IT &amp; Cloud Certifications

Azure Administrator (AZ-104)

Use AWS Free Tier for hands-on practice

Microsoft

$165·~70% pass

Medium1 year (renewal required)

Use Microsoft Learn free modules

Google Cloud Professional Architect

Google

$200·~50% pass

Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

Focus on case studies provided by Google

CNCF

$395·~50% pass

Practice on killer.sh simulator (included)

AWS Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services

$100·~85% pass

Easy3 years

Best entry point to AWS certifications

AWS Developer Associate

Amazon Web Services

$150·~65% pass

Strong Lambda and API Gateway knowledge required

AWS SysOps Administrator

Amazon Web Services

$150·~60% pass

AWS Solutions Architect Professional

Master CloudWatch metrics and alarms

Amazon Web Services

$300·~30% pass

Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)

Requires deep multi-service integration knowledge

Microsoft

$165·~50% pass

Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)

Requires AZ-104 or equivalent experience

Microsoft

$165·~55% pass

Azure Data Engineer (DP-203)

Strong C# or Python knowledge helps

Microsoft

$165·~50% pass

Google Cloud Digital Leader

Master Azure Synapse Analytics

Google

$99·~80% pass

Easy3 years

Best entry point for Google Cloud

Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer

Google

$200·~50% pass

Databricks Data Engineer Associate

Master BigQuery inside and out

Databricks

$200·~65% pass

Medium2 years

Master Delta Lake fundamentals

Snowflake SnowPro Core

Snowflake

$175·~70% pass

Medium2 years

Understand virtual warehouses and scaling

Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300)

Microsoft

$165·~65% pass

Medium1 year (renewal required)

Master DAX formulas and calculations

Tableau Desktop Specialist

Tableau/Salesforce

$100·~75% pass

Medium2 years

Master basic chart types and when to use them

AWS Security Specialty

Amazon Web Services

$300·~45% pass

Deep knowledge of IAM, KMS, and CloudTrail required

AWS Database Specialty

Amazon Web Services

$300·~50% pass

Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500)

Master RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, and Redshift

Microsoft

$165·~50% pass

Azure AI Engineer (AI-102)

Master Azure AD and identity management

Microsoft

$165·~55% pass

Master Azure Cognitive Services

VMware VCP-DCV

VMware/Broadcom

$250·~55% pass

vSphere 8 knowledge is essential

Red Hat RHCSA

Red Hat

$450·~60% pass

100% hands-on performance-based exam

Red Hat RHCE

Red Hat

$450·~40% pass

Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1

RHCSA is prerequisite

Linux Professional Institute

$200·~65% pass

Medium5 years

Two exams: 101 and 102

Cisco CCNP Enterprise

Cisco

$400+·~35% pass

AWS Machine Learning Specialty

CCNA is prerequisite

Amazon Web Services

$300·~50% pass

Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer

Strong ML fundamentals required

Google

$200·~40% pass

Very Hard2 years

Master Vertex AI and AutoML

CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure

Cisco

$2,050 ($450 written + $1,600 lab)·~25% (lab) pass

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional

7-10 years of networking experience recommended

Amazon Web Services

$300·~55% pass

CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)

Strong CI/CD knowledge required (CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy)

CNCF

$395·~30% pass

Very Hard2 years

CKA certification is a prerequisite

AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)

Amazon Web Services

$100·Not published pass

AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01)

65 questions, but only 50 are scored

Amazon Web Services

$150·Not published pass

AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate (MLA-C01)

Data ingestion is 34% of the scored content

Amazon Web Services

$150·Not published pass

Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)

65 questions in 130 minutes, so 2 minutes each

Microsoft

$99·Not published pass

EasyDoes not expire

The free Microsoft Learn paths cover the whole syllabus

Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-901)

Microsoft

$99·Not published pass

MediumDoes not expire

Take AI-901: AI-900 retired 30 June 2026

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

CNCF

$445·Not published pass

Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer

Score 66% or higher on 15-20 hands-on tasks in 2 hours

Google Cloud

$125·Not published pass