Microsoft Certified Professional
professional certification
Microsoft Certified Professional was a certification program from Microsoft.
Overview for Microsoft's certifications
Historically, Microsoft offered a number of certifications relating to its product offerings. In the 1990s, and well into the early 2000s, these offerings were extensive and well received by the IT community. An extensive network of Microsoft Solution Provider organizations offered robust training and formal examinations were provided through other contract testing vendors.
Certifications were earned by passing exams aligned to a specific certification offering. Typically multiple examinations were required to obtain either a hardware centered certification such as the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) or a more software orientated offering such as the MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer). The process of earning certification has changed multiple times since its initial inception.
In the 2020s, Microsoft announced that it was retiring all existing Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) certifications, introducing new pathways, and changing the way individuals earn and maintain those Microsoft certifications.
These certifications were phased out effective June 30, 2020, in favor of "role-based" certifications focused primarily on Azure and Microsoft 365. On March 26, 2020, Microsoft announced the retirement of the remaining exams associated with MCSA, MCSE, and MCSD, which took effect on January 31, 2021.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Microsoft Certified Professional” is professional certification. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Microsoft, Certified and Professional, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “professional certification” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1072814. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 2021.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Microsoft Certified Professional”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Microsoft Certified Professional primary sources, Microsoft Certified Professional archive and Microsoft research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Microsoft Certified Professional” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.