DataCamp Certification Practical Exams: An Overview

Do I have to complete a practical exam to get certified?

For all DataCamp Career and Technology Certifications, you will need to complete both timed exams and a practical exam. Depending on the certification, the practical exam will either be auto-graded or graded manually by our grading team. 

DataCamp Fundamentals Certifications do not include a practical exam. 

What is the difference between auto-graded and manual-graded practical exams?

Autograded practical exams do not test any communication skills. During the exam you will show us that you can put together all of the pieces we tested in the timed exams to solve a real world problem. Each task will have a single correct solution, although you can use any approach to getting to it that you want. We won’t grade your code, only the final answer.  

Manually graded exams include communication skills that have to be reviewed by a real person. This typically includes written communication in the form of a report and spoken communication in the form of a presentation. Just like the auto-graded exams, you will be solving a real-world problem. There may not always be a single correct solution, so we are looking at how you approach the problem and present your approach and solution. 

Which Certifications are manually graded?

The table below shows how each of the certifications is graded

Can I see an example of a practical exam before I start the certification?

Yes! There are sample practical exams available in the practical hub for each certification. For autograded practical exams, you can try submitting the sample exam as many times as you want to prepare for the real exam. For manually graded practical exams, you can find an example solution to each element of the practical but we are not able to grade sample exams.