What is DataCamp Certification?
DataCamp Certification is an official recognition that you’ve achieved the required skill level as a Data Scientist, Data Analyst, or Data Engineer. We measure your abilities through timed exams and a take-home case study based on scenarios you’re likely to find in the workplace. Our Certifications have been developed with the help of data experts representing a variety of industries, organizations, and roles.
Do I need a subscription to access certification?
Yes, DataCamp Certification is currently only available to individual subscribers and members of some business subscriptions.
Who is eligible for certification?
Today, any DataCamp subscriber can register for certification. We encourage you to review the preparation material and complete the readiness quiz to see if you’re ready.
What are the requirements for certification?
Depending on which certification you register for, you will complete either one or two timed exams that assess your knowledge and ability in key data topics. You’ll then submit a practical exam as your final step. To learn more about what to expect in the exams and practical exam for each certification, see all our Certifications here.
What courses or tracks do I take to get certified?
DataCamp Certifications are not based on any specific course material. Instead, we provide you with suggested DataCamp courses, tracks, and projects to complete along with additional study material for you to develop your personal study plan. Our Data Scientist and Data Analytics career tracks are great resources that we strongly encourage, but you may need some additional study to successfully complete the requirements.
How long do I have to complete the exam?
Each exam has a different time limit, and you’ll be informed of the time limit upon registration. Please note that the exam must be completed in one session. Your progress will not be saved if you close your session.
How long do I have to complete the practical exam?
You’ll have a total of 30 days from the time you register for certification to the time you must complete all requirements, including the exam(s) and practical exam. If you complete the exam(s) right away, then you’ll have the remaining time to work on the practical exam. However, if you take longer to complete the exam(s), you’ll have less time to complete the practical exam.
How much time should I expect to spend on getting certified?
This is a complicated answer. If you’re including preparation in this question, then it largely depends on where your current skill level is and how much preparation time you’ll personally need to reach the required skill level. If, however, you are just asking about the certification (assessment) process, many individuals complete each exam in under one hour and the case study in approximately 4 hours.
How can I be sure I’m ready for certification?
Aside from our readiness quiz, which allows you to self-assess your skill level across all tested competencies, you may also want to complete skill assessments on DataCamp. For a list of relevant skill assessments per certification, see our Resource center.
Do I need to know both R and Python to get certified?
No, you’ll opt to complete your exam(s) in either R or Python, and you can use either language for your practical exam.
If I don’t pass the exam or practical exam, can I try again?
Yes, upon registering you will have two opportunities to pass the exam(s) and practical exam. If you aren’t able to pass either the exam(s) or practical exam, your progress will reset and you’ll have to wait 14 days before registering again. We encourage you to use that time to study, practice and prepare for your next attempt.
Is there a limit to how many times I can register for Certification?
At this time there is no limit. You will just need to wait the mandatory 14 days between registration attempts. This lockout period is intended to encourage you to review material and prepare further before registering again.
I passed the first exam, why do I need to retake it?
You have 2 attempts per each certification requirement, which includes the exam(s) and practical exam. If you’re unable to complete either an exam or practical exam, you will have to re-register and start again. This is to ensure the integrity of the certification and by extension, the validity of your results. We know it may be frustrating to have to retake an exam, but we’re confident that if you can pass once, you’ll have no problem passing again.
How does DataCamp measure validity and reliability in the certification process?
Validity of the certification process is primarily guaranteed by evidence of content validity. That is, we rely on a panel of industry experts outside of DataCamp who provide judgments on whether the content of the certification accurately captures the domain(s) and/or competencies being assessed in the certification process.
Reliability of the certification exams is quantified and monitored through traditional metrics such as split-half reliability and test-retest reliability. For the certification practical exam, we track inter-rater reliability to ascertain our graders are using the grading rubric in a reliable way.
How does DataCamp determine passing scores for certification exams?
The target scores for certification exams are set by the bookmark method. For each domain contained in a certification exam, all questions are ranked from easiest to most difficult and subject matter experts indicate (“bookmark”) for which question a minimally qualified learner would no longer have a 67% chance of responding correctly to the question.
The difficulty level of this question is then taken as the target score for that domain, and the final target score for a domain is obtained by averaging the target scores across all subject matter experts. Last, in order to obtain a target score for the certification exam, we average across all target scores for the individual domains.
Why can I get a few questions incorrect and still pass the exam?
DataCamp's skill assessments are based on computerized adaptive testing, implying that each question you are presented with is based on your history of responses during the assessment. (For example, if you get many questions correct, you will be presented with increasingly advanced questions.)
For this reason, responding incorrectly to a few advanced questions can still yield a very high score, whereas responding correctly to more introductory questions will more likely result in a lower score than reflected by the total number of correctly answered questions.
Why can’t I see what I got wrong on the exam?
DataCamp Certification exams are formal assessments used to validate your skill level, similar to other professional testing you may have experienced. These exams are not designed to be part of a learning process. If you complete a skill assessment on DataCamp outside of certification, you will be able to review your correct and incorrect answers.
Can I complete the Certification in another spoken language?
At this time DataCamp Certification can only be completed in English. We are unable to grade case study submissions in languages other than English.
Who can I contact for more information?
If you have questions or feedback related to certification, please submit your inquiry here. Our Support team is happy to help!