Ah, the hobby plan of yore. I remember a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed mikeloc sitting on his couch in 2018 using that plan (which included deploying to live) thinking it was too good to be true… and eventually it was.
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I wish that after you pass, they’d tell you what you got wrong! I’d love to see where my gaps in knowledge are. I know that allowing you to view questions after the test would probably result in the test bank getting leaked 
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I think this certification is great, and will be useful to developers signifying their actual knowledge level in Bubble. I’ve seen brand new accounts in the forum replying to every single job post they find offering their services… but what validates their experience? This is certainly helpful in that regard.
That aside, this is the only aspect I actually have a problem with:
When a developer passes, that is a badge of honor. And that badge goes away in 12 months? For starters, I think the ‘badge’ should remain, but for that year. Meaning their profile would show ‘Certified Bubble Developer 2022’ if it was never updated in 2024.
For the newest year, they can retake it…I know as Bubble evolves it ensures they have stayed on top of the latest improvements and changes in the ecosystem. But to charge them the same exact amount every year? I feel the $49 the first time makes sense, but for developers simply looking to renew their status it should be heavily discounted, something like $19 to maintain it, AND their exam should focus on the updates within Bubble, not the full course each time. I could see the full course coming up every 3, maybe 5 years to keep a developer on their toes. But again, pricing needs to be respectful of their continued dedication to the platform. I understand the pricing is a gatekeeping method to make sure spammers don’t abuse it… but once their foot is in the door and they’ve proven their skills and proficiency within Bubble, the pricing should reflect the honoring of a repeat customer.
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ABSOLUTELY!!! - I’ve been on about this point since the certification was introduced during the Developer Summit.
It is akin to a University Course which is Pass/Fail - student with 95% is the same as a student with 75%.
Without showing the actual percentage of correct answers supplied for the certification or, maybe more importantly, the time in which the certification test was completed, it does pretty much NOTHING to showcase the skill differences between the Expert Developer and the Inexperience/Novice developer who passed the exam.
If I can pass the exam without using Manual/Google and takes me 1.5 hours and I get 95% of questions correct, I am unable to express this Expertise with the certification because the Pass/Fail nature means, a developer who struggled to pass the exam, used all allotted time and used Manual to answer the questions is seen as equally competent.
I feel like Bubble Failed the Pass/Fail exam of how to structure a Bubble Certification Program simply because they do not print details of the score/time to complete etc.
Why would any real, professional, experienced developer take this certification exam other than to waste $49 for 2 hours of ‘let’s see what this is all about’? Seems like the certification program is really designed to allow more, low-quality developers proclaim expertise in something they are not an expert in.
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Likely not going to happen as the certification will have printed on it the account details for which the exam was sat, so likely Bubble has some kind of way to ask for a First and Last Name and probably some kind of verification like phone number to ensure the user is not simply creating dummy emails to try and try again.
I’d imagine if Bubble has not done that, then the rationale would have been, allow people to retake the exam as many times as they want, so long as they pay us the $49 for each time they take the exam using a dummy account.
Well said. That’s exactly why I took it - to see what it’s all about and whether to give the certificate any credence to it when deciding to work with bubble developers.
Unfortunately, that statement is right on the nose. Another unfortunate example of Bubble prioritizing quantity (more “certified” developers) over quality (a certification that actually indicates expertise in Bubble) 
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I estimate that someone with good multiple-choice testing skills and no experience with Bubble or any development could get at least a 60% on the exam, which really underscores how poorly it tests one’s bubble development skills. I guess I should have known that it wasn’t a good litmus test when Bubble proudly announced that the first cohort, composed entirely of Bubble employees and those who WROTE the exam, received the developer certification!
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Bubble requires a photo ID to take the exam. Assuming that guardrail works, people shouldn’t be able to take it multiple times with different acounts. Either way I’m not sure how a fee stops that from happening.
From my perspective, Bubble has the most to gain from identifying truly skilled developers (and therefore should offer the exam free of charge). Generally speaking, one looking for Bubble developers would likely find it difficult to differentiate between a skilled bubble developer and a novice. The Bubble developer certification, were it to serve that function, would greatly benefit Bubble in terms of more apps being developed on the site.
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I could imagine a developer marketplace in which only certified developers were listed, and there was a rating (not a review rating but a score from the certification) would be a much better method for allowing potential clients to get matched up with high quality developers than the newly rolled out Gold/Silver/Bronze ‘badges’ on the agency marketplace.
For me, when poor, I had a need to see a doctor and I went to a free clinic where I was misdiagnosed, resulting in me having to return to the same clinic two weeks later to be seen again…my point is this, the world needs ‘C Doctors’ just the same way it needs ‘C Developers’, but the method for understanding who is a C, B or A Developer should not be through trial and error on the part of the client or based solely on costs, since it is easy enough for a C Developer to charge the rates of an A developer for the purposes of hoodwinking potential clients.
If it turned out there was a direct correlation between what a developer could charge compared to what the developer scored on the certification, then, Bubble has built in an incentive for a developer to continue to improve their skills and to retake the exam to showcase that improvement all for the purposes of being able to increase their rates. @Jeremy
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This is the truest thing ever told on the forums! Lol.
In the world of big companies certification plays a significant role. Some enterprises will not even consider you as a reliable developer/agency until you will show your vendor (in our case - Bubble) approved certification.
Do other vendors like, idk, Oracle, Cisco, Amazon and others display actual result or percentile? Tbh, I haven’t seen this.
But for sure they have different certification programs (something like “basic” to show that you have the general knowledge of the product and “professional/speciality” to show your deep knowledge of some area within the product).
It’s designed to approve knowing the basics. Not to differentiate between low-quality/medium/expert developers 
Let’s imagine a really good developer failed some topic (idk, for example - APIs) because he hasn’t worked with it for a while, but was good at other topics and got 80% result.
He can easily refresh this knowledge in a week or two and will be ready to achieve 90% result. But, while actually having the knowledge - he’ll have to be considered as a not-so-good-at-APIs topic at least for 3 months (until next certification).
Totally agree.
While dealing a lot with developers (in-house and outsourcing) in my IRL job at huge financial enterprise I’ve seen a lot of real experts who could earn much more and a lot of highly paid developers who were much better at selling their developers skills than at developing
In the end, what really counts is your portfolio.
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I agree here. I believe rather than charging ~$50 for the test, make the requirement that they must have a paid plan of some flavor. Then let that person take the test in the same fashion perhaps limited to 2 times within a 3 month period, but charging for the test on top of owning a plan does indeed just strike me as +MRR and nothing else really.
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