30+ DevOps Certifications and Training Courses Guide for 2024
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According to builtin.com, the average salary for a DevOps Engineer in the US is $133,115, with additional cash compensation of $16,488. Therefore, the total compensation for a DevOps Engineer in the US is $149,603.
An authorized DevOps certification brings many benefits to your career graph:
- Certifies a candidate’s abilities and expertise in a certain area
- Aids in the development of a solid portfolio
- Indicates to recruiters that the individual has practical experience
- Verifies that the applicant has met industry requirements
DevOps Certifications
We’ve prepared a comprehensive guide to DevOps certifications for you, covering some of the most in-demand DevOps credentials. These DevOps certification programs have real-world relevance and are recognized by industry leaders.
| Course Name with Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Continuous Delivery & DevOps | Taught by a University of Virginia professor, this beginner-level DevOps course covers topics such as DevOps roles, automation testing, and how to build and improve a CI/CD pipeline. The course itself is free, but for a fee you can gain a certificate upon successful completion. |
| DevOps Culture and Mindset | This course focuses on DevOps as a concept. If you want to learn the ins and outs of DevOps principles and are less concerned with learning about specific tools, this course is for you. The course is free to take, with an optional certificate that you pay for. |
| Introduction to Jenkins | This course teaches the basics of Jenkins, one of the most popular CI/CD tools for DevOps. The course is free; an optional certificate costs $149. |
| Kubernetes: Getting Started | This course provides an introduction to Kubernetes, including what it does and how to administer it. Although this free course doesn’t focus on DevOps specifically, it can be useful for DevOps engineers who need a fast way to learn about Kubernetes. |
| Docker Essentials | Like the Kubernetes course, this one provides an introduction to Docker, including both core Docker tools and the Docker Swarm orchestrator. |
| Getting Started With DevOps on AWS | This course explains basic DevOps concepts and how to apply them in the AWS cloud. The training is free, but it can be a first step toward preparing for a paid certification, such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer. |
| Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud DevOps Engineer Professional Certificate | A hands-on training course for DevOps on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Free to audit; certification requires a fee. Experienced practitioners who want to learn more about DevOps tools and services on GCP. |
| Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert | This extensive training program covers a variety of DevOps topics, including source control, continuous integration, security and testing. The course focuses on Microsoft- and Azure-related technologies, but it also touches on core DevOps concepts that apply to any type of environment. Online training is free, but the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification exam requires a fee. |
| Developing Cloud-Native Applications With Microservices Architectures | Delivered as a set of videos, this Red Hat course is a concise way to learn the essentials of building and managing cloud-native applications through a DevOps pipeline. It touches on a variety of DevOps tools, including Docker, Kubernetes and Jenkins. |
| AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional | Amazon’s AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional certification validates the ability to automate the testing and deployment of AWS infrastructure and applications. This certification is geared towards individuals with at least two years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments. |
| Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer Expert | Microsoft’s DevOps Engineer Expert certification is for individuals who already have experience with both Azure administration and development and expertise in at least one of these areas. As such, you must first have at least one of the associate certificates: the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator certification or the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification. |
| DevOps Foundation (DOFD) | with this certification individuals get a solid understanding of CI/CD, testing, security, and “The Three Ways,” DevOps relationships to other methodologies, such as Agile and Lean, and more. There are no prerequisites to taking the open-book web-based exam that contains 40 multiple-choice questions. To study for the exam, you can choose the instructor-led or self-study option. Regardless, expect the exam prep to take a total of 16 hours. |
| DevOps Engineering Foundation (DOEF) | A second certification from the DevOps Institute, the DevOps Engineering Foundation, ensures foundational understanding of core knowledge, principles and practices but from a technical perspective that is needed to engineer a successful DevOps solution. |
| Docker Mastery – by Udemy | Learn to build, test, and deploy containers with this Udemy course on Docker, Kubernetes, Compose, GitHub Actions CI using DevOps. Understand how to use Docker, Compose, and Kubernetes on your machine for better software building and testing. |
| Docker Certified Associate (DCA) | The Docker Certified Associate exam is designed by experienced Docker practitioners and validates the foundational Docker skill set. It tests mastery of topics, such as networking, orchestration, security, image creation, and more. Several institutions offer exam prep courses, so budget 24-36 hours of study time. The course cost will also vary, depending on which training program you opt for. |
| Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification | Google’s Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification is intended for those who want to become skilled at using Google Cloud to build software delivery pipelines, deploy and monitor services, and manage and learn from incidents. |
| HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate DevOps Certification | HashiCorp’s Terraform Associate certification is designed for cloud engineers who specialize in operations, IT, or development and know the basic concepts and skills associated with open source HashiCorp Terraform. It’s not required but recommended that candidates have professional experience using Terraform in production. However, if that’s not the case, individuals may also perform the exam objectives in a personal demo environment. Upon earning this certification, the recipient understands which enterprise features exist and what can and cannot be done using the open source offering. Recipients must retake the exam every two years to remain current. |
| Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) | The Certified Kubernetes Administrator certification demonstrates mastery of the skills, knowledge, and proficiencies that a Kubernetes Administrator should hold. The Kubernetes Fundamentals online 35-hour prep course offered through the Linux Foundation is self-paced and costs an additional $299. However, it’s possible to bundle the exam and course together for a total price of $575. Alternatively, Udemy offers an exam prep course for $149, currently discounted to $24.99 at the time of writing. Budget up to 50 hours of study time for this exam. |
| Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) | The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer exam certifies that the recipient can design, build, configure, and expose cloud native applications for Kubernetes and has acquired a solid understanding of the following tasks: Working with (OCI-compliant) container images Applying Cloud Native application concepts and architectures Working with and validating Kubernetes resource definitions Upon certification, a Kubernetes Application Developer can define application resources and use core primitives to build, monitor, and troubleshoot scalable applications and tools in Kubernetes. |
| Azure DevOps Engineer Expert | Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service giant, competing with AWS and the Google Cloud Platform. |
| Puppet Certified Professional | Puppet is used by more than 40,000 organizations worldwide—including 80% of the Global 5000—so the demand for engineers, administrators, developers, architects, and managers with Puppet experience is significant. |
| HashiCorp Infrastructure Automation Certification: Terraform Associate | HashiCorp is a software company that specializes in infrastructure automation for multi-cloud environments. |
| AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional | It is one of the most popular certifications right now and is highly recognized by industry professionals and experts worldwide. |
| Become a Cloud DevOps Engineer – Nano-Degree Program | This certification course by Udacity allows you to learn DevOps by getting hands-on experience with real-life projects. |
| Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer – By Google Cloud Platform | This certification is for professionals who are skilled with GCP and can build pipelines for delivering software, monitoring services, and deploying them. The recommended experience for professionals who want to take up this certificate is three or more years of industry-level expertise and one or more years of experience with GCP managing solutions. |
| Introduction to DevOps: Practices and Tools – by EdX | This is a certification course provided by EdX, which is meant for beginners. In this course, you will learn about the role of DevOps in current development practices, and also about the open container ecosystems, and how to write infrastructure as code. |
| DevOps Certification Training – by Edureka | This course on Edureka is an ideal certification for testifying in-depth knowledge in DevOps. It details the best practices in continuous development, continuous integration, continuous management, and continuous monitoring. |
| Continuous Delivery & DevOps – by Coursera | This course on the Coursera platform is developed by the University of Virginia for beginners who want to start their career paths in DevOps. You can get insights on analyzing a delivery pipeline and making its performance better. It will take you through skills and roles that are prevalent in the industry and teach you how to contribute to CD pipelines using these skills. |
| Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) – by CNCF | This is a Kubernetes-specific certification program that aims to assess a Kubernetes administrator’s skills. It contains a set of performance-based questions, and these questions have to be solved in a CLI, which will help the candidates to demonstrate their skills. |
| Puppet Professional Certification | Puppet is one of the most popular tools for configuration management in DevOps. Hence, this certification is quite popular, and valuable and can provide verification of your skills. This certification exam will test your skills and knowledge of Puppet tools, and you need to have hands-on experience working with Puppet in order to ace this examination. |
