Red Hat Certified System Administrator

 October 1, 2020

A few years ago, I did pass this exam, but since then, the certification expired, so I had to re-take the exam. While the first time I did the exam in a testing center, this time I had to do it at home since all test centers are closed. The experience of doing the exam at home has been a very positive one since you can arrange the environment as it better fits you. You can have as much light as you like (within sensible limits), you can use the chair you prefer and the desk orientation you prefer. You will not be allowed to bring cheating sheets or similar things since the proctor will ask you to show the whole room using the webcam, as you might imagine.

As for the exam itself, I think it’s interesting since to pass the exam, you need to perform real-world tasks on a real RHEL machine. This peculiarity makes this exam (and the other Red Hat exams) very different from most other exams. With such an exam, you can demonstrate that you have real-world knowledge of performing the tasks and that you have not just learned by heart some cheat-sheet and passed the exam. On the other hand, this approach has the disadvantage that those procedures are often trivial when you have Google available, which is usually the case in the day-to-day world.

So, what’s the value of knowing the procedure instead of looking it up on Google? There are some advantages, such as the speed you will execute the procedure and a better knowledge of it since while you were preparing for the exam, you have probably tried to think and solve all possible ways such a process can go wrong. Although this exam will not guarantee that the candidate has full, complete, and perfect knowledge of the covered topics, I think it does way better than other similar exams.

Overall, I enjoyed the exam experience, and I hope to do other exams soon.

Disclaimer: I have not personally paid for this exam since my current employer has covered the certification expenses.