Red Hat’s OpenShift certification pathways continue to evolve with the addition of the Red Hat Certified OpenShift Architect Certification (RHCOA)

Red Hat's Training and Certification program has been expanding its learning pathways to meet the growing demand for cloud-native skills. We recognize that Red Hat OpenShift, Kubernetes, containers and the way organizations use these tools have evolved and our offerings need to reflect these changes. 

Earlier this year, we announced that two core OpenShift certifications were being rebranded as Red Hat Certified OpenShift Administrator and Red Hat Certified OpenShift Application Developer to reinforce the fact that these roles no longer require the Linux knowledge and skills they once did. The evolution of OpenShift as an application platform and the ways in which teams use it has widened the gap between administrator and developer roles and their respective responsibilities. In the past, both administrators and developers began their learning and certification with a single course. Now, with our updated OpenShift 4.12 certification exams and supporting courseware, we offer separate entry points and learning and certification paths for administrators and developers.

The Red Hat OpenShift Administrator track also brought back the re-imagined Red Hat Preliminary Exam in Red Hat OpenShift Administration (PE180) and retired the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers and Kubernetes exam (EX180). PE180 is a hands-on, practical exam that validates understanding of OpenShift administration skills across a variety of scenarios. The skills tested in this exam comprise the foundation for using OpenShift across all environments so we recommend taking Red Hat OpenShift Administration I: Containers & Kubernetes (DO180) before moving onto PE180. 

Further supporting this continued evolution of technologies and roles, we’re excited to announce a new certification: Red Hat Certified OpenShift Architect (RHCOA). With this new certification, IT professionals can validate broader and deeper OpenShift skills by obtaining either the Red Hat Certified OpenShift Administrator or Red Hat Certified OpenShift Application Developer base certifications, and then earning five or more of the following certifications to earn their RHCOA certification: 

• Red Hat Certified Specialist in API Management (3scale)
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Building Resilient Microservices (ServiceMesh)
• Red Hat Certified Cloud-native Developer (Quarkus)
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Cloud-native Integration (Fuse)
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Event-Driven Development with Kafka
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Automation and Integration
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Virtualization
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Data Foundation
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in Multi Cluster Management

Note: If you have earned one of the two base certifications listed above (e.g., you have earned Red Hat Certified OpenShift Administrator or Red Hat OpenShift Application Developer) you may apply the other to fulfill one of the five certification requirements.

Red Hat Training and Certification courses and exams are consistently updated to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape. Not sure if you’re ready to commit to a full skillpath? Check out the free Containers, Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift Technical Overview (DO080) for an introduction to managing containerized applications using Kubernetes and OpenShift.

To celebrate our updates and the launch of our new RHCOA certification, we’re giving a free PE180 to the first 1,000 customers! Visit the sweepstakes page and use promo code FRPE180 to claim your free preliminary exam.