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Author's profile photo Vishal Soni

SAP HANA Certification Pathways

P.S.  The curriculum and the pathway show here are now out-of date. we would try to update this article soon, but for now, please refer to original links for details about training and certifications.
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As part of our team’s New Year’s resolution, the consulting team that I work with is looking to surf the SAP HANA wave to have a great 2013.
/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/surfing_173207.jpg 
And as an active member of the group, I’ve put together a couple of plans for the team to prepare for the certification program over the next couple of months. I thought I would share that plan the community. So here it goes…
From what we explored, we identified that SAP HANA provides two possible streams for certification:
  1. For Technical consultants:
    1. Exam: C_HANATEC_1   (80 questions, 180 minute)
    2. Certificate awarded: SAP Certified Technology Associate – SAP HANA 1.0
    3. Topics: Data Provisioning, Installation, Security and Authorization, System Architecture Design, System Architecture Implementation
  2. For Application consultants:
    1. Exam: C_HANAIMP_1 (80 questions, 180 minute)
    2. Certificate awarded: SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP HANA 1.0
    3. Topics: Business content, Data Modeling, Data Provisioning, Optimization, Reporting, Security and Authorization
  3. For Admins and Support Specialists:
    1. Exam: C_HANASUP_1 (80 questions, 180 minute)
    2. Certificate awarded: SAP Certified Support Associate – SAP HANA
    3. Topics: Performance, Backup and Recovery, System Reports, Trace, Authorizations, Monitoring, Operations, Configurations, High Availability, Installation

Certification pathways

Classroom teaching Pathway:
The following diagram shows a possible SAP HANA certification pathway via classroom teaching programs available from SAP. (Detailed information is  available here: https://training.sap.com/us/en/certification/ )
classroom training pathway_updated.png
                           Figure 1. SAP HANA Certification Path via classroom training
Hyperlinks (updated for SPS05):
E-Learning Pathway:
The following diagram shows the possible SAP HANA certification pathway via e-learning programs available from SAP.
e-learning pathway.png
               Figure 2. SAP HANA Certification Path via e-learning
Hyperlinks: (offerings for SPS04)
Exam-C_HANATEC_1 (this is the same exam as above classroom exam, just repeating link again): https://training.sap.com/us/en/certification/c_hanatec_1-sap-certified-technology-associate-sap-hana-10-g/
Exam-C_HANAIMP_1 (this is the same exam as above classroom exam, just repeating link again): https://training.sap.com/us/en/certification/c_hanaimp_1-sap-certified-application-associate-sap-hana-10-g/

Training details

A complete list of all SAP trainings is available at: https://training.sap.com/us/en/search?query=hana.
The following trainings are available and recommended (as shared by one user here):
  • OHA10 : It’s a self-paced training; all the material is provided online. Obviously some content overlaps with HA100 but extra and latest content is available. This is nice to have (and not a must have) training for passing the certification exam.
This is a self-paced e-learning option, costs $500.00
  • TZH300: A remote classroom training, the course contents includes: how to do transformations using SLT, advanced modeling with HANA Studio, importing-exporting objects, join types, advanced SQL Scripts and CE functions etc.
This is a remote classroom training option, costs $1300.00

Completely self-motivated learning

One person completed the certification without trainings, but just reading the content and doing Hands-On practice. The list of relevant material is available here: http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2012/08/27/my-experience-on-hana-certification
Resources (some content taken from this link):
      1. A good repository of all SAP HANA relevant links is available at this link: http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana/blog/2012/11/30/the-ultimate-set-of-hana-related-links-from-sap.
      2. A good collection of videos on practical demonstration of most common SAP HANA activities: http://www.saphana.com/community/resources/hana-academy
      3. Go to http://www.saphana.com/community/solutions and play around. Go to the “Test Drives & Demos” section and spend some time playing with all the “test drives” available. Might not help for the exam but definitely gives an idea of how stuff works.
      4. Some really useful videos: Hana Modeler (29 mins, gives very good overview of data modeling in HANA), Demo of Business Objects 4.0 tools
        consuming data from HANA
        (13 mins, if you are not used to Information Design Tool (IDT), its a good watch).
      5. If you have access to an HANA system and some extra time, a lot of guides especially for reporting tools are available here: http://help.sap.com/hana_appliance.
      6. You can also request access to an HANA system from SAP. All FAQs related to this access are here.
I hope you found these references useful. I plan to blog our team’s experiences as we prepare for the big day. For any of you that have passed the certification program, we would be super interested in your feedback on our plan as it unfolds.

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      38 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Arnold Jung
      Arnold Jung

      Hi Vishal,

      great article - thanks for sharing!

      Regards,

      Arnold

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Vishal,

      Thanks - very good article about what to expect to become SAP HANA certified.

      And just at the right time 😉

      Regards,

      Johannes

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author
      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Another good link where SAP HANA certified professional has shared some tips and tricks for getting through the exams.

      http://scn.sap.com/people/ravikar.prasad/blog/2012/04/24/some-tips-and-preparation-guide-for-prospective-hana-certified-members-hana-10-sp03-as-of-april-20th-2012

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Found another good link about details of test centers, schedule, fee structure etc. for SAP HANA Certification in India.

      http://www.sap.com/india/services/education/markyourcalendar.epx

      Somehow, this is not coming in the top search results on Google search, so posting it here.

      Author's profile photo Sarah Kellman
      Sarah Kellman

      Hi Vishal,

      Thanks for posting this valuable blog! We have added it to the Featured Content list on the home page of the SAP Certification sub-space within our Training & Education space on SCN to give it maximum visibility 🙂

      Sarah

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Sarah,

      This is really a motivating news for me and my team.

      Please do let us know your feedback/suggestions for the blog, by which we can make this blog more informative and useful for the readers.

      Thanks again.

      Vishal

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Does Anyone knows when certification will go from SPS04 to SPS05?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Karl,

      Are you able to find the information about HANA certification on SP4 or SP5, if yes can you please provide the details.

      I contacted SAP by Email and waiting for response.

      Thanks,

      Ravi.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ravi, Hi Karl,

      The current releases of the SAP HANA certification exams are valid for SAP HANA 1.0 SPS04 and SAP HANA 1.0 SPS05.

      Best regards

      Katrin

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Kartin,

      Thank you for clarification, May I know where can I find the related information on SP for certification? That means there will be questions on new added topics like XS engine and  PLA which are new in SP05, Please advise.

      With Regards,

      Ravi.

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Katrin,

      This is really a useful piece of information. Can you provide the link for this information?

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hi,

      The blog is updated with hyperlinks for SPS05 classroom trainings.

      P.S.  The e-learning pathway still has hyperlinks to SPS04. These will be updates when offerings are updated on SAP website.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ravi and Vishal,

      The certification exams are valid for the latest release of SAP HANA. You might expect getting some questions related to features and functions that are new or changed compared to previous SPS releases. It is ensured that the exam forms do not contain questions that became invalid or incorrect with a newer SPS release of SAP HANA.

      You can find more information on the exams in our web shop under the Certification Details and Topic Areas for each exam.

      Katrin

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the information Katrin.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      This is very useful information for all certfication aspirants.

      Seems like there are no classroom trainings available in US. How does e-learning session works, is it going to by by scheduled time and played in certain times.? Also,are all trainings mandatory for certification.

      Regards,

      Laks

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Nice content for certification...

      Author's profile photo Vivek Singh Bhoj
      Vivek Singh Bhoj

      Nice post Vishal

      I would recommend everyone to read HA100 and HA300 thoroughly and get your hands on TZH300 too.

      Both books are very important and it will be better to get some hands on experience on HANA ( you could easily get it from 30 days free cloud service ) and try solving questions given at the end in HA100 and HA300 books

      While giving exam Read questions very carefully as questions with multiple answers get tricky many times

      When i cleared my certification last year the questions on User Administration , Security and Business Content were a bit tricky while questions on Provisioning, Reporting and Optimization were relatively easy

      Don't worry about time as 3 hours is too much time for answering those 80 questions

      At my time passing marks were 64% don't know what is the passing percentage as of now

      Good luck to everyone 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Vishal,

      Thanks for sharing a great article.

      A question: From your team's experience, how long did it take on average to obtain the certification; beginning from taking the training, doing self study, practicals thro to the final exam?

      I would welcome answers from other members too. I realise it depends on an individual's capability, so I am not looking for a right or wrong answer, just an indicative figure.

      Thanks,

      Ramesh

      Author's profile photo Vivek Singh Bhoj
      Vivek Singh Bhoj

      Hi Ramesh,

      When i gave certification, we got 2 months training including hands on experience and i was studying for at least 2 - 3 hours everyday and a week before examination i took 3 - 4 days leave and studied most of the time and used 30 day trial HANA  cloud server.

      I gave certification in SPS4 and that time there was no concept of XS.

      Now in SPS5 many things have been included and for working on XS we should know JavaScript as well as HTML 5

      So if someone knows both JavaScript & HTML 5, 2 months would be enough for him otherwise at least basics of both these languages are also needed to be learnt.

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Ramesh,

      For any dedicated individual/team, full time working on SAP HANA (theory and practical) starting from scratch on day 1, i guess 3 months is a sufficient time to gather enough knowledge to gain good score in the certification exams.

      But then this would be just enough for the academic level knowledge, working on real-life practical scenarios might need much longer experience.

      Author's profile photo Tim Breitwieser
      Tim Breitwieser

      Hi Vishal -

      just stumble over your excellent summary of the HANA training and certification options. The complete education portfolio including classroom courses, eLearning titles, a new eAcademy, and certification has been made available on the SPS05 release in the meantime. Please see here for a summary view on the different options.

      Also, the SPS06 release is just around the corner and you should expect an updated and extended education offering shortly.

      Tim

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Tim.

      Thanks for the updates. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Matthias Wild
      Matthias Wild

      Thanks for sharing, looking forward seeing the SP6 updates.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi All,

      If you would like to learn more about the latest updates of the Enablement and Certificaton Program for SAP HANA feel free to join our webcast on Monday, July 1st. We will provide insight into what is new in the SAP Certification Program and outline options for SAP HANA certification and enablement. Please see here for more information on the webinar series.

      Katrin

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Katrin,

      This is really useful information for us. Thanks for sharing.

      We would definitely try to invest some time for this.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      thanks for sharig.

      I wasn't abble to join today webcast, do you know if there are some docs or info to download?

      Juan

      Author's profile photo Tim Breitwieser
      Tim Breitwieser

      Hi Juan -

      a recording of that session will be posted in the webinar blog, see http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-42717.

      Tim

      Author's profile photo Kartik Natarajan
      Kartik Natarajan

      Hi Vishal,

      We have a new one - SAP Certified Support Associate - SAP HANA  (C_HANASUP_1)

      which covers SAP HANA troubleshooting configuration, DB Administration(operations), Monitoring, Performance (incl. system reports), trace cababilities, backup/recovery (incl. High Availability) and Installation/Patching and Updates in detail.

      Regards

      kartik

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I have never seen SAP before, only mainframes and this week I am finishing the free 6 weeks class 'Introduction to SAP HANA". Is this C_HANASUP_1 a good class for me?

      I have no intention to write applications, but to support the SAP HANA database.

      Thanks

      Carlos

      Author's profile photo Tim Breitwieser
      Tim Breitwieser

      Hello Carlos –

      The „SAP Certified Support Associate – SAP HANA“ (C_HANASUP_1) is the appropriate exam to qualify for the support role of SAP HANA. With the 6 weeks “Introduction to SAP HANA” you presumably refer to the openSAP course. This is not the appropriate preparation for this exam. Please refer to the recommendation in the certification description, see C_HANASUP_1 - SAP Certified Support Associate - SAP HANA 1.0.

      Tim

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Karthikeyan,

      Thanks for the updates about the new certification. I tried to include this information in the article, but then i realized that the other classroom training modules are also now updated. We would need some time to update all this, till then, i have put a message stating the issue, and suggesting users (readers) to refer to the actual links.

      Thanks.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Vishal,

      Very usefull article - thanks for sharing!

      Regards,

      Diego.

      Author's profile photo Erwin Leitner
      Erwin Leitner

      Hello,

      Thank you very much for sharing knowledge.

      all the best erwin 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Vishal,


      Thank you very much for sharing .

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Vishal ,

      I need one help to understand the SAP HANA career path.

      I am working with Dell Service as Mainframe DB2 Developer into Banking domain and purely in Development (having full knowledge of SDLC process) and having 7+ Years of experience. I want to switch technology and want to move into SAP HANA. Can you please suggest will it be a good move into SAP HANA? If yes then what would be the right approach.

      I am having strong hold on these areas.

      1. SDLC process and documentation

      2. Banking domain knowldge

      3. Strong into DB development including SQL

      Author's profile photo Vishal Soni
      Vishal Soni
      Blog Post Author

      Hey Sheetal,

      Having knowledge of SAP HANA would certainly put additional arsenals in your already rich skill set.

      Being a developer, you might be comfortable with the Implementation and Modelling pathway. As i mentioned at the top of the article, the latest details about the certifications can be found here: https://training.sap.com/us/en/search?query=SAP+HANA

      SAP provides a variety of language choice for you to work with SAP HANA.

      In particular, you can go through the articles and blogs of Mr Alvaro Tejada Galindo to know more about using a variety of languages with HANA.

      You can check if there is any language you are already familiar/comfortable with, and then start working for development for SAP HANA accordingly.

      Hope this helps.

      Author's profile photo Denys van Kempen
      Denys van Kempen