Thank you for the question. And, you are correct, our certification program is competency based with various checkpoints along the way. With each level of certification the checkpoints become more personalized leading up to one on one scoring activities.
All of the Splunk technical certifications include attendance in our Splunk Education courses. In each of those courses students are required to complete hands-on lab work. And, that lab work is graded. Students must pass each course in the certification path for it to apply to certification. Showing up to class does not constitute a pass; one must actively and successfully complete the course work. Many of the Splunk Education courses have self-paced eLearning options and those have additional knowledge checks along the way. So, at the first level you can see that certification is not an attendance record, it is a successful participation record.
For the Splunk Certified Knowledge Manager and Splunk Certified Admin programs there is an online test that follows. Many times people inquire about taking the test 'to see how they do' without taking the courses. But, as you can see, the certification is not just about the test, it is about the combination of passing the courses with interactive lab work and passing the online test. So, generally the courses are required. We do have an exception for the introductory level certifications to accommodate those people who have been working with Splunk since before the courses and certification program existed, but those are strictly exception based and not the norm.
Moving on to the Splunk Certified Architect program, things get a little tougher. There are additional, advanced level Splunk Education courses to pass followed by a practical lab. That practical lab puts your skills and knowledge to the test. In this practical lab one must stand up a Splunk environment with a number of servers playing different roles, get data loaded, generate meaningful reports and dashboards and then package everything up in a deliverable app. The lab work is then scored. For this certification there are no exceptions to the required Splunk Education courses; all the required courses must be passed.
We have additional certifications for our partners that involve one on one scoring of interactive presentations, demos and custom data load exercises. These certifications also include online learning about Splunk offerings and Splunk Education courses for technical knowledge. So, when you see a certified partner you can be assured they have illustrated their skills and abilities multiple times in multiple ways.
Regarding numbers of passes and fails for each certification type, we do not publish those exact numbers. But, I can tell you that if everyone passed we would not have the need for a program. It would be fair to say that approximately 30% of the people do not succeed on their first attempt at certification. We are committed to the success of everyone in the Splunk community, so we do offer support, mentoring and retake options.
We are very strict about the certification requirements. We do this to protect the integrity of the certification program. The program is about quality, not quantity. So, you should feel very proud of your certification achievements. Be sure to take advantage of the electronic badges you receive for your email signature and post your certification information on LinkedIn and other professional sites.
If you ever require verification of your certification for a work proposal, write to certification@splunk.com to request sharing of this information with the specified entities. We will only release your certification information with your written permission to the identified parties.
To date we are quickly approaching our 7000th certification in the Splunk community. That includes 1700 Splunk Certified Knowledge Managers, almost 900 Splunk Certified Admins and over 1200 Splunk Certified Architects.
I hope this answers your question.
Karen Hodges
Global Certification Program Manager - Splunk
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