Microsoft regularly asks me to renew my Azure certifications. To do that, I have to answer multiple choice questions about specific Azure services. In most cases an AI/LLM would answer those questions better than I would.
In real projects, I look up details when I need them — networking quirks, Azure Container Instances behavior, subnet rules. But certification expect you to memorize these things, even though day‑to‑day work rarely requires it.
So if an LLM can perform the task better than me, shouldn’t the LLM just do it? No — because the purpose of certifications isn’t the task itself. It’s to provide a standardized way to document competence, even if the measurement is not fully alinged with real‑world needs.
And while studying for certifications might sometimes be wasteful, every now and then you get a real breakthrough in understanding. And that is what makes you a better developer.
The system isn’t perfect. We waste time learning things we don’t need. But certifications still serve a function: they give employers and developers a baseline for skills, and a way to verify that someone has at least touched the relevant technologies.
Imperfect? Yes.
Obsolete? Not yet.