Developer Certifications Guide | Stackzilla

The certifications employers actually look for — cloud, DevOps, data, and security. Each entry links to the official exam page so you can start preparing today.

Cloud Platforms

The most universally valued certs on the market. AWS, Azure, and GCP certs appear in a huge share of job postings for cloud, DevOps, and SRE roles.

AWS Cloud Practitioner (Foundation) — Best starting point for cloud. Suitable for technical and non-technical professionals.
AWS Solutions Architect Associate (Associate) — The most popular AWS cert. Signals you can design cloud architectures.
AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals (Foundation) — Entry-level Azure credential. Required for many enterprise Microsoft-stack roles.
AZ-104 Azure Administrator (Associate) — Proves you can manage Azure subscriptions, identities, and networking at scale.
Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer (Associate) — Validates ability to deploy and manage GCP workloads.

DevOps & Infrastructure

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) — The de facto standard for Kubernetes operations. High demand in DevOps and platform engineering.
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate — Validates Infrastructure as Code skills. Valued wherever Terraform is used for cloud provisioning.
Docker Certified Associate (DCA) — Proves hands-on container skills. Useful complement to Kubernetes certifications.
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional — Advanced cert covering CI/CD, monitoring, and automation on AWS.

Data Engineering & Analytics

Google Professional Data Engineer — Highly valued for data pipeline and analytics roles on GCP.
AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate — Covers data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration on AWS.
Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark — Strong signal for big data and data engineering roles.

Security

CompTIA Security+ — Entry-level security cert. Often required for government and defense contractor roles.
AWS Certified Security Specialty — Demonstrates ability to secure AWS workloads. Valuable for cloud security engineers.
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) — Advanced security cert for Kubernetes environments.

See also: Career Guides | Learning Paths