First look at Red Hat Remote Certification Exams

In August 2020, we expect to make four of our most important certification exams available for remote delivery:

• Red Hat Certified System Administrator (EX200V8K)

• Red Hat Certified Engineer (EX294V8K)

• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration (EX280V42K)

• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Application Development (EX288V42K)

Lock-downs, voluntary and mandatory closures of testing facilities and people's understandable reluctance to risk visiting public places has impacted standardized exam delivery for most programs worldwide. Red Hat Certification currently delivers exams in classroom sessions and through individually-delivered exams at test facilities, both of which have been impacted by social distancing requirements. Aside from the current circumstances, people increasingly seek options for work and professional development they can undertake at home at the date and time of their choosing.

Last year, we began a measured entry into the world of online testing when we launched Preliminary Exams. Preliminary Exams are designed to gauge skills and demonstrate progress toward proficiency for those on a learning path toward certification. These  hands-on exams  are delivered online using the candidate's system as the client and using remote, cloud-based instances for the exam environment in order to validate skills. Preliminary Exams provide some of the tools and capabilities we need in order to proceed further down the online testing path, but do not result in certification when passed. Red Hat Remote Certification Exams will provide users with the first end-to-end path to Red Hat Certification via an entirely online modality. 

New delivery, same reliability and security 

When we certify someone, Red Hat is saying that person has the skills and knowledge to use one or more Red Hat technologies for production purposes.  Organizations rely upon and trust that assertion to make management decisions.  Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and government tenders often mandate certified personnel based on that assertion. Red Hat certification exams are all performance-based, meaning that they are hands-on assessments in which candidates use real Red Hat technologies on live systems.  This approach ensures that these assertions we make about people’s skills and knowledge are ones upon which organizations using Red Hat technologies can rely.

Exam security is also critical to making those assertions with confidence.  Someone who cheats on an exam might not have the skills and knowledge required on the job.  We will enforce exam security more effectively than other programs offering online exams, thus ensuring that the stature of being a Red Hat Certified Professional remains high.

We believe that our remote exam solution will provide a higher degree of reliability than many of the online exams being offered today because of core competencies in operating systems, cloud computing and application infrastructure.  Taking an exam is seldom the high point of anyone’s day, so providing the best customer experience possible is essential.  Our aim is to provide everyone the best possible opportunity to succeed, whatever their skills or knowledge might be.

Learn more 

For more ways Red Hat Training and Certification is working actively to meet the needs of our customers: 

• Red Hat provides free learning opportunities
• Red Hat Training and Certification COVID-19 response
• Take Introduction to OpenShift Applications for free
• Red Hat Training offers two courses for the price of one

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