Every AI Skill Atlas guide follows the same format and uses the same six ratings, so you can compare certifications fairly. This page explains where our information comes from, what each score means, and how we keep guides up to date.
Where the facts come from
- Official sources first. Fees, exam format, domains and weights, eligibility and renewal rules come from the vendor’s own exam pages, exam guides and policies. Every guide lists its sources at the end.
- No leaked or confidential material. We never use exam dumps, recalled questions or anything shared under a non-disclosure agreement, and we never reproduce real exam questions.
- Facts and opinions are kept apart. Anything that is our judgement, such as ratings, prep-time estimates and “who should take it”, is labelled as ours.
What the six scores mean
Each certification gets six scores from 1 to 5. A higher number is not always better: for difficulty and cost, 5 means hardest or most expensive.
| Score | What it measures | 1 means | 5 means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Difficulty | How hard the exam is to pass for someone with the recommended experience. | Short, concept-level questions; little prior knowledge needed. | Broad, scenario-heavy exam that needs real delivery experience to pass. |
| Cost burden | The total cost of getting certified: the exam fee, the hours of preparation, and the risk of paying for a retake. | Low fee, short prep, low retake risk. | High fee, long prep, and a real chance of a paid retake. |
| Career value today | How much the certification helps in hiring and client work right now, based on how widely it is recognised and asked for. | Little recognition outside a narrow circle so far. | Widely recognised and genuinely asked for in roles and proposals. |
| Skill transfer beyond this vendor | How much of what you learn is useful on other platforms and tools. | Almost entirely vendor-specific. | Mostly general skills that carry over to any AI platform. |
| Hands-on experience required | How much real building or delivery experience you need before attempting it. | Reading and everyday use are enough. | You must have built and run real systems. |
| Ease of access | Who is allowed to register. | Restricted, for example to employees of partner companies. | Anyone can register online. |
How we keep guides current
- Each guide shows a Last verified date: the day we last checked its facts against official sources.
- We re-check a guide whenever the vendor changes an exam, a fee or the registration rules, and at least every few months.
- If you spot something out of date or wrong, please tell us. Corrections are the fastest updates we make.
Independence
AI Skill Atlas is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, GitHub, Google or any other certification provider, and no vendor pays for a guide or a score. We do sell our own preparation material for some exams; whether we sell something for an exam has no effect on how we rate it.
Ready to compare? See all certifications side by side or browse the guides.