PHP certification is passing an exam, set up by Zend (“the PHP company”). Once you pass the exam, you are registered as certified and that’s it. Whatever benefit you gain from certification is up to you. It’s mainly a bit of proof that you have a certain level of expertise, whoever you’re proving it to (customers, boss, yourself… *grin*).

These exams are conducted in specialized centers all over the world, basically you schedule a location and a time and once you arrive they start the exam and keep a big-brother eye on you to make sure you didn’t bring your google enabled wrist watch with you to look up some answers. They have no idea what the tests contain.

You can find the costs here http://www.zend.com/en/services/certification/ – as you can see there are several types of certification and packages available. They provide online training as well, but I’ve never felt the need to spend that kind of money on something I can read for myself in a book. What did help was the training exams, because they give you a good feel of how the exams are conducted and the style of questioning you’ll have to deal with.

If you go for it: Good luck!

What is involved in the PHP certification process? How much does it cost? Is it available in Ireland?

Kind regards,

Paul Winter.