SQL Certification are professional credentials from a course or training that demonstrates your skills using SQL Server and database management systems. An examination must be passed in order to obtain this certification.
An SQL certificate is not absolutely necessary, but having one increases your chance of landing a better job with higher pay. Some companies request certain certifications as part of the job requirements, although years of SQL experience is usually a more important factor.
An SQL certificate provides another data point for you to prove the scope of your skill set. There are different certifications, therefore try to get skilled in the tools and technology that closely matches your interest and target job. Ff you are aiming for an SQL Server developer position, obtaining one or more Microsoft issued certificates will be very helpful.
Certifications prove your proficiency with Microsoft SQL. Some companies even omit the process of testing these skills as the certificate says it all.
Microsoft SQL certifications prove your skills in developing or managing SQL Server and relational database management systems. An examination is provided at the end of the course to assess your skills before you can get certified. There are various SQL certification that will help you prepare for different SQL positions.
In addition to demonstrating your skills, certifications give you supplemental benefits. These include the use of Microsoft Server logo, certification plaque, access to SQL Server community e-mail list, invitations to educational programs, and a listing in the Microsoft Certified Mastery directory.
This is a first-level certification by Microsoft which includes entry level skills that focus on 3 areas: database, development, and IT infrastructure. This certification may help in getting an entry-level web developer position where you can use Microsoft SQL to develop websites and mobile applications.
In this certification, the database examination will test core database concepts, such as, object creation, data manipulation, data administration, and data storage.
The developer examination covers core programming objects, object-oriented programming, software development, web and desktop applications, and database.
The infrastracture examination, tests for server installation, server roles, Active Directory, data storage, performance management, and server maintenance skills.
This second level of SQL certification helps you verify your skills in database development, database administration, or business intelligence development. The database administration specialization focuses on installation, maintenance, configuration, and troubleshooting databases so it can help you land a job as database adminstrator (DBA). This also helps you optimize databases and implement security measures against security threats.
The database development examination tests your abilities to query data with Transact-SQL and develop SQL databases.
The database adminstration examination covers SQL database infrastructure administration and SQL databases provision.
The business intelligence exam tests your skill in implementation of SQL data warehouse and development of SQL data models.
The highest level of SQL certification demonstratres your expertise in database management, analytics, and data platform and business intelligence. With this certification, you can become an information systems manager who oversees all computer-related operations within the company and plan the improvement strategy and lead a lower-level IT professionals in implementing it.
To pass the examination on MCSE, the MCSA certification is required. You will be tested on a wide range of skills including building organization-level data solutions and using business intelligence data in hardwired and cloud-based environments.
Do not chose certifications to on-premise SQL Server as this is already deprecated.
Take Azure SQL examinations since this is widely used.
If you focus on SQL only, ignore CosmosDB as this is primarily a NoSQL database.
If you do not have SQL experience, take Database Fundamentals first.
You may start self-learning for free before taking a paid certification to prepare yourself.
Choose a certification that matches the job you are aiming for.
Be sure to study the entire course and gain all the knowledge before taking the examination.
Only take examinations from trusted providers.
There are various provider of SQL Certification that offers free training and paid certification or examination. A course must be taken first and the certification examination must be passed before getting certified.
Paid SQL Certification courses range from $1,785 to $2,975 while certification examination costs around $165.
Aside from the official Microsoft Certification, there are some alternatives that are also being offered for free and can be accessed online.
This course introduces a solid database foundation by providing an information and engaging learning. It is full of exercises, challenges, and projects to test your skills. The topics covered are:
Udemy lets the learner complete this course for 20 hours on-demand video and issues certificate afterwards as well.
A course hosted on Coursera that has flexible learning mode. This includes the following topics:
Michigan University provided this course for free with certification and can be completed within 16 hours.
This course will teach you how to read and write simple to complex database queries. This course comes with fresh challenge questions and tasks modelled after real-world data and situations and includes the following topics:
Udemy host this course and issues certification upon completion as well. It has 9 hour duration with on-demand video.
A course by Coursera designed to provide SQL fundamentals and data analysis for data science. It gradually teaches simple to complex queries and different data types.
This cours takes 14 hours to complete.
Udemy offers this course for anyone who has no or little technical background for SQL. This includes the following key topics:
This only takes 3 and a half hours to complete and certification will be issued afterwards.
An SQL course by Udemy that teaches advanced SQL topics such as triggers, sequences, variables, indexes, and more. Furthermore, it covers these topics:
A total of 20 hours is needed to complete this course.
A coursera course that introduces relational database concepts and applies SQL knowledge. It also features the use of Python and Jupyter notebooks.
IBM provides this course and can be completed in approximately 13 hours.
Udemy hosts this course to help you quickly learn Oracle SQL.
This course requires 19 hours to complete.
A course by Codecademy for beginners to communicate with relational databases using SQL. It highlights the following topics:
7 hours is required to complete this course.
