Solution (DP-200): This exam measures your skills in implementing, managing, developing, monitoring, and optimizing the data solutions. Check the Skills Measured page for a complete list of skills.
- Designing an Azure Data Solution (DP-201): This exam measures your skills in designing the different parts of the data solutions. The complete list of these skills can be found under the Skills Measured page.
Passing both DP-200 and DP-201 exams, you will be certified as an Azure Data Engineer Associate.
Microsoft Certifications for Database Administrator
The Azure Database Administrator is responsible for managing and operating the data solutions using the Microsoft Azure data services and Microsoft SQL Server. Your skills can be improved and validated using the exam below:
- Administrating Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure (DP-300): This exam will measure your skills in performing different data related administrative tasks. For a complete list of these skills check the Skills Measured page. Passing this exam, you will be certified as an Azure Database Administrator Associate
Microsoft Certifications for Data Analyst
Data Analysts are responsible for designing and building data models by transforming it in a format that can be easily analyzed and visualized. Your skills can be improved and validated using the exam below:
- Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI (DA- 100): This exam measures your skills in preparing, modeling, visualizing, and analyzing the data. Check the Skills Measured for the complete skills list. Passing this exam, you will be certified as a Data Analyst Associate
Microsoft Certifications for Data Scientist
Data Scientists are responsible for applying the different machine learning techniques to solve the business-related problems by training, evaluating, and deploying these machine learning models. Your skills can be improved and validated using a number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure (DP-100): This exam measures your skills in running, optimizing, deploying, and consuming the Machine Learning models to solve different business problems. For a detailed list of these skills, check the Skills Measured page. Passing this exam, you will be certified as an Azure Data Scientist Associate
Microsoft Certifications for AI Engineer
AI Engineers are responsible for using the Cognitive Services, the Azure Machine Learning Service, and Knowledge Mining, to design and implement different types of AI solutions, such as language and speech processing solutions. Your skills can be improved and validated using a number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution (AI-100): This exam measures your skills in analyzing the solution requirements and designing and implementing AI solutions based on the analysis result. Check the Skills Measured page for a complete list of skills. Passing this exam, you will be certified as an Azure AI Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certifications for Security Engineer
Security Engineers are responsible for managing and controlling the user’s identity and access, performing the required configurations and implementations for protecting stored data, the running applications, and the overall company networks. Your skills can be improved and validated using a number of exams, include:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500): This exam measures your skills in managing, implementing the security components, and securing the data and the applications. The detailed list for these skills can be found in the Skills Measured page. Passing this exam, you will be certified as an Azure Security Engineer Associate
Microsoft Certifications for Functional Consultant
The functional consultant is responsible for using Microsoft Dynamics 365 to meet the different customer’s needs. Each exam will help in measuring your skills in a specific business field and certify you as an associate in that field. For a complete list of all available certificates and exams for Microsoft Dynamics 365, check the Functional Consultant Certifications.
Conclusion
In this article, we summarized most of the new certificates provided by the Microsoft Learning program. You can check the Microsoft Certification path that matches a job role, specific technology, certificate type, or level from the Browse All Certifications page.
I wish you all the best in your career development.
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He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Expert in Data Management and Analytics, Microsoft Certified Solution Associate in SQL Database Administration and Development, Azure Developer Associate and Microsoft Certified Trainer.
Also, he is contributing with his SQL tips in many blogs.
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