- published: 30 Mar 2016
- views: 4005
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a program of Professional certifications awarded by Microsoft. Individual certifications are awarded upon passing of one or more exams. The MCP program itself is designed for software developers, and all kinds of IT Professionals. Beneath the MCP program is a variety of more targeted and focused certifications (e.g. Microsoft Certified IT Professional, etc.).
Like Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun and Ubuntu programs, the certifications mainly focus on their respective product, as opposed to employment aptitude tests designed for programmer trainee jobs. These branches of technical series with the MC (Microsoft Certified) prefix include Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS).
Each exam costs approximately $100 to $150 depending on different regions and different certification tracks. Exams usually take between two and three hours to complete and consist of between 40 and 90 multiple choice, drag and drop, solution building questions and simulated content within exams where students are required to perform certain common administrative tasks appropriate for the topic at hand.
Coordinates: 47°38′22.55″N 122°7′42.42″W / 47.6395972°N 122.12845°W / 47.6395972; -122.12845
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. Microsoft is one of the largest software corporations in the world.
Microsoft would also come to dominate the office suite market with Microsoft Office. The company has diversified into the video game industry with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles and the consumer electronics and digital services market MSN, the Zune and the Windows Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees (Forbes 400 list revealed that in March 2011 both Jon Shipley and Nathan Myhrvold lost their billionaire status). In May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications for $8.5 billion.