ACP-420 or ACP-120?

[JORDI ROMERA AGUILA]

Hello everyone.

I have passed the ACP-600, ACP-610 and ACP-620.

I would like to opt for the ACP-120 or the ACP-420. Which do you recommend I do first? Which is more difficult of the two?

Thank you very much!

[Rob Horan]

The better question you should answer is what am I trying to achieve?  What role am I trying to fill? These are completely different exams.  What are you looking to get from certification?

[JORDI ROMERA AGUILA]

Thanks Rob. I'm trying to be a Atlassian Certified Expert. I already have the ACP-620. The truth is that I do not have much experience working with JSM, although I have dedicated a month and a half of study to the certification. Honestly, I don't know whether to continue with the ACP-420 or leave it and start preparing the ACP-120.

[Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_]

If you don't have many months/projects of experience doing Service project admin, avoid that one since there are many nuances of JSM.      Jira Admin for Cloud is almost like a subset of Jira Admin for Server/DC, in my opinion

[Aaron Geister_Sentify]

I will have to agree here. Very well stated.

[JORDI ROMERA AGUILA]

The truth is that I do not have much experience working with JSM, although I have dedicated a month and a half of study to the certification. Honestly, I don't know whether to continue with the ACP-420 or leave it and start preparing the ACP-120.

[Haddon Fisher]

ACP-120 focuses on running Jira on Cloud in general, so it's going to be more of a foundation across the application.  As @Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_ said, ACP-420 is focused just on Jira Service Management.

However I am not sure I would agree that:

`Jira Admin for Cloud is almost like a subset of Jira Admin for Server/DC`

At the layer most administrators will need to live in, Cloud and Server/DC are functionally pretty different applications. The architecture and "laws of physics" of each are subtly different enough that it is almost harder to make the switch because you need to unlearn a lot of habits and muscle-memory assumptions.

[Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_]

I don't disagree.   You probably need a few months of experience with Cloud before taking the Cloud exam.

[Benjamin]

Considering that you don't have experience with JSM. It would be better to take the ACP-120, simply because you are using it and there's value in retaining the information. If you go for the ACP-420, might not be worth it if you don't use it on a regular basis and don't have any plan on using it in the near future. 

my own preference is to go with the one that would provide the most value than which one is more difficult. 

Good Luck in either case.