I think Kotlin is very popular now. Therefore, I think it would be nice if JetBrains can create an exam for Kotlin developers so they can get a Kotlin certification, similar to Oracle Java certifications.
3 Likes
Are those of any value?
3 Likes
Honestly, not everyone need a programing language certification. But it’s still useful for many people:
- students, who has no or little work experience
- professional, who want to validate if they are really professional in a language. These developers want to validate the result after trainings, reading books, working in projects.
- as an advertisement to attract more Kotlin developers
For example, I consider myself as an experienced Java developer. When I try to learn to pass the Java exam, I am surprised because I saw a lot of holes in my knowledge (90% of them I think I should really know). By filling the holes, when answer the quality exam questions, I filled the holes very fast and become so confident. Of course, Java exam has some bad questions, which requires memorize something you don’t need to in real life. If we have Kotlin exam, I hope the questions should be more reality, that reflect the real daily job of developers.
Most of the holes I discovered when learning for the exam questions are hidden in edge cases. I mean I understand the general concept, I can use the concept for normal cases. But when things become complex and requires to understand edge cases of the concept, I need to learn the concept again to fully understand it and create a structural knowledge in my mind. The most effectively way to practice these edge cases is to try answer a lot of quality questions then check the correctness and explanations from experts, who create the exam.
2 Likes
As far as I know, there are not certificates by JB, but there are certified training partners: Kotlin Training Certification
2 Likes
There are many training organizations, but I think this market is totally different than having an official certification exam. Even if these organizations provide certifications, they will not be recognized as certifications. And people must pay a pricey training(s), while they can learn alone. It’s difficult for developers to evaluate the quality of these trainings and certifications before an expensive investment. A lot of difficult options to choose. For me, I don’t want to participate in any training at all. I only want to have a cheapest and fastest way to validate and find the important holes in my knowledge.
Let take an example with Java certificate: I paid only 250$, 1-2 books, 1000-2000 quality mock questions and 2-3 weeks self-training for that purpose. So cheap, so easy to find standard resources. Don’t need even care about choosing one from hundreds training organizations. This fact will not happens if the official certification doesn’t exist.
Just because there’s an official Java certificate:
- a lot of experts want to write quality books specifically for this exam.
- a lot of experts/companies will create quality mock questions for this exam.
- a lot of developers will want an official certificate. Most of them don’t want unofficial certificate.
- the official exam provides the standard and quality guidance for all participants in this market.
1 Like
In support, I’ll say that the exam from JetBrains allows you to assess how much the user understands the concepts of the language. This is the next step to control and change the mindset of programmers 
There are Kotlin certifications by Jetbrains Academy. They teach from basics to advanced with the language and in the end it earns the Jetbrains Academy seal.
1 Like