RHCA Path doubts

[luca5492]

Hello everyone,

I want to open this thread to ask for your opinion about the worthness of my ideal RHCA path.

I'm on my way to get the RHCA certification and I have already achieved:

• EX200 (RHCSA)
• EX294 (RHCE with Ansible)
• EX180 (Containers and Kubernetes specialist)

I will soon take the exam for EX280 (OpenShift specialist). Past that, I will still have to take 3 other exams.
My ideas were to follow this list:

• EX342 (Linux troubleshooting specialist)
• EX442 (Linux performance and tuning specialist)
• EX415 (Linux security specialist)

However, I have some doubts about the following points:

• EX415 - This exam and its course are still based on RHEL 7.5, and I haven't seen any announcment for a course based on RHEL8/9. Is still an exam one should take, will this soon be deprecated, or it is better to focus on more recent technologies?
• EX342/442 - I have read those are two of the most difficult exams to pass. Have you increased your proficiency with Linux in a work environment or are those strictly related to Red Hat Linux distro?
  As EX415, are EX342/442 still worth to get, or it is better to focus on exams involving microservies?
• RHCA in general - Have you received better job offers past the certification? Where those also based on the exams you have passed?

Thank you in advance for the answers!

[Chetan_Tiwary_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @luca5492 ,

• Regarding RH415 - yes it is based on RHEL 7.5 currently and is an active exam. An update is in planning but it will not be available generally anytime soon. So you can take it as it is active and no expiration announcement yet. That means , if you earn the Ex415 certification , it will be a valid cert for 3 years.
• EX342 and EX442 are no doubt the toughest duo ( as per my understanding ) - and It does significantly improve your understanding of RHEL architecture and how to troubleshoot complex issues that one can face in a production environment.
• Also the EX442 enhances your understanding of system architecture, including memory hierarchy, network topology, and storage subsystems, and how to analyze system performance based on architecture, Performance tuning of CPU, memory, disk, network, and system services to improve system performanceMonitoring and Analysis: Using various system monitoring and analysis tools, such as top, vmstat, iostat, and sar, to analyze system performance and identify performance bottlenecks.
• Yes, the objectives of the EX342/442 exam are specific to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution. The exam focuses on performance tuning of RHEL systems and covers topics related to RHEL system architecture. That being said, many of the concepts covered in the EX342/442 exam, such as system architecture, performance tuning techniques, and monitoring and analysis tools, are fundamental to optimizing the performance of any Linux distribution. Therefore, while the EX342/442 exam is not designed for other Linux distributions, the skills and knowledge gained from preparing for the exam can be useful for improving the performance of other Linux distributions as well.
• Yes I received better job offers past my RHCA and it is also evident from many success stories of learners gaining advantages in their respective careers post RHCA certification( you can find many of those on social media sites like LinkedIN).
• Regarding Micro services exam -  it all depends upon one's likings and their career plans/strategies. If you wish you can certainly go for them.

All the very best for your RHCA !! 

[luca5492]

Hi @Chetan_Tiwary_,

Thank you for the answer, absolutely complete in every aspect!