15 top RPA certifications

Robotic process automation (RPA) has emerged as a key technology for streamlining business processes in the enterprise. As organizations increasingly adopt RPA, which relies on software robots to automate tedious tasks, expertise with RPA tools and implementations will become more important for business analysts, business intelligence developers, data or solutions architects, and system integrators or administrators, among other IT roles.

To help get IT workers up to speed and deliver on the business benefits of process automation, RPA vendors offer training and certifications specific to the tools they offer. This list includes certifications from five leading PRA vendors; if your company uses a vendor not on this list, check to see if they offer a certification or training (there’s a good chance they do).

Appian

Appian Certified Associate Developer—The Appian Certified Associate Developer certification tests your knowledge and basic understanding of building apps in an Appian environment. The exam covers the design, development, and maintenance of apps following the best practices laid out by Appian, which offers a low-code automation platform. The 60-minute exam consists of 60 multiple choice, matching and list-building questions.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for the exam, but it’s recommended that you complete the Appian Developer training course and participate in Appian Applied Development.
Fee: $200

Appian Certified Senior Developer—The next level of certification through Appian is the Certified Senior Developer certification, which covers more advanced knowledge of Appian concepts and tools. You’ll need to demonstrate your ability to deliver “scalable solutions” that follow Appian best practices. The 60-minute exam consists of 40 multiple choice, matching, and list-building questions.

Prerequisites: Candidates for Certified Senior Devekoper are required to first pass the Appian Associate Developer certification exam, and at least six to 12 months of active project experience before taking the exam is recommended.
Fee: $200

Appian Certified Lead Developer—The highest level certification offered by Appian is Certified Lead Developer. It covers everything an experienced Appian practitioner will need to know to deliver successful Appian projects. The exam is comprised of 35 scenario-based questions. And you’ll have 75 minutes to demonstrate your ability to deliver projects, manage teams, and work with customers.

Prerequisites: To qualify for the exam, candidates must have an active Appian Senior Developer certification, and at least two years of Appian project delivery experience is suggested.
Fee: $200

Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere Certified Advanced RPA Professional—Automation Anywhere’s Advanced RPA Professional certification validates your knowledge of Automation Anywhere Enterprise RPA platforms (Automation 360 and Enterprise v11). The exam tests your ability to identify business processes that can benefit from automation and explain how automation can help solve real-world business problems. You’ll also be asked to describe the features included in the Automation Anywhere bot-building interface and demonstrate your ability to use the platform’s more advanced features.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for the exam, but it’s recommended that you prepare for the exam by completing the free  Certification Prep training course.
Fee: $50

Automation Anywhere Certified Master RPA Professional—Automation Anywhere also offers a Master RPA Professional certification that certifies your ability to create bots using Automation Anywhere Enterprise RPA products. As part of the exam, you’ll need to create bots that can automate business processes based on scenarios from case studies. The certification is broken out into three types of assessments which includes a Q&A assessment and test, a bot development assessment and an interview portion.

Prerequisites: To earn your Certified Master RPA professional certification, you’ll first need to pass the Advanced RPA Professional exam.  
Fee: $100

Blue Prism

Blue Prism Associate Developer—The Associate Developer certification tests the skills and knowledge required to “configure a simple Blue Prism process automation solution.” The 50-minute exam consists of 50 questions randomly selected from a pool and includes single choice, multiple choice, drag and drop, and fill in the blank questions. The exam covers your knowledge of Blue Prism native functions and their correct application, different datatypes and casting data, debugging, process flow, retrying processes, process templates, and the correct use of attributes to ensure consistent identification of elements.

Prerequisites: There are no requirements for the exam, but it’s recommended to prepare for the test by completing the Blue Prism Foundation Training and associated consolidation exercise.
Fee: $65

Blue Prism Developer—The Developer certification will test your understanding “of the mandatory Blue Prism Developer concepts and functionality.” It covers more in-depth topics, including date functions, environment functions, text functions, and the creation and administration of work queues, among others. The 60-minute exam consists of 60 questions randomly selected from a pool and includes single choice, multiple choice, drag and drop, and fill in the blank questions.

Prerequisites: There are no requirements for the exam, but it’s recommended to prepare for the test by completing the Blue Prism Foundation Training and associated consolidation exercise.
Fee: $65

Blue Prism Professional Developer—Professional Developer is the highest-level certification for a Blue Prism developer and is aimed at “developers with a broad range of Blue Prism knowledge, experience and skills.” The 60-minute exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions randomly selected from a pool.

Prerequisites: You must first pass the Blue Prism Developer exam.
Fee: $65

Blue Prism Installation Engineer Certification—The Blue Prism Installation Engineer certification validates your knowledge of installation and configuration of Blue Prism environments. It’s a 60-minute exam consisting of 45 multiple choice questions. The exam covers topics such as component architecture and implementation options, managing user access via Active Directory integration, secure storage and management of access credentials, database provisioning and maintenance and windows and application authentication.

Prerequisites: There are no requirements for the exam, but candidates must have practical experience in setting up Blue Prism environments in a “range of deployment scenarios.”
Fee: $65

Blue Prism ROM Architect Certification—The Blue Prism ROM Architect accreditation validates your knowledge of the mandatory Blue Prism ROM concepts and delivery principles. It’s a 60-minute exam with 60 multiple choice questions that are selected randomly from a pool of questions. The exam covers topics such as your understanding of the Blue Prism Robotic Operating Model (ROM) and Enterprise Maturity Model and the importance of having a clear vision for RPA. You’ll also be tested on your awareness of business integration, RPA organizational models, successful Blue Prism deployment strategies, pipeline management, process discovery and governance controls, among other topics.

Prerequisites: There are no requirements to take the exam, but it’s recommended that you prepare by reviewing the Robotic Operating Model tutorial offered through Blue Prism University.
Fee: $65

Blue Prism Solution Designer Certification—The Blue Prism Solution Designer certification validates your knowledge of scalable, secure, and efficient Blue Prism process solution design techniques and principles. It’s a 60-minute exam with 27 multiple choice questions that cover topics such as designing for unattended automation, sub-processes and wrapper objects, recoverability and scalability, object design, case management, workload management, data management and web services. “The first 5 questions are long scenario-based question and awarded double points” and should take approximately 25 minutes to complete.

Prerequisites: To qualify for the certification, you’ll first need to pass the Certified Developer exam. Candidates are also expected, but not required, to have a “solid practical experience of designing multiple Blue Prism process solutions.”
Fee: $65

Blue Prism Technical Architect Certification—The Blue Prism Technical Architect certification recognizes your “understanding of architectural components, support requirements and design considerations that underpin a scalable and secure Blue Prism enterprise architecture.” Topics covered on the exam includes component architecture and implementation options, designing a Blue Prism architecture in a virtualized environment, database provisioning and maintenance and securing network connectivity across components, among others.

The exam consists of 45 multiple choice questions randomly selected from a pool and you’re given 75 minutes to complete the exam.

Prerequisites: Candidates for the exam must have experience in designing Blue Prism environments from at least v5.0.23 and have “some previous experience and knowledge of Active Directory, virtualization and network design.”
Fee: $65

UiPath

UiPath Certified RPA Associate—The UiPath Certified RPA Associate (UiRPA) certification is offered by the UiPath Academy and is designed for professionals in roles such as junior RPA developers, RPA architects, solutions architects, business analysts, and college graduates. The exam tests your skills and abilities using UiPath Studio and covers RPA fundamentals as well as topics related to the UiPath Studio software including variables and arguments, selectors, control flow, data manipulation and best practices.

Prerequisites: To qualify for the exam, you’ll need to take the UiPath RPA Developer foundational training program through UiPath or have three to six months of RPA hands-on experience.
Fee: $150

UiPath Certified Advanced RPA Developer—The UiPath Certified Advanced RPA Developer (UiARD) certification is the next level of certification you can earn after earning your UiRPA credentials. The exam assesses a “deeper-level” of RPA expertise and covers the Robotic Enterprise Framework as well as your “ability to build complex and efficient RPA solutions independently.” The 2-hour exam covers topics related to UiPath Studio including activities and properties, robotic enterprise (RE) framework selectors, .NET classes and objects, advanced functions, error handling and troubleshooting and advanced orchestrator functions. You’ll be tested on your understanding of UiPath technologies such as Studio, Robots and Orchestrator and demonstrate your ability to “independently build or lead production level automations in the Robotic Enterprise Framework.”

Prerequisites: Qualified candidates for the exam need at least six months of experience as an RPA developer and hands-on experience at an advanced level. And, while not a prerequisite, a UiRPA certification is recommended.
Fee: $200

Microsoft

Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals—The Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Fundamentals certification is an entry-level certification for anyone who wants to validate their “basic familiarity” with the technologies included in the Microsoft Power Platform, including the Power Automate software. The exam covers basic knowledge around topics such as building solutions with Power Platform, automating business processes with Power Automate, performing data analysis with Power BI, creating simple Power Apps and building chatbots with Power Virtual Agents. It’s a great start for anyone who wants to validate their knowledge using the Microsoft Power Platform for RPA strategies.  

Prerequisites: This certification has no prerequisites, and no prior experience is necessary to train for the exam.
Fee: $99

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• Top 21 RPA tools today
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