Microsoft Certified Professional

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What Does Microsoft Certified Professional Mean?

A Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a person who has successfully completed professional information technology training for Microsoft products through a certification program run by Microsoft. A person passing Microsoft's exams is awarded the certificate and is considered a certified professional. The aim of Microsoft Certification is to train individuals to incorporate Microsoft products into business development.

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Techopedia Explains Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft’s extensive certification exams focus on the use of their products, keeping in mind the aptitude checks that are specifically designed for programmer trainee jobs. Microsoft awards different certifications which focus on different areas of knowledge, including server, desktop, database and developer.

There are three major categories with the Microsoft Certified (MC) prefix:

  • Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA)
  • Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE)
  • Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)

Basic certification is required in order to be eligible for advanced-level exams. Each test costs around $120 and takes about 2-3 hours to complete.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.