Hardest Cert

byron66

I understand people are in different fields, but I'm just interested to know in your own opinion what is the most difficult certification test out there?

markulous

CCAr? Also isn't easy with coming up with 15k for a cert either.

Node Man

Because actual experience can play into this, thats a deeply personal question. The hardest cert will be the one each of us takes so many times without passing, and then gives up.

joelsfood

hardest I've taken was definitely my CCIE Datacenter. At the time I took it though, my CNE 6 upgrade test was by far the hardest (2 attempts I think, if not three)

EagerDinosaur

I've only taken 2 certifications recently, so I reckon that MCSD (Web Applications) is more difficult than MCSA (SQL Server).

Perhaps we can combine all our personal "cert X is more difficult than cert Y" judgements and build a single difficulty table?

I think the hardest exam I've taken is Microsoft's 70-480 "Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3" because of the mental gymnastics required during the exam. It felt like an IQ test at times. That said, it's also the most useful exam I've taken, because I use the knowlege gained nearly every day.

tpatt100

Probably CISA or CISSP for me, I really, really don't like sitting in one spot for more than an hour....

reload@

Hardest for me was JNCSP because I was not prepared for it. I took it without any studying because there weren't any study materials to look at. I had less than a minute left when I finished. Luckily I have a good amount of experience with Junos, and I just passed my JNCIP a couple of days prior so that knowledge was still fresh in my mind.

slinuxuzer

MCSE 2003 was very tough, seven exams, took me 2.5 years to complete it, but the experience was invaluable.
CISSP - took a year of study and is a close second.
CCNA:RS is very formidable

netsysllc

MCSE 2012, particularly the 70-413 exam

TechGuru80

Frankly, I would put the Offensive Security certifications up there. I say this because the course itself is a little chaotic and forces you to do a lot of research...they do have a lab that you can practice in which eliminates some of the setup work.

A certification like the CCIE (insert track here), has lots of material to build up through in a structured world....BUT you have to have a lot of information in your brain to pull from and put into practice. The red hat certifications might fit into this category too.

dustervoice

UK Driving test by far. Iv'e been driving for 20 years and still failed on my first try. You're required to drive for about 45 minutes and you must be perfect in all of the follow or or expect a result of failure.

1. check all mirrors every 30 seconds.
2. drive exactly @ the speed limit not one mph over or under!
3. No unecessary changing of gears
4. Indicating at the "perfect" time
5. Perfect parking, holding of steering wheel, etc
6. Knowing the function of main engine component... how to top up fluids etc
7.and the list goes on..........

If you are granted a UK driving license you are qualified to drive anywhere in the world ...believe me! and by the way after you are issued a license you dare not get caught with more than a pint of alcohol in your system or else you will be doing the test all over again after your suspension.


- On the Techie side, I would say CISA was the most difficult for me.

wolfinsheepsclothing

The most difficult one I've taken is the Red Hat CoE for Platform as a Service (the new v3 OpenShift exam). You really need to know docker, OpenShift (obv), Kubernetes, and be comfortable writing/manipulating JSON/YAML. I believe it has a 50% pass rate. While I have not taken it thus far, the Red Hat Performance Tuning exam has a 20% external pass rate (and 40% by Red Hat employees).

sammen89

I think you'll find a handful of CCIE's here, I would be impressed to see some holders of the advanced Offensive Security certifications like....

- OSCE, Offensive Security Certified Expert = (48 hours of lateral thinking, custom binaries, and evading Anti-Virus)
- OSEE, Offensive Security Exploitation Expert = (72 hours of developing hands-on custom windows exploits, while evading DEP and ASLR)

Those are probably the most difficult if you asked me.

Danielm7

I imagine the GIAC GSE has to be up there from what I've heard.

E Double U

CISSP was the toughest for me. Failed it twice.

joshuamurphy75

Dustervoice, you should have taken your driving exam in south Texas, USA. I crashed twice while parallel parking and they still gave me a license. It terrified me to know that other drivers as bad as me might have passed too, so I learned to drive after that.

As far as IT certs are concerned, I wouldn't know which one is the hardest, but I would like to start studying for it when I find out.

TacoRocket

Where do you live so I can avoid, speaking as a fellow Texan.

joshuamurphy75 wrote: »

Dustervoice, you should have taken your driving exam in south Texas, USA. I crashed twice while parallel parking and they still gave me a license. It terrified me to know that other drivers as bad as me might have passed too, so I learned to drive after that.

As far as IT certs are concerned, I wouldn't know which one is the hardest, but I would like to start studying for it when I find out.

TacoRocket

Hardest cert for me was MCSA Windows 7. I had just wrapped up CompTIA trifecta and though I was the stuff. Boy was I wrong! After learning a lot of stuff though, most of the certifications come easy. You just need to study

thomas_

joshuamurphy75 wrote: »

Dustervoice, you should have taken your driving exam in south Texas, USA. I crashed twice while parallel parking and they still gave me a license. It terrified me to know that other drivers as bad as me might have passed too, so I learned to drive after that.

As far as IT certs are concerned, I wouldn't know which one is the hardest, but I would like to start studying for it when I find out.

This is probably why they have people exiting from the left lane across four lanes of traffic to take an exit on the right hand side of the road with no room for error.

DatabaseHead

For me it was the 70-461 Querying MS SQL. It took me 3 tries to pass and I barely based my 3rd time.

TechGromit

I don't have personal experience, but I would say the Hardest certification to obtain is the GSE. The prerequisites alone are pretty difficult to obtain, and expensive.

NOC-Ninja

CCIE. Lots of time given up to pass that test.
Studied from 7pm till 4-5am then go back to work.
Spent so much money on building the lab, study guide, bootcamp, books, videos, attempts, hotel, and airplane cost.
Lose so much time from my family.

I will NEVER do that again!

JoJoCal19

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

CCIE. Lots of time given up to pass that test.
Studied from 7pm till 4-5am then go back to work.
Spent so much money on building the lab, study guide, bootcamp, books, videos, attempts, hotel, and airplane cost.
Lose so much time from my family.

I will NEVER do that again!

Ya know, after seeing this over and over from people who've obtained CCIEs, I've always thought "there has to be a better way" or "there has to be someone who's (legitimately) conquered this beast without sacrificing friends and family". I've always had the thought to go through and do CCIE Security to see if it can be done with a more sane schedule and without saying goodbye to the wife and kids for 1-2 years.

TechGromit

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

CCIE. Lots of time given up to pass that test.

...

I will NEVER do that again!

Just out of curiosity, does possessing a CCIE pretty much guarantee you'll never be unemployed and always have a high paying job?

joelsfood

yes and no. AN honestly earned CCIE will always get you an interview, but a dumped CCIE, or being an arsehole, can still leave you looking for a job

chrisone

sammen89 wrote: »

I think you'll find a handful of CCIE's here, I would be impressed to see some holders of the advanced Offensive Security certifications like....

- OSCE, Offensive Security Certified Expert = (48 hours of lateral thinking, custom binaries, and evading Anti-Virus)
- OSEE, Offensive Security Exploitation Expert = (72 hours of developing hands-on custom windows exploits, while evading DEP and ASLR)

Those are probably the most difficult if you asked me.

This +1

There are some seriously insane ridiculous security certs out there. CCIE is very difficult as well and its up there in difficulty too.

EANx

To me, there are three requirements for "amazingly-difficult exam". The first is that you have to go somewhere, you can't take it in the comfort of your <wherever>. This is because there's a huge mental advantage by sitting in your office chair, going to the bathroom when you like, grabbing your drink and snack of choice and most importantly, having access to any research materials you want. Quadruple the effect when you have a limited number of sites that will accommodate your exam and you typically have to travel more than 100 miles to get there.

The second is time divided by work. A longer exam does not mean a harder exam. If you take the same amount of work and lengthen the time available, it becomes easier, not harder. I'd suggest the hardest exams are those that many people find a challenge to complete in the time they are given, nap-time not withstanding.

The third is cost. There's a certain amount of stress someone is under when they know they have to pay $1600 for a retake as opposed to someone who has to pay $60.

The CCIE (and CCDE/CCAr) hasn't been the only super-tough exam. MS had an architect exam and VMware's VCDX cert also sounds fairly tough and I'm sure there are more.

NOC-Ninja

TechGromit wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, does possessing a CCIE pretty much guarantee you'll never be unemployed and always have a high paying job?

In a perfect world yes.
Getting employed have a lot of things to consider.

1. Do you fit in the team? maybe your culture is different, maybe the team mates want their friends to get in?
2. Does your experience fit to the job? Some are good in certain technology, some are average. What are you exposed at.
3. Does the job pay the salary that you want? This depends on location, responsibilities, and time at work. Do they want you on the weekends too?

Things have changed after I passed. I received a big raise. I got job interviews from well known companies. I can demand the salary that I want. I stopped being the low hanging fruit. I stopped being scared of getting laid off due to the economy going up and down.
Also, I get to take big responsibilities. A lot of things are expected from me. Im also being showcase that I am a CCIE when there are visitors. Those visitors and other managers from other sites contacted me, asking me to call them if i get bored in my team.

In the end. CCIE with the right work ethic and correct experience will get you a job.

DPG

For most people the first certification is the hardest to get.

OctalDump

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Im also being showcase that I am a CCIE when there are visitors.

"And in this room is our CCIE"

"Ooooooooo"

"Please sir, don't tap on the glass. He doesn't like that."

Danielm7

OctalDump wrote: »

"And in this room is our CCIE"

"Ooooooooo"

"Please sir, don't tap on the glass. He doesn't like that."

Hah! I feel like that whenever they give tours of our home office to the new companies we purchase. And here are the IT people... I always feel like I'm supposed to perform or something.