Certification 'levels' signal how much experience a credential assumes — read them before you pick one.
What it means
Several vendors tier their certifications by experience, including the two this page quotes. Microsoft describes its credentials as "progressive," supporting "all stages of career from Fundamentals to Associate, Expert, and Specialty": Fundamentals is foundational/entry-level, Associate assumes a solid working knowledge of a role, and Expert assumes advanced expertise across multiple domains.
Other vendors use similar but not identical names — AWS uses Foundational, Associate, Professional, and Specialty tiers, while Cisco uses Entry, Associate, Professional, and Expert. The label is not a substitute for the vendor's own statement: check the experience each specific credential says it requires or recommends before treating a tier name as a starting point.
Definitional only — read the specific vendor's level definition before assuming a credential is entry-level.