Microsoft Visual Studio Certification

The Microsoft Visual Studio family of certifications gives you multiple ways to highlight your particular set of skills and abilities to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. We offer two types of certifications—Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD). MCTS certifications provide the foundation for Microsoft Certification. These certifications are designed to help validate your skills on the features and functionality of key technologies. MCPD certifications help validate a comprehensive set of skills that are necessary to design, build, and deploy applications successfully by using Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can earn Microsoft Certifications for Visual Studio 2010 as well as Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2005. For each version of Visual Studio, we offer certification paths that help you show your skills on a particular platform, such as the web, Windows, or Windows Azure.

Announcement

Certification exams specific to Visual Studio 2005 are scheduled to retire on June 30, 2011.

Identify your journey

Not sure which certification path to take? View the following certification paths to get started:

• View the certification path: Visual Studio 2010

  • Download XPS file (482 KB)
  • Download PDF file (493 KB)

Use the following table to identify the certification that best fits your current role and career goals.

Get prepared

Consult the following table for training resources available for each exam. Visit the Microsoft Training Catalog to find a list of the skills measured for each exam, a Learning Plan for each exam, and additional training resources for each technology.

Take your exam

Secure a Second Shot for your Microsoft Certification exam (Prometric.com)
Whether you are just beginning to explore the benefits of Microsoft Certification, or you need to pass just one more exam to achieve a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification, the Second Shot offer (regular exam price plus 15 percent) allows you to retake a Microsoft IT professional, developer, or Microsoft Dynamics exam if you do not pass it on the first attempt.

Do you want to see if you are ready to develop for the Windows Azure platform? Do you have what it takes to create web applications by using Microsoft ASP.NET, JavaScript, Ajax, and Microsoft Silverlight? What about desktop applications that use Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology? Perhaps you are the services developer using WCF or maybe you are skilled at accessing data with ADO.NET. Getting certified on Visual Studio 2010 helps show employers and potential clients that you have the skills you need to be successful.

With Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, you can create what you can imagine, build on the strengths of your team, and open up new possibilities. New prototyping, modeling, and visual design tools enable you to create innovative applications for Windows and the web. And you can take advantage of new opportunities and capabilities offered by multi-core programming and cloud development tools.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a complete set of development tools for building ASP.NET web applications, web services, desktop applications, and mobile applications.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

MCTS certifications provide the foundation for Microsoft Certification. These certifications are designed to help validate your skills on the features and functionality of key technologies. You can show your depth of knowledge in one specific technology, earn multiple MCTS certifications to show breadth across different technologies, or build on the MCTS to earn one of our Microsoft Certified Professional Developer certifications.

Each MCTS certification on Visual Studio 2008 requires that you pass Exam 70-536: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework, Application Development Foundation in addition to the exam related to the certification that you want to pursue. You only need to pass this exam once.

Note If you currently hold an MCTS or MCPD certification on Visual Studio 2005 (Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0), you have already fulfilled this requirement and do not need to pass Exam 70-536 again; you only have to pass the exam related to the certification that you want to pursue.

Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)

MCPD certifications help validate a comprehensive set of skills that are necessary to design, build, and deploy applications successfully by using Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework. This certification builds on the MCTS certification and is designed to help provide hiring managers with a strong indicator of your potential job success. Candidates for the MCPD typically have two to three years of relevant experience and a commitment to remaining current in best practices and technologies.

Upgrade from MCPD on Visual Studio 2005 to MCPD on Visual Studio 2008

If you currently hold an MCPD certification on Visual Studio 2005, you can take advantage of one or more of our streamlined upgrade paths to transition your skills and certifications to Visual Studio 2008. And after you have earned the MCPD certification on Visual Studio 2008, you can upgrade to an MCPD certification on Visual Studio 2010 by passing a single exam.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a complete set of development tools for building ASP.NET web applications, web services, desktop applications, and mobile applications.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

MCTS certifications provide the foundation for Microsoft Certification. These certifications are designed to help validate your skills on the features and functionality of key technologies. You can show your depth of knowledge in one specific technology, earn multiple MCTS certifications to show breadth across different technologies, or build on the MCTS to earn one of our Microsoft Certified Professional Developer certifications.

Each Visual Studio 2005 MCTS certification requires that you pass Exam 70-536: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework, Application Development Foundation, in addition to the exam related to the certification that you want to pursue. You only need to pass this exam once.

Note All Visual Studio 2005 exams are scheduled to retire on June 30, 2011. Exam 70-536 will remain available to support requirements for Visual Studio 2008 certifications.

*This exam is scheduled to retire on June 30, 2011.

Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)

MCPD certifications help validate a comprehensive set of skills that are necessary to design, build, and deploy applications successfully by using Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework. This certification builds on the MCTS certification and is designed to help provide hiring managers with a strong indicator of your potential job success. Candidates for the MCPD typically have two to three years of relevant experience and a commitment to remaining current in best practices and technologies.

*This exam is scheduled to retire on June 30, 2011.

Upgrade from MCAD/MCSD to MCTS/MCPD on Visual Studio 2005

Although Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) certifications continue to be recognized and valued by employers and decision makers who use Microsoft .NET 1.0 and Microsoft .NET 1.1, you can now easily upgrade your existing MCAD or MCSD certification to Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) on Visual Studio 2005. Depending on your current certification, you will need to take one or two exams.

After you have earned an MCPD on Visual Studio 2005, you can upgrade to an MCPD on Visual Studio 2008.

*This exam is scheduled to retire on June 30, 2011.