Introducing Red Hat Preliminary Exams

[Amy]

Red Hat Training and Certification is pleased to announce the introduction of Red Hat Preliminary Exams and our first offering is, PE180 Red Hat Preliminary Exam in Containers, Kubernetes and OpenShift.

Red Hat Academy students and instructors, this is a great opportunity for you to be able to test out your skills on OpenShift. Check out our blog post.

[Razique]

Congratulations to the exam team, this is huge!

[Walid]

Where should I report technical (backend network) issues related to the PE180 exam environment?

[Lisenet]

"Passing a Preliminary Exam does not confer a certification. Passing a Preliminary Exam means someone has shown they are on the road towards production-level proficiency within a specific technology."

You might as well set up a homelab and get on the road towards production-level proficiency without spending money on the PE exam.

[Marek_Czernek]

I think the PEs still have their place in the Red Hat universe.

They have a lot of advantages, such as:

1. Cheaper price, so possibly easier to get it expensed by your current employer.
2. Easier to take, since it's delivered online, without needing to go to a kiosk/training center. This, again, results in smaller cost, and makes PEs a lot easier to retake.
3. Much smaller in scope yes till deep in the designed scope.

There's not much compromise though. PEs are still hands-on, still quite difficult to pass. They are just full certifications made smaller and cheaper. I'm pretty excited about PEs!

That said, of course PEs aren't for everyone. If you have full RHLS, or are RHCA, you wouldn't aim for PEs. I can imagine though taking a PE in an area that you aren't an expert in just to test what a technology is about, and to gain some ground and deeper understanding (i.e. deep dive into what are these containers and what could they be used for).

Just my 2c, and personal opinion. Of course, being employed by RH means I'm not partial, but to me, personally, PEs sound like a win for a lot of students.

[JoshuaSmith]

I've seen the PE180 page [link] says "By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers for Kubernetes, which also counts toward becoming a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA®). "

However, the RHCA page linked there doesn't mention this exam. Does it count, or not?

[NirZilka]

I don't believe the simple PE exams will counts, this will drop the RHCA reputation.

[Syed]

Hi @JoshuaSmith  - Thanks for flagging this. I have passed on the details internally for review as I do believe there is a need for an update/correction.  Preliminary Exams are not Certifications and hence would not count towards becoming a RHCA. Thanks.