Snowflake’s Recertification Program: How to maintain your SnowPro status

There are more than 25,000 SnowPros in the Snowflake Certification community today. Earning and maintaining a SnowPro Certification shows a strategic commitment to expand your Snowflake knowledge and skills, and advance your career. As Snowflake continues to grow, the demand for Snowflake experience and expertise is also rapidly increasing. 

A recent survey of certified SnowPros indicated that: 

• 68% received positive recognition for achieving the certification.
• 61% noted a greater demand for their skills since becoming certified.
• 35% reported that their career opportunities expanded in their current roles.
• 27% reported that the certification contributed to a salary increase.

These metrics highlight how critical it is to maintain your SnowPro status and keep up to date with the latest Snowflake features and services. To avoid your certification lapsing, you must renew your SnowPro certifications before your expiration date, but there are easy steps to take to maintain and level up your SnowPro certified status.

Snowflake offers multiple recertification options and encourages all SnowPros to advance their careers by leveraging their Snowflake skills.  

If you are currently SnowPro Core certified and approaching your expiration date, there are two recertification paths to choose from:

1. Take the SnowPro Core Recertification exam ($88 USD), which is a less expensive, shorter version of the current SnowPro Core Certification exam. When you pass the Core recertification exam, your Core credential will renew for an additional two years from the date you pass the recertification exam. 

Or

2. Level up in Snowflake’s Certification program by earning one of the SnowPro Advanced Certifications. Your Core Certification expiration date will automatically be extended to match the expiration date of your new Advanced Certification. 

*You will only be eligible to participate in the recertification program as long as your certification is active. 

If you hold multiple credentials, you only need to maintain your Advanced certifications as those will continue to extend your Core certification status. 

If you are SnowPro Advanced certified and approaching your expiration date, recertification is simple:

1. Take the SnowPro Advanced Recertification Exam ($188 USD) for the specific role. These are less expensive and shorter versions of the current Advanced exams. When you pass a recertification exam, it will renew your Advanced credential for an additional two years and move your SnowPro Core expiration date to align with your new Advanced expiration date. If you hold multiple Advanced certifications, you must take the recertification exam for each Advanced role. 

*You will only be eligible to participate in the recertification program as long as your certification is active.

All SnowPro certifications expire two years after the date you passed your exam. You are eligible to apply for a SnowPro Recertification exam within six months before the expiration date of your certification. 

If you do not take any recertification actions and two years have passed, your status will expire, and you will have to retake the full SnowPro Core Certification exam. 

“I like the fact that Snowflake certifications are finite, requiring credential holders to recertify, because new features come to life and become generally available to Snowflake customers. Making sure that we are tested on those features is essential to ensure that the skill set for Snowflake is up to date.” 

—Mostafa Ghazi, Solutions Architect, ARC

Only you know which recertification path will meet your current and future career goals. 

Below are some example scenarios to consider: 

Luna the Abominable Snowman SnowPro Core Certification is about to expire. Luna wants to become a SnowPro Advanced: Data Engineer to earn a promotion, but Luna wants additional time to prepare. Luna knows that being SnowPro Core certified is a prerequisite for the Advanced exams but is not ready to attempt the Data Engineer exam. So Luna takes and passes the SnowPro Core Recertification exam, extending the Core certification status for 2 years. 

Six months later, Luna takes and passes the SnowPro Advanced: Data Engineer Certification and gets a promotion! By leveling up, Luna now only needs to maintain the Data Engineer Certification by taking the Data Engineer Recertification exam every two years. 

Petal the Unicorn’s SnowPro Core Certification will expire in two months. Snowflake is one of many tools Petal uses, but she is not sure which Advanced role-based certification to take first. Petal decides to maintain her SnowPro Core Certification through the SnowPro Core Recertification exam path. She passes the recertification exam and extends her SnowPro Core credential for another two years, giving Petal time to determine which Advanced Certification aligns with her future career goals.   

Larry the Llama is a Data Scientist. He earned his SnowPro Core Certification at his last company. Larry’s new company has a machine learning initiative on its roadmap and is in the process of onboarding Snowflake for its data science workloads. With Larry’s past experience with Snowflake, the company has identified Larry as a potential project lead for the initiative. The company is offering Larry the position as long as Larry becomes SnowPro Advanced: Data Scientist Certified. 

Larry looks up his SnowPro Core Certification status and realizes it has expired and he is no longer eligible for the recertification paths. Larry now has to retake the SnowPro Core Certification exam as it is a prerequisite for the SnowPro Advanced Certifications. Being a Snowflake expert, Larry passes the SnowPro Core exam on the first attempt and is quickly able to level up and pass the SnowPro Advanced: Data Scientist Certification.

Recertification exams are meant to evaluate if you have stayed up-to-date on Snowflake’s new features and enhancements. The recertification exams share the same exam guides as their parent certification, but focus on what’s new with Snowflake. Be sure to review the specific program’s exam and study guide to evaluate if there are new areas that require additional platform learning.