Earn an Atlassian Certification to Advance your Career: Where (and How!) to Start
Editor’s note: This post exists because we keep seeing folks across Community ask, in one way or another, “I’m interested in getting certified. Where should I start?” So we roped in our resident expert Atlassian Certification team member @Joanna Thurmann to give us the run-down. What follows is her (very helpful) answer to that question!
If you’re thinking about getting certified, you’ve already won! Embarking on the Atlassian certification journey is a win-win for everyone. No matter the outcome, you will learn a lot just by trying. The knowledge and skills you gain while preparing for the exam are invaluable assets for your own job. And product expertise is a plus for the rest of the team because you can help them be more knowledgeable and productive, too. For you, of course, it’s a career boost. You can showcase your hard-earned credentials on Atlassian Community and professional sites like LinkedIn—and 73% of Atlassian Certified folks surveyed in 2021 said certification increased their job prospects.
Of course, you have questions. Which exam is right for me? Where should I start? How long will it take to prepare? Am I ready? We’ll tackle these questions in this post. Read on to kickstart your certification success and earn globally recognized credentials to validate your expertise amongst your team, employer, and industry peers.
Which exam is right for me?
Atlassian University offers two types of certifications: Associate and Professional.
Associate Certifications
The associate-level certification tier helps you get credentialed as soon as you become skilled in Atlassian products and solutions. Designed for beginner to intermediate learners, they’re affordable and quick to earn – while still carrying the weight of Atlassian’s globally recognized reputation. You can build your certification stack around the skills most relevant to your work.
Associate exams are 60 minutes long and there are 25 questions. The cost is $100.
Currently, there are two available associate certifications.
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Atlassian Certified Associate - Jira Software Essentials Certification → best if you’re new to Jira
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Atlassian Certified Associate - Jira Software Board Configuration → best for agile board administrators
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Atlassian Certified Associate - Jira Software Essentials Certification |
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Atlassian Certified Associate - Jira Software Board Configuration |
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Two more associate certifications are coming out in the first quarter of 2024.
Professional Certifications
Atlassian Certified Professional certifications are role-based and reflect and validate your Atlassian administrative expertise – in projects, products, and organizations. Preparing to earn a Professional certification requires considerable product experience, independent study, and Atlassian-provided training courses.
Professional exams are 180 minutes long and there are usually between 60 and 80 questions. The cost is $249.
There are six professional certifications in total.
Two of them are for Data Center/Server and the rest for Cloud. So the first thing you need to determine is which platform you currently work in, or, if you work in both, which one are you best versed in.
The following two certifications are for Data Center / Server.
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ACP-610 Managing Jira Projects for Data Center and Server Certification → best for project admins
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ACP-100 Jira Administration for Data Center and Server Certification → best for Jira admins
Our insider tip is to start with the first one (ACP-610 in Managing Jira Projects), even if you are a Jira Administrator, and especially if this is your first Atlassian certification. You will likely find it easier since it focuses only on projects and boards, and none of the admin features. The latter exam tests your knowledge of the breadth, depth, and complexity of maintaining the entire Jira system. It also assumes, and tests to some smaller extent, your knowledge of projects and boards. You can think of ACP-100 as incorporating the knowledge of ACP-610—plus much more.
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ACP-610 Managing Jira Projects for Data Center and Server Certification |
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ACP-100 Jira Administration for Data Center and Server Certification |
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The following certifications are the Cloud counterparts of the ones above for Data Center / Server.
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ACP-620 Managing Jira Projects for Cloud Certification → best for project admins
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ACP-120 Jira Administration for Cloud Certification → best for Jira admins
Our advice is the same as the ones above. You will likely find it easier to start with the one for project admins first. Note also that the Atlassian Certified Associate - Jira Software Board Configuration is a small subset of the content for the ACP-620. Namely, board configuration is 25-35% of the exam.
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The fifth certification we currently have available is specific to Jira Service Management. It’s geared toward those who administer service projects in the Cloud.
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The final professional certification is about administering users and groups across multiple Atlassian Cloud organizations, sites, and products. It’s geared toward administrators who work in the Admin Hub. When you purchase the exam, you’ll receive a voucher to take your exam plus the Exam Success comprehensive study companion.
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For Confluence, we do not have a certification but a Pro Skills Badge, APB-220 Confluence Space Administration Pro Skills Badge, which is agnostic for both Cloud and Data Center / Server.
Where should I start?
Here’s quick video outlining Atlassian Certification — and how to get started:
What's an Atlassian Certification? | Atlassian University
After you picked the exam you’ll start with, go to the exam description page to learn more about it. For associate certifications, the easiest way to prepare is to go through the learning path.
For professional exams, download the exam topics guide. You’ll see a breakdown of the main sections of the exam by percentages, as well as the detailed topics within each, and links to relevant documentation. Just by reading the exam topics page carefully, you will already be able to self-assess how much you know or how much you may need to study and experiment with.
For several of our professional exams, we have an exam success course. This is essentially a certification prep course that takes you topic by topic through the concepts you need to know. There are also accompanying lab challenges that suggest the hands-on learning and experimentation that you should do in your own environment, in order to get exposure to the topic areas. Note that you have to set up your own sandbox, but we provide you with the guidance to do so. You can try Jira Cloud for free for the purposes of studying for the exam.
Additionally, for professional exams, there are plenty of sample questions within the prep course that test your knowledge and let you get comfortable with the question format and style. For the two other professional certifications without a specific exam success course, there are also sample questions directly linked from the exam description page.
And of course, you should enroll in the recommended learning path that will give you the foundation you need to succeed.
How long will it take to prepare?
Assuming you set aside study time every week, most students will take anywhere from 3-5 weeks to prepare for an associate exam and 6-10 weeks for a professional exam. You should go through each topic, one by one, to learn the concepts. And you should experiment in a test environment or perform the suggested labs, if available. You will probably find that you’re already an expert in some of the topics and you can breeze through them. But in other areas, especially where you have rarely used the features, you may be reading documentation and practicing much more. Keep the exam topics close by and check them off as you go.
If you feel confident and answer most of the sample questions correctly early on, you may find that you can shorten the overall timeframe.
Am I ready?
The answer to this question depends on how much preparation you’ve done. Remember the steps above:
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Review the exam topics.
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For professional exams, read through the entire exam topics guide, the relevant documentation links and the entire exam success course, if there is one.
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Enroll in Atlassian University courses in the learning path.
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Set aside dedicated time for study.
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Practice in a lab environment.
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Try the sample questions, available for professional exams.
If you’ve done all that, you’re ready to schedule your exam.
Afterward, to keep your Certification active, see Maintain your certifications.
And if you keep progressing on the certification journey, you can even earn the Atlassian Certified Expert credential.
Find out more on our site: Atlassian certification overview.
Let us know: Which certifications do you already have? If none — which one will you start with?
p.s. Get some #inspo from fellow Community members who’ve completed Atlassian Certifications, like @Deepanshu Natani: Atlassian Certified Expert Deepanshu Natani shares the motivation behind his certification journey, @Pramodh M : Pramodh Kumar M shares why becoming Atlassian certified and helping others globally go hand in hand, and @Ammar Ahmed Butt: Community Leader Ammar Butt shares his inspiration and path into Atlassian certification
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Jaime Netzer
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Product Marketer, Atlassian University
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