glossary

How to read a certification roadmap

Levels and tracks show a typical progression — not a mandatory or guaranteed order.

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Certification details change. Always confirm final pricing, availability, and credential terms on the official provider page linked in the sources below before you pay for anything.

Levels and tracks show a typical progression — not a mandatory or guaranteed order.

What it means

A certification roadmap is a vendor's map of how its credentials relate to one another. The roadmaps quoted below are arranged by level and by track; others may be organised differently.

Levels run roughly from foundation to advanced. A foundation credential such as CompTIA Tech+ or Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) introduces core concepts, while associate and professional credentials such as Cisco CCNA or AWS Solutions Architect Associate go deeper.

Tracks are subject lanes — networking, security, cloud, data — that let you specialize as you move up.

A roadmap shows a suggested progression, and it is not always a mandatory sequence — but some credentials do require a lower one first. Check the specific certification's own prerequisites before planning to skip a level; each certification page on this site shows what its vendor states.

Finally, a roadmap is not a career guarantee: climbing it does not promise placement, demand, or a particular income, so we present it as planning context and never as an outcome you are owed.

Core source records

This table lists the page’s core content records and when they were checked. Claim-specific citations appear beside the relevant text and may not be repeated here.

IDSupportsSourceChecked
CIT-01CompTIA publishes its certification catalog and progressionCompTIA — CompTIA Certifications Catalog2026-06-07
CIT-02Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is a foundation-level certificationMicrosoft — Study guide for Exam AZ-9002026-07-05
CIT-03Cisco CCNA is an associate-level certificationCisco — Cisco Certified Network Associate2026-07-05
CIT-04AWS Solutions Architect Associate is an associate-level certificationAmazon Web Services — AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate2026-07-05

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