Standard Certification Prices to Increase in 2025
Linux Foundation Education and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) devote significant resources to offer verifiable, industry standard setting, vendor-neutral certifications that provide the proof of knowledge and skills today’s IT professionals need and employers prefer. We also work hard to ensure the success of our certification exam takers by providing access to exam simulations; providing exam environments that use dependable technology that works globally; and offering two attempts to successfully pass an exam over 12 months.
Due to the increase in certification exam administration costs, Linux Foundation Education and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) have made the decision to increase the price of their standard certifications by approximately 10 percent. The increase will be effective January 2025 for the following certification exams:
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
- Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
- Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS)
The fee increase will cover higher costs associated with updating and delivering the exams as well as increased investments to deter cheating. This action will enable us to continue to provide the high quality certification experience IT professionals and employers have come to rely on.
The Linux Foundation, Linux Foundation Education and CNCF teams remain committed to continuing to provide our extensive free course catalog as well as courses and certifications at reasonable prices that deliver value and resources to the global, open source community. Please note that our associate-level certification exams will not be affected by the price increase at this time.
Additional details, including confirmation of the effective date, will be announced in late December.
