Red Hat Certification Exams Now Available Remotely

Red Hat certification exams are now available remotely. The move to offer four in-demand certification exams is to meet the needs of tech pros in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote exams will continue, however, beyond the current situation, the company said on Monday.

The four exams include: Red Hat certified system administrator, certified engineer, certified specialist in OpenShift administration; and certified specialist in OpenShift application development.

Red Hat’s Ken Goetz

“This year, organizations around the world are having to adjust to new ways of working,  and that includes remote working and social distancing,” said Ken Goetz, vice president training and certification at Red Hat. “Our ability to provide remote exams will not only address current challenges, but will also open up opportunities to reach more IT professionals who may not have been able to take an in-person exam in the past. As always, our goal is to provide customers, partners and IT professionals with the tools they need to succeed, and this new offering enables us to do so.”

The pandemic has curtailed travel and forced some testing sites to close temporarily. As a result, it prompted Red Hat to expedite remote online test taking. Previously, Red Hat certification exams were held onsite at training and testing locations; however, the company last November introduced Red Hat preliminary exams, offered online. The preliminary exams assess and validate in-demand, foundational skills and knowledge.

More Information

Here are some specifics about the four Red Hat certification exams the company is offering remotely.

• Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) (EX200V8K). This exam tests knowledge in areas of system administration common across a wide range of environments and deployment scenarios. The skills tested in this exam are the foundation for system administration and cover all Red Hat products.
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) (EX294V8K). This tests knowledge and skills in managing multiple systems using Red Hat Ansible Engine and executing common system administration tasks across a number of systems with Ansible. Ansible is the automation framework for multiple Red Hat products.
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration (EX280V42K). Containers and Kubernetes are emerging as dominant deployment paradigms in today’s enterprise IT organizations. This exam tests the knowledge, skills and ability to create, configure and manage a cloud application platform using Red Hat OpenShift container platform.
• Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Application Development (EX288V42K). This tests the ability to deploy existing applications in a Red Hat OpenShift container platform environment.

Extending COVID-19 Initiatives

All of the above count on the certification path to achieving Red Hat Certified Architect status. Remote exam delivery is in a live environment. They run on candidates’ X86_64, Fedora-compatible systems and cloud-based environments. Remote proctors observe the exams.

In March, Red Hat announced several COVID-19 initiatives for training and certifications. The company expanded virtual class offerings and added courses to its virtual training catalog. The vendor also offered customers and partners the ability to cancel or reschedule classes or exams.

Additionally, training units purchased between March and June 30 are valid for 15 months. This extension exceeds the typical 12 months. The vendor also extended all certifications set to expire between March 17, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, to January 1, 2021.