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Technology & IT Certifications

IT and cloud certification exams from CompTIA, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Cisco, Google Cloud, and more.

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Exam families

Choose your exam family

Families group sibling exams — the tiers of one credential, the split and combined versions of a licence, the per-state variants. Each opens its own page with every exam and its free resources.

Which IT certification fits the job you want?

Nobody licenses IT work. Every exam on this page is a certification owned by a vendor or a professional body — CompTIA, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Cisco, Google Cloud, ISC2, ISACA, PMI, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Salesforce, HashiCorp — and the owner decides what the exam covers, who may sit it, how it is scored and how long the credential lasts. Employers, not regulators, make them matter, which is why the right one depends on the role and the technology stack in front of you rather than on any statute.

Most of these exams share a delivery layer. Pearson VUE runs the CompTIA, AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, PMI and ISC2 exams at test centres and, for most of them, by online proctoring; Cisco's entry-level CCST goes through Certiport; ISACA uses PSI; Google Cloud and Salesforce use their own proctoring partners. The Kubernetes exams are different in kind — performance-based tasks on a live command line, proctored remotely — and the exam page says so.

Two things separate certifications more than difficulty does. The first is prerequisites: most entry and associate exams have none, while CISSP, CISM, CISA and PMP require documented years of professional experience before the certification is granted. The second is the clock: AWS and Cisco credentials run for three years, CompTIA's for three with continuing-education renewal, Microsoft's associate and expert certifications expire yearly and renew free through an online assessment, and Salesforce requires a maintenance module each year. A credential's renewal rule is part of its cost.

Start from the role

Links go to the exam guide, where the question format, time limit, fee, scaled passing score and validity period are verified against the vendor's own exam page.

I am starting out in IT support or help desk
CompTIA A+CCST NetworkingISC2 CC

CompTIA A+ is the two-exam entry credential for support roles — hardware, operating systems, networking, troubleshooting. Cisco's CCST Networking is the entry step before CCNA, and ISC2's Certified in Cybersecurity is the free-to-train entry point on the security side. None has a prerequisite.

I want to move into networking
CompTIA Network+CCNA

Network+ is vendor-neutral; CCNA is Cisco's associate credential and the one most network jobs name. CCNA has no formal prerequisite and is valid for three years before recertification.

I want a security career
CompTIA Security+CompTIA CySA+CISSPCISMCISA

Security+ is the entry credential and the one most often required by employers and government roles. CySA+ covers detection and response. CISSP, CISM and CISA are experience-gated management and audit credentials: you can sit the exam first, but the certification is granted only after the required professional experience is verified.

I am going into cloud on AWS
AWS CCP (CLF-C02)AWS SAA-C03AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C02)AWS AI Practitioner

Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner are foundational and need no experience. Solutions Architect and Developer are associate-level. All are delivered by Pearson VUE at a centre or online, scored on a scaled range, and valid for three years with recertification by exam.

I am going into cloud on Microsoft Azure or the Power Platform
AZ-900AI-901AZ-104PL-300

Fundamentals exams — AZ-900, AI-901 — are the entry tier and do not expire. Associate exams such as AZ-104 and PL-300 expire each year and renew free through an online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Pricing is set per country of proctoring.

I am going into cloud on Google Cloud
Cloud Digital LeaderAssociate Cloud Engineer

Cloud Digital Leader is the foundational, non-technical credential; Associate Cloud Engineer is the hands-on associate exam. Both are proctored online or at a centre under Google Cloud's exam terms.

I run infrastructure as code or Kubernetes
CKATerraform Associate

The CKA is a performance-based exam — real tasks on a live cluster from the command line, proctored remotely — rather than multiple choice. HashiCorp's Terraform Associate is a multiple-choice exam on the core workflow, state and modules.

I manage projects or administer Salesforce
PMPSalesforce Administrator

PMP requires documented project-leadership experience accrued within a recent window before PMI grants the credential, and reports results by domain rather than as a percentage. Salesforce Administrator is proctored onsite or online and stays active only with a yearly maintenance module.

How a certification is earned and kept

  1. 01Confirm the prerequisite. Entry and associate exams usually have none; CISSP, CISM, CISA and PMP require documented experience, and the vendor verifies it before issuing the credential even when it lets you test first.
  2. 02Register with the vendor's testing provider — Pearson VUE for most, Certiport for CCST, PSI for ISACA, the Linux Foundation's platform for Kubernetes — and choose test centre or online proctoring where the vendor allows both.
  3. 03Sit the exam. Scores are scaled by most vendors, so the passing figure on the exam page is a scaled value, not a percentage of questions; Cisco and PMI do not publish a pass mark at all.
  4. 04Note the renewal rule the day you pass: recertification by exam on a fixed cycle (AWS, Cisco), continuing-education credits (CompTIA, ISACA, ISC2, PMI), a free yearly online renewal (Microsoft associate and expert), or a yearly maintenance module (Salesforce). Fundamentals-level credentials from Microsoft do not expire.

Fee, format and passing standard

Each figure is the exam's verified fact, cited to the regulator's page on the exam guide it links to. A blank cell means the regulator publishes no fixed figure.

ExamFeeQuestionsTimePassingWritten by
CompTIA A+—901h 30mCore 1 (220-1201): 675 on a scale of 900; Core 2 (220-1202): 700 on a scale of 900CompTIA
CompTIA Network+—901h 30m720 (on a scale of 100-900)CompTIA
CompTIA Security+—901h 30m750 (on a scale of 100-900)CompTIA
CCNA$300—2h—Cisco
AWS CCP (CLF-C02)$100651h 30m700/1000Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS SAA-C03$150652h 10m720/1000 (scaled score, range 100–1,000)Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AZ-900——45m700/1000Microsoft
AZ-104——1h 40m700/1000Microsoft
Associate Cloud Engineer$125—2h—Google Cloud
ISC2 CC$199—2h700 out of 1000 pointsISC2
CISSP$749—3h700/1000ISC2
CISA$5751504h450 on a scale of 200-800ISACA
PMP$6751804hPass/Fail (proficiency-based; PMI does not publish a percentage passing score — performance is reported per domain as Above Target/Target/Below Target/Needs Improvement)Project Management Institute (PMI)
CKA$445—2h66%Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), in collaboration with The Linux Foundation
Salesforce Administrator$200601h 45m68% (English version); 65% (Japanese version)Salesforce

Who writes these exams

The vendors and professional bodies
CompTIA, AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, Google Cloud, ISC2, ISACA, PMI, CNCF, Salesforce and HashiCorp each own their exams: content outlines, eligibility, scoring, validity and renewal. There is no government licence for any role on this page.
Testing providers
Pearson VUE, Certiport and PSI deliver the exams under contract, run scheduling and online proctoring, and enforce day-of rules. They do not set what is tested.

Official pages this section is drawn from

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What you'll find on every Technology & IT Certifications exam

Each exam has up to four pages, one per job to be done: practice the questions, understand the exam, study the outline, or revise the morning of. Flashcards and glossary terms sit inside the study guide rather than on pages of their own.

Practice tests25
Free question banks with a worked explanation on every answer.
Exam guides24
Cost, format, eligibility and difficulty, straight from the official outline.
Study guides24
Full outline coverage, plus the exam's flashcards and glossary terms.
Cheat sheets24
One-page summaries built for the last review, with a PDF download.

Technology & IT Certifications articles

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Pass-rate breakdowns and independent prep-course comparisons for technology & it certifications exams. Every figure links back to the body that publishes it.

Official sources

Every exam number on this page traces to a document published by the body that sets or administers the exam. These are the primary publishers cited across Technology & IT Certifications.

Last verified against these documents: