Reminder: Microsoft certifications validity changes to one-year, starting June 30, 2021.

In December 2020 Microsoft announced a couple of changes to the Microsoft Certification program. One of the big changes is that the validity period of the role-based and specialty certification will change from 2-years to 1-year, from the date they are earned.

Starting on June 30, 2021 all newly earned role-based and specialty certifications will only be valid for 1-year from the date they are earned.

Renewing the earned role-based and specialty certifications is done annually by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn. You will get a notification from Microsoft Learn about six months before the certification expires. When you pass the online renewal assessment your certification is extended by one year from the expiration date, not the date you take the renewal assessment.

This continues learning process should help you align with how quickly cloud technology changes; and renewing certification annually helps you to demonstrate your skills are relevant in the ever changing environment.

If you have quite a few of role-based and specialty certifications this could mean you end up doing online assessments almost every month, but then again being so active with these online assessments should make it easier for you. Or as Microsoft says it also helps reducing the stress, complexity, and cost of maintaining your active certification.

There is however one caveat, if like me, you took two different exams earning you the same role-based exam twice then you will be prompted for the online assessment twice as well. For example in 2019 I took the AZ-100 for the Azure Administrator Associate Role-based certification and about 16 months later I took the AZ-104 exam just to see what changed. I now have the choice to let one of them expire or to do the online assessment twice a year. If you want to know if this applies to you, you might want to check your MS Learn Transcript on which the certifications with their validity is shown.

If you are thinking about adding an additional role-based or specialty certification to your resume then perhaps you should consider taking the exam before June 30, 2021 and receive certification with a validity of two years.