Certifications

MS-900, the exam for the retired Microsoft 365 Fundamentals credential, retired on March 31, 2026. Candidates can no longer schedule the exam, so older material that presents MS-900 as the starting point for Microsoft 365 certification needs to be updated. The durable parts of the old blueprint—cloud concepts, Microsoft 365 services, security, compliance, pricing, and support—still provide useful orientation. The retired MS-900 exam was broad. It introduced productivity and collaboration services, Microsoft 365 security and compliance, service management, and licensing at a fundamentals level. That breadth made it useful for…

Preparing for Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) is more effective when study decisions come from evidence instead of enthusiasm alone. A candidate should know what the current ACAMS application requires, which financial-crime scenarios remain difficult, and whether practice results demonstrate judgment rather than memorized answer patterns. This guide turns preparation into an observable learning process. ACAMS currently requires an active membership and 40 eligibility credits to apply for CAMS. Its official current certification page describes a 120-question computer-based multiple-choice examination lasting three and a half hours. The issuer provides examination…

Forty-five days can be enough to prepare for the PMP exam if you already meet the experience requirements, have completed or are completing the required project-management training, and can study consistently. It is not enough time to build project-management experience from scratch. The schedule works best for candidates who already manage projects and need to convert that experience into exam-ready judgment. The current PMP exam contains 180 questions and allows 240 minutes. People represents 33%, Process 41%, and Business Environment 26%, with stronger emphasis on AI, sustainability, stakeholder engagement, value,…

DP-203 retired on March 31, 2025, together with the Azure Data Engineer Associate certification. The closest current Microsoft data-engineering path is Microsoft DP-700: Implementing Data Engineering Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric. For data engineers who once treated DP-203 as the benchmark, the useful question is no longer how to finally pass that exam. It is how to carry durable Azure data-engineering skills into Fabric without repeating what you already know. The old journey still produced transferable skills DP-203 preparation built useful habits around ingestion, transformation, batch and streaming patterns, data lakes,…

SC-100 is an architecture exam, not a product inventory. Microsoft’s English outline effective October 21, 2026 describes a cybersecurity architect who translates strategy into capabilities across identity, devices, data, AI, applications, network, infrastructure, DevOps, governance, security operations, and posture management. The revised guide is now in force, so study it rather than treating October 21 as an upcoming boundary. The exam is part of Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert. Use SC-100 practice scenarios to expose weak relationships among domains; architecture readiness depends on whether you can combine requirements and trade-offs…

Palo Alto Networks retired PCNSA in January 2025 and PCNSE in July 2025. These are no longer examinations a candidate can schedule in 2026. Engineers who studied the older blueprint still possess potentially useful PAN-OS networking, security policy, logging and high-availability knowledge, but their next certification should come from the current role-based catalog rather than a retired PCNSE booking. Network Security Professional, Network Security Analyst, Next-Generation Firewall Engineer and architecture credentials serve different responsibilities. Security Operations roles focused on Cortex detections and response follow another path. The retired exams do…

CompTIA A+ 220-1101 is a retired Core 1 exam. Candidates starting now should prepare for the current A+ Core 1 exam, 220-1201, rather than investing time in a blueprint that can no longer be used for a new certification attempt. The good news is that much of the practical IT-support foundation transfers: hardware, networking, mobile devices, virtualization, cloud concepts, and troubleshooting remain central. Do not confuse transferable knowledge with a current exam target An old 220-1101 course can still teach useful concepts, but its objectives, examples, and emphasis were built…

Preparing for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional in October 2026 requires an explicit exam-version decision. SAP-C02 is still available, but AWS has announced that registration for SAP-C03 opens October 27, the last day to take SAP-C02 is November 16, and SAP-C03 general delivery begins November 17. A study plan that ignores those dates risks optimizing for a blueprint that disappears before the candidate is ready. The current SAP-C02 exam still validates advanced architecture judgment across organizational complexity, new solutions, continuous improvement, and migration. AWS says SAP-C03 will retain the…

Microsoft AI-900 retired on June 30, 2026. Azure AI Fundamentals remains an active certification, but the required exam is now Microsoft AI-901. The new exam is more technical than the old AI-900 path: candidates still need core AI concepts, but they also need foundational implementation awareness, familiarity with Azure resources, and basic Python knowledge. What changed from AI-900 to AI-901 AI-900 was primarily conceptual. It asked candidates to recognize common AI workloads, machine-learning ideas, computer vision, natural-language processing, generative AI, and responsible AI. AI-901 keeps those foundations but places more…

AZ-700 remains Microsoft’s active exam for Azure network engineering in 2026. The current blueprint, updated in July 2026, expects candidates to plan, implement, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Azure networking solutions across core infrastructure, hybrid connectivity, application delivery, private access, and network security. That makes AZ-700 different from a broad Azure administration exam. The network engineer is expected to reason about traffic paths, address spaces, routing, DNS, application delivery, private connectivity, resiliency, performance, and security as one connected system. Knowing how to create a virtual network is necessary, but it is…

Microsoft retired AZ-204 and the Azure Developer Associate certification on July 31, 2026. The replacement developer credential is Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate, measured by AI-200. That change is substantial: AI-200 keeps backend cloud-development responsibilities but adds a clear emphasis on AI solution components, vector databases, Azure data services, containerized applications, security, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Developers who studied AZ-204 have not wasted their effort. App Service, Functions, containers, messaging, storage, identity, APIs, monitoring, and deployment remain valuable Azure development skills. What changed is the certification target and the surrounding workload….

Professional Cloud Architect remains one of Google Cloud’s core professional certifications in 2026, but preparing for it as a developer requires a deliberate change in perspective. Developers naturally think about APIs, code, data models, and deployment behavior. Architects must preserve that implementation knowledge while expanding responsibility to business requirements, organization structure, identity, networking, security, reliability, migration, operations, and cost. The most useful internal starting point is cloud solution architecture for Professional Cloud Architect. The exam is designed around design judgment and enterprise scenarios, not a catalogue of Google Cloud product…

Preparing for the Cisco CCNA 200-301 is easier when the study plan follows dependencies instead of the order in which resources happen to present them. Addressing supports routing. Layer 2 behavior supports network access. Routing and switching support services and security. Automation makes more sense after you understand the devices and state being automated. A roadmap should therefore build a network model first, then add configuration, troubleshooting, and timed exam practice. The timing also matters in 2026. Cisco says Cisco 200-301 CCNA v1.1 remains available through February 2, 2027, while…

Microsoft AZ-104 remains Microsoft’s active exam for Azure Administrator Associate in 2026. The current blueprint, measured as of April 17, focuses on identity and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitoring and maintenance. Those domains are not separate in real work; they interact every time an administrator deploys or troubleshoots an Azure workload. Candidates preparing for Microsoft AZ-104 should be comfortable with the Azure portal, PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM templates or Bicep, and Microsoft Entra ID. More importantly, they should understand how scope, identity, network paths, resource configuration, monitoring, and…

Microsoft MS-102 is still current on October 6, 2026, but Microsoft states that the exam retires on November 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time. That timing matters: candidates preparing now should understand the current role and blueprint without treating the exam as an evergreen path that will remain available indefinitely. The April 28, 2026 blueprint positions the Microsoft 365 administrator as the integrating hub across tenant operations, Microsoft Entra identity and access, Defender XDR security, and Microsoft Purview compliance. Microsoft has announced replacement courseware such as AB-650, but…