Thirteen lines in the Q4 CertBueno Top 100 IT Certifications were renamed, refreshed or retired this year. UiPath’s deadline is Thursday.
October 10, 2026
AWS retired a $187,630 certification in August. Here’s what to do when the vendor moves yours.
When you book an exam, nobody mentions that the certification belongs to the vendor rather than to you. They can rename it or retire it without asking. This year they did that to thirteen of the hundred lines in the CertBueno Top 100 IT Certifications, through exam refreshes, renames, retirements and one end of sale. If you hold anything from AWS, Microsoft, VMware, Salesforce or UiPath, there’s a decent chance one of them is yours.
The clearest case is the AWS Advanced Networking—Specialty. AWS retired it in August with no replacement. Holders still earn $187,630 and it sits at #9 on the index, but nobody new can earn it. If that’s you, you own something that gets scarcer every month. That works in your favor for a couple of years and then starts working against you, because a credential a new employer can’t check against a live exam slowly turns into a line on a resume. That’s why the verdict moved to UPGRADE. It’s worth the same today, but the vendor, not you, decides how long that lasts.
The one with a date on it this week is UiPath. The legacy RPA developer certifications expire on Thursday, October 15. The UiPath Automation Developer line pays $97,631. If you hold one of the old credentials and haven’t moved across, from Friday it shows as lapsed, and you’ll be asked about that in interviews.
The renames get less attention, and more people get caught by them. Microsoft retired AZ-500 and PL-200 on August 31 and AI-102 on June 30. You keep the certification. New candidates sit SC-500, AB-410 and AI-103. VMware pulled VCP-DCV from the catalog in December and the path is now VCP-VCF. AWS renamed SysOps Administrator to CloudOps Engineer. Pay on those lines didn’t move, but if your LinkedIn still carries the old name, a recruiter searching the new one doesn’t find you.
The same thing happens to anything on your resume that somebody else controls, including a job title that gets rebranded after a merger. Here is what I’d do before those dates land.
Put both names on your profile and your resume, written as “AZ-500 (now SC-500)“. Recruiters searching either name find you, and it takes about ten minutes.
If you’re mid-study, sit the current version. AWS Solutions Architect—Professional moves to SAP-C03 on November 17, so the last day for the current exam is November 16. Developer—Associate moves to DVA-C03 on December 1, last day November 30. You get the same certification either way, and the current exam has far more practice material behind it. The first cohort through a new question bank is guessing at what the exam actually tests, and you don’t need to be in it.
And if yours is retired, use that. For now, a retired credential that still prices at $187,630 is a stronger line in a pay conversation than a live one, because nobody can hire your replacement with it. Bring the figure and the retirement date to the conversation. Most US employers are setting 2027 pay this month. Ask for it as a market adjustment rather than in a performance review, because the two come out of separate budgets.
THIS WEEK IN THE INDEX
Nothing repriced this week, but five dates are coming up
The index reprices once a quarter, so no figure moved this week and I’m not going to invent one. What’s live is the date list. These are the ones from the Q4 notes that land in the next ninety days.
October 15. UiPath legacy RPA developer certifications expire.
October 27. Registration opens for SAP-C03 and DVA-C03.
November 16. Last day for the current Solutions Architect—Professional exam. SAP-C03 goes live the next day and adds generative and agentic AI and post-quantum cryptography.
November 30. Last day for the current Developer—Associate exam. DVA-C03 goes live December 1 and adds AI-assisted development and AI security.
January 14, 2027. The new AWS Machine Learning Engineer—Associate exam goes live, with generative AI, agents and foundation models added.
Every refresh on that list adds AI to the exam, and Microsoft’s successor to AI-102 has the word “agents” in its title. Vendor marketing has been saying AI for two years, but now it’s in the exam blueprints, and a blueprint is harder to fake than a press release. Pay on the AI lines is still mid-table, but the exams are being rewritten toward it regardless, so the gap will close from the exam side first.
One thing to do
Open your LinkedIn and your resume and check every certification name against the current exam code. Fix the ones that have moved. Then run the free checker so you have the Q4 figure for what you hold before any of those dates arrive. If what you hold is retired and the verdict says UPGRADE, the AI Cert Stack report covers what to add and in what order.
See you next Saturday.
@MrCertBueno
US market data. All figures USD.
The CertBueno Top 100 IT Certifications tracks the 100 highest-paying IT certifications in the world, on US data. Figures are the Q4 2026 index, published October 1, 2026. Verdicts (INVEST / UPGRADE / DIVERSIFY / STABLE) are index labels, not financial advice.
US market data. All figures USD.