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Latest updates in VMware certification programs

In the last few months, many changes happened to VMware certifications, and in this short post, I want to cover those changes.

First and foremost: since October 31, legacy certifications are no longer available, which means we cannot schedule VCP-DCV or VCAP-Design exams anymore.

What about the current available certification? As usual, we can get all the information from the VMware certification page.

Nowadays, the certification focuses on two products: primarily on VMware Cloud Foundation and, in addition, on VMware vSphere Foundation.

Three levels of certification are available: Professional, Advanced-Professional, and Expert.

There are three types of professional exams:

Administration – focused on administrating and implementing the product;
Support – focused on troubleshooting;
Architect – focused on designing the solution.

While administration and support are available for VCF and VVF products, the architect exam is available only for the VCF solution stack.

In total, we have five professional-level exams:

VMware Certified Professional – VMware vSphere Foundation Support (2V0-18.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Support (2V0-15.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Professional – VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (2V0-16.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (2V0-17.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (2V0-13.25), blueprint.

If you are using only the vSphere Foundation stack, you can start with 2V0-16.25 and 2V0-18.25. For VCF administrators, the starting point could be the 2V0-17.25 and 2V0-15.25 exams. Next is to take the Architect exam 2V0-13.25; I assume it’s kind of like the VCAP-Design exam.

The next step is three advanced-professional exams:

VMware Certified Advanced Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 vSphere Kubernetes Service (3V0-24.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation (3V0-21.25), blueprint;
VMware Certified Advanced Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Operations (3V0-22.25), blueprint.

You can see by the name that each advanced-level exam focused on a specified topic – Kubernetes, Automation, or Operations.

Each professional and advanced exam costs $250, consists of 60 questions, has a passing score of 300 (as usual), and requires 135 minutes to clear.

The last step is VCDX – VMware Certified Distinguished Expert. – What? Where is the “Design Expert”? Currently, there is limited information available on the internet, aside from this post. As of writing, the official certification page is not updated. Therefore, I will add more info about VCDX later.

What’s new at Nutanix University? Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI) is Ready to schedule

As I wrote earlier, Nutanix released a new NCP certification focused on the Nutanix AI product called Nutanix Certified Professional–Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI).

From now on, you can schedule this exam with an appointment date starting Nov. 11, and the great news is that it is free for the first 250 participants. Just use NCPAINEWFREE code during checkout.

And don’t forget to check out the blueprint guide and Nutanix Enterprise AI Administration (NAIA) Online free course. This could really help you prepare.

What’s new at Nutanix University? Updated certifications: NCP-MCA 6.10 and NCP-EUC 6.10

Nutanix announced an update of two certifications: Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) and Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC) were updated to version 6.10.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) – measures your abilities in Nutanix automation using Self-Service and X-Play.
You can find a blueprint guide here.

Recommended training: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA). As usual, the course was updated to match the exam version.

Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC) – validates your skills in managing end-user computing environments in Nutanix clusters using Citrix or Omnissa.
You can find a blueprint guide here.

Recommended training: Nutanix End User Computing Administration (NEUCA). This free online course was updated to version 6.10 as well.

As usual, the beta exams are completely free for the first 250 participants; simply use the following discounts during checkout: NCPMCA610BETA for the NCP-MCA exam and NCPEUC610BETA for the NCP-EUC exam. You can schedule exams from the Nutanix University. The final date to take the test is Oct 5, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t receive your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

What’s new at Nutanix University? New certification: Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI)

Nutanix announced a new certification and training related to the Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) platform.

First and foremost, a new training: Nutanix Artificial Intelligence Administration (NAIA) – this course will teach you how to install and operate the Nutanix Enterprise AI.

Currently, this course is available online for free at Nutanix University, and it is the starting point for learning the NAI platform.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Artificial Intelligence (NCP-AI) – is a new professional-level certification that validates your ability to install, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) and integrate GenAI applications and agents.

To learn more about this certification, start with the blueprint guide.

As usual, beta exams are available totally free for the first 250 participants; just use the discount during checkout: NJY5A8SV. You can schedule this exam from the Nutanix University. The final date to take the test is Sept 21, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t receive your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 Exam

Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 is the next certification level after NCP-MCI 6.10.

Since version 6.5, this exam has changed its format, and now it is not a familiar test but laboratory work in a live Nutanix multi-cluster environment with a certain number of scenarios and tasks that need to be completed. The closest analogies are any of the Red Hat exams.

Next, we will look in more detail at what the exam is and the list of topics, as well as the preparation procedure.

Note: This is an updated version of my NCM-MCI 6.5 prep guide.

What’s new at Nutanix University? NCM-MCI 6.10 beta exam is out

Nutanix announced that the Nutanix Certified Master – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCM-MCI) certification is updated to version 6.10, and the exam is now in the beta state.

For those who don’t know, this is a practice exam in a real-lab environment, and this is not a test. I have an article on how to prepare for the NCM-MCI 6.5 exam

In addition to the certification, the course Advanced Administration & Performance Management (AAPM) was updated to version 6.10 too, so make sure to check it out during preparation.

As usual, beta exams are available totally free for the first 150 participants; just use the discount during checkout: NCMMCI610BETAFREE2 . You can schedule this exam from the Nutanix University. The final date to take the test is July 27, 2025.

Notice: After taking a beta exam, you won’t get your results immediately. Results typically appear 1.5 or 2 months after the beta exam period concludes.

Update: The beta exam has reached capacity.

Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 (NCP-CN 6.10) Exam

A few months ago, I took the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 exam, and in this post, I want to share materials I used to prepare for this exam.

For those who did not hear about this certification, NCP-CN measures your ability to use the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform product, which makes Kubernetes management much easier.

This guide outlines the preparation methodology I am using for certification exams, and it is applicable to other Nutanix exams as well.

Nutanix Certified Professional is the second stage in the Nutanix certification track. This certification requires the candidate to have good theoretical and practical knowledge of working with Nutanix solutions and is divided into several tracks:

Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Automation (NCP-DB)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA)
Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Integration (NCP-CI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN)

In this article, we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN) exam version 6.10, and I will also share materials that you can use to prepare yourself.

Preparing for the NVIDIA-Certified Associate: AI Infrastructure and Operations Exam

I am a new one to the AI field, and this year I decided that this is a time to sharpen my skills. One of the pillars of AI is infrastructure, which is somewhat different from the traditional one used for running typical applications and virtual machines.

I started with the NVIDIA technologies and solutions as the leader in a modern AI infrastructure. NVIDIA provides a lot of training materials, documentation, and certifications on its technologies. It looks like a good way to start, because I believe that the best way to learn is by pursuing the certification.

Recently I completed the NVIDIA-Certified Associate: AI Infrastructure and Operations certification, and in this post, I want to share the materials I used to successfully pass the exam.

Free Red Hat AI Foundations courses

As you know, AI is everywhere now. We all know we’ll be here in a moment, whether you’re using it or just planned to.

I love to share knowledge, and in this short post I want to share what I found: Red Hat AI Foundations courses.

There are two paths:
1. Executive: all those AI basics and terminology. Want to know what the difference between AI and ML is? What is GenAI? Start right here;
2. Technologist: You will learn about Red Hat AI products and especially the flagship – the Red Hat OpenShift AI platform.

Finishing those learning paths, you will receive Credly badges. To get information about what you should complete, use “Check your status” at the bottom of each learning path.

I highly recommend finishing the executive path as a minimum, especially since it’s free. And if you’re an active RHEL and OpenShift user, consider pursuing the technologist path.

What’s new at Nutanix University? Updated certifications NCP-US and NCP-DB, and beta exams opportunities

Update: The NCP-US and NCP-DB beta exams have reached capacity and are now closed.

The year begins with the updated Nutanix certifications! Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US) and Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Management (NCP-DB) were updated to version 6.10.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US) – certification related to the Nutanix Storage Services: Files, Objects, and Volumes. Blueprint Guide;
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Management (NCP-DB) – as you can guess from the name, the certification is all about Nutanix Database Services (former ERA). Blueprint Guide.

As usual, both exams are in a beta state and available totally free for the first 250 participants; just use the discounts during checkout: NCPDB610BETA for NCP-DB and NCPUS610BETA for NCP-US exam. You can find those certifications on the PSI cert lists. The last test date to test is March 2, 2025.

Along with the certifications, two courses were updated, and you should use them during preparation:
Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA);
Nutanix Database Management & Automation (NDMA).

Both courses are available for free at Nutanix University.