Have you ever wondering whether your PHP skill is up for the test, is it good enough for the world to look at and make use of? and How to make the world acknowledge you as a PHP developer? To be a certified PHP developer. You have to take tests, obviously, but where and why? There are various places you could take tests online to save your time and money and of course, being a certified PHP developer doesn’t make you a better ones, it just improves your chances to get a professional job in PHP.

You will need to have knowledge of PHP (obviously), MySQL, HTML (basic) and Web Administration skill alongside with some smaller skill set such as XML, CSS…. to actually be confidence in the test. And when I mean THE test, there are not just one test. Each tests are different and are offered by different organization

Zend

The industry standard, awarded from the guys who is behind PHP and alike, is always THE best award in all. Zend has been running the PHP certification for more than 4 years and have been awarding certificates for thousands of PHP developer and alike. If you are totally serious in your PHP development, Zend is the way to go.

You can look at the price tag for each of the examination bundles that Zend offers, alongside with all the exam preparation guides.

W3C

One of the most understandable sites. And one of the guys that have been running free programs and having a wide web resources for new web developers around the world. If you don’t know W3C, you are not a real developer. W3C also give out certificate and roll out free practice test for people to try. This really worth a try to know your level.

However, the real test is nothing like the practice test, it consists of in depth material with around 70 multiple choice questions that would really rule out the weak and the strong… Also, 70 questions in 70 minutes, yes, there is a time limit. And you have to nominate someone creditable to be your supervisor. The price for the exam is $75 USD.

OST

O’Reilly School of Technology also offers PHP certification through 4 courses. On completion of all 4 courses offered by OST (with a price tag of $398 each course) you will be awarded a PHP certification. All 4 courses work in conjuction to give you a thorough understanding of PHP, ranging from beginner to advanced PHP, logical design, database management to Web2.0 integration. It surely worths the price tag.

That’s all?

Yea, for now. There are others, offering similar certification, but I’ve ruled out the 3 most popular ones. The others including Expert Rating (really a job seeking site, offering PHP certification for 10 bux, 45 multiple choice questions in 45 minutes) and Brainbench which is, in my opinion, not as creditable as the others (please don’t flame me, that’s my personal preference)