What's the difference between a Sitecore Certified Associate Developer and a Sitecore Certified Professional Developer?

Question

I plan to get Certified on Sitecore 9.0 very soon. On the Sitecore® 9.0 Certified Platform Associate Developer Exam Study Guide page it mentions this:

The Sitecore Certification Program includes two levels, the Sitecore Certified Associate and the Sitecore Certified Professional.

Yet, when I go to register for an exam, I only see a Sitecore® 8.2 Professional Developer exam for Sitecore 8.2 and a Sitecore® 9.0 Certified Platform Associate Developer for Sitecore 9.0. Why no "Professional" exam for 9.0?

This is kind of confusing. If I take the 9.0 Associate Developer exam and pass, can I say I'm a Sitecore Certified Professional? Or do I also need to take the Sitecore 8.2 Professional Developer exam?

Answer 1

The text you reference from the Exam Study Guide was at one point the intended structure for the certification program. There was a desire to create different levels, with Associate at the initial level, and Certified Professional being a second level that could be achieved. It remains to be seen if this will occur in the future.

At the time of this question, this has not happened. While the names are different, they are the same certification and yield all the same benefits.

• Sitecore® 8.2 Professional Developer is for 8.2 and
• Sitecore® 9.0 Certified Platform Associate Developer is for 9.0.

Answer 2

I asked this exact question 6 months ago and this is the complete response I received from the Sitecore Training team via "FreshDesk":

Sitecore Professional Developer - This examination is for Version 8.2

Sitecore Certified Platform Associate Developer - This is for Version 9.0

They also referenced a ticket: https://sitecore.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/8222 (though I am unable to view this ticket, I will follow up to once I can see contents of it)