What You Need to Know About MongoDB Certification

mongodb cert

Overview of the Certification

MongoDB is an open-source, NoSQL database that provides support for JSON-styled, document-oriented storage systems. It supports a flexible data model that enables you to store data of any structure and provides a rich set of features, including full index support, sharding, and replication.

MongoDB claims to be one of the biggest big data vendors with 400 employees, 2000 customers across the globe, close to 850 technology service partners that are increasing by 70% year-over-year. One-third of Fortune 100 companies are employing a MongoDB NoSQL database for mission-critical big data applications.

MongoDB offers certifications and training through MongoDB University. The program currently embraces two tracks, which the company calls roles:

  • Database Administrators (DBAs) are fluent in managing MongoDB, including its run-time configuration, processes, sharding, backup and recovery, monitoring and performance tuning.
  • Database Developers are fluent in one or more programming languages, each with its own associated MongoDB driver. They also understand the minutiae of performing MongoDB CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations, indexing, aggregation, replication and basic database scaling.

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Benefits of MongoDB Certification

  • MongoDB Professional Certification as a DBA or Developer demonstrates that you’re an expert. Certification is recognized by recruiters and hiring managers as proof that you know what you’re doing.
  • Only certified professionals are listed in the MongoDB Certified Professional Finder. you’ll find MongoDB experts all over the world, with a wide range of technical skills. 
  • Certified professionals also receive an invitation to join the MongoDB Advocacy Hub. Through the Advocacy Hub you’ll gain access to the latest releases, events, and MongoDB news, boost your learning and development through quality content and best practices, and get exclusive invites to speak at MongoDB events.
  • you can and should put MongoDB Professional Certification on your resume. But sometimes it’s nice to have a shorthand. You also get access to MongoDB Certified Professional badges. With a badge on your LinkedIn profile, anyone can tell at a glance that you’re a MongoDB expert.
  • The demand for certified and trained MongoDB professionals is high in the market. Candidates stand a good chance for employment with a certification
  • A subscription service comes with a license of the products and features including monitoring; MongoDB Enterprise, security features, and professional support are provided.

About the Certification and Exam

For each role, there three levels of certification are defined: Associate, Professional and Master. However, presently only the Associate level for each role is available. The others are still in the planning and development stages. MongoDB exams cost $150 each and are administered online through the company’s proctoring partner, Examity.

Taking a MongoDB exam requires an Internet-attached computer running either Windows or Mac OS X with a working webcam. Exams run for 90 minutes, impose no penalties for incorrect answers, and include multiple-choice and check-all-that-apply question types.

MongoDB Certified DBA Associate

The MongoDB Certified DBA Associate credential targets professionals who’ve worked with MongoDB and who have knowledge of its concepts and mechanics. The target audience aims at operations professionals familiar with the fundamentals of MongoDB, and who have some professional experience in administering this database environment. Although the exam has no prerequisites, MongoDB recommends that candidates have completed some training before attempting the exam. The C100DBA exam is 90 minutes long and is administered online.

Candidates are required to have knowledge of database concepts, the fundamentals of system programming and basic JavaScript programming skills. MongoDB exam topics include application administration, server administration, CRUD operations, indexing and aggregation, replication and sharding, as well as an understanding of MongoDB philosophy and features.

MongoDB Certified Developer Associate

As with the DBA certification offerings, MongoDB’s developer certification lineup currently only includes an Associate level credential. The MongoDB Certified Developer Associate credential targets professionals who have designed and built business applications using MongoDB.

The target audience includes software engineers with a solid understanding of MongoDB fundamentals who have some professional experience developing applications built upon MongoDB. There are no formal prerequisites for this exam, but it is recommended that candidates complete a training course before sitting in for the exam. The C100DEV exam is 90 minutes long and is administered online.

Developers interested in this certification should have experience with software development, database concepts, system programming and basic JavaScript. Knowledge areas listed for the developer exam include data modelling, indexing and performance, aggregation and replication, sharding, and CRUD operations, along with MongoDB philosophy and features.

Job Opportunities and Salary

According to the job posting sites such as Indeed, Simply Hired, Glassdoor and others, there is strong demand for individuals with developer or administrator skills in MongoDB. Most of the positions listed focus on a variety of administration and server engineering skills on the admin side (such as Database Admin, Database Server Engineer, Database Specialist, Data Analytics and Visualization Engineer) or the development side (such as Senior Developer, Team Lead, Web Developer, Applications Engineer).

Job trends graph of Indeed.com lists MongoDB as the most commonly mentioned NoSQL variant in job listings with close to 4979 entries. The three next most common NoSQL variants are Couchbase, CouchDB and Redis.

Given that MongoDB has released only the initial elements of its certification program at the Associate level, it’s still a work in progress. But given the high (and growing) demand for qualified, capable MongoDB professionals in the workforce, this may be something of a golden opportunity for interested IT professionals

According to Dice, the number of NoSQL jobs for people experienced with unstructured database systems like MongoDB has increased by 54% over last year. A recent survey conducted by Dice estimates that salaries for employees who use Hadoop and NoSQL are more than $100,000.

Where to Find Online Resources for MongoDB Certifications?

MongoDB’s university offers relevant coursework, including practice exams, FAQs, white papers, and other training resources for preparing for the exam that you choose. Apart from that, the training providers associated with MongoDB also offer training for the exam. There are other websites like Udemy, Simpli Learn, Global Knowledge that offer training courses