In the 10 years since Bubble was founded, we’ve witnessed an explosion in the number of professional Bubble Developers building apps for others — and in the number of people who’ve built careers teaching others how to use no-code tools like ours. From freelancers to agencies, YouTubers to bootcamp course instructors, the drive and talent of this community has made Bubble what it is today.
As the community has grown, the demand for Bubble Developer talent has, too — but there hasn’t been a universal standard for qualification … until now. Introducing our first-ever certification program: the Bubble Developer Certification. We created it to help agencies, companies, or founders looking to hire Bubble Developers vet talent — and to give talented developers and educators another way to prove their expertise, stand out from the crowd, and unlock even more professional opportunities.
In this article, we’ll briefly touch on the perks of becoming certified, then dive into what the exam covers, what you can expect before, during, and after taking it, and how you can prepare.
Why should you become Bubble Certified?
You don’t have to get certified to build Bubble apps professionally, but prospective clients and agencies who are hiring have told us that expertise is the number one thing they’re looking for. Becoming a Bubble-Certified Developer is a way to prove, objectively, that you have the skills, talent, and well-rounded understanding of Bubble’s platform it takes to do excellent work.
Many companies, founders, students, and agencies have also told us that if we were to launch an official certification, they’d use it to help filter through the sheer volume of Bubble Developers they’re considering hiring. That means getting Bubble-Certified will help you stand out from the crowd.
Finally, certification will be one of the requirements to qualify for our Bronze, Silver, and Gold agency tiers. Those come with even more benefits to help you win business, like prioritized positioning in our agency directory and the access to potential clients via our Hire a Developer portal.
What topics does the Bubble Developer Certification exam cover?
This is not an exam for beginners. It isn’t designed to show whether someone has a grasp of Bubble’s fundamentals. This is for advanced Bubblers who want to prove the depth of their expertise in everything from responsive design to database security and performance.
This exam is designed to test your knowledge on a wide range of topics related to the Bubble platform. All of the questions will fall into one of seven broad categories:
- Bubble Interface: Using and/or navigating the various tools, tabs, and settings across Bubble’s UI
- Layout & Styles: Designing the look and feel of the page, building responsive interfaces, and manipulating the layout settings of container elements and their parent-child hierarchies
- Frontend Functionality: Manipulating how elements interact and the logic of workflows on pages
- Database & Security: Building and protecting an app’s data at scale, while understanding how to control what is public and what is private
- Backend Functionality: Writing workflows and behaviors that run on the server-side of an app
- APIs: Creating connections to APIs and/or turning your Bubble app into an API
- Performance: Building efficiently and optimizing solutions to keep your app running quickly and economically
This exam does not cover plugins, except for Bubble’s API Connector. It also doesn’t cover templates or the Plugin Editor.
How does the exam work?
You’ll have three and a half hours to answer 90 questions, and you must get at least 80% of them right to pass. You’ll see your score and whether you passed immediately after finishing. The exam will also be proctored, and we’ve included more details on that below.
One question will be presented at a time. You’ll only be allowed to move forward once you’ve put in an answer, but you’ll also be able to jump back to previously answered questions if you want.
No two exams are alike: The system randomly pulls a set of questions from a larger pool, so the order of questions — and many of the questions themselves — will change each time. That said, each question will be clearly identified as one of three types:
- Multiple Choice / True or False: You will only be allowed to choose ONE correct answer. For multiple-choice questions, the number of different choices will vary.
- Multiple Answer: Formatted like a multiple-choice question, but there may be one right answer, multiple right answers, or all right answers. There’s no partial credit; you must choose the exact combination of correct answers to pass this type of question.
- Fill-in-the-Blank: You will be asked to type the correct answer into a box. There may be multiple correct answers or multiple ways to write the correct answer. Some answers will be case-sensitive (this will be clearly noted in the question). Watch out for typos — even one incorrect character or space may be counted as incorrect!
What happens if you pass the exam?
Congrats! You’ll get a formal certificate issued in your name, delivered via email. It will show a unique QR code associated with your account and the date it was issued. You’ll also have the option to add the certificate directly to your LinkedIn profile.
Your certification is valid for exactly one year, starting on the date when you pass the exam. That’s because we’ll be updating the exam regularly as we launch new features and improvements to Bubble’s UI.
What happens if you fail the exam?
Don’t worry! Your $49 registration fee includes two attempts within a three-month period. If you fail, you can either retake the exam right away or study up on certain areas and come back later — it’s up to you. Just know that the allotted three and a half hours starts as soon as you initiate your retry, so don’t click it until you’re ready. And make sure you come back for your second attempt within three months of the date of your purchase. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay again.
Why is this exam being proctored?
We know this certification's legitimacy depends on everyone's exam results being verifiable and credible. For that reason, this exam is proctored, which means that each attempt will be recorded and analyzed by an automated platform.
At the start of each exam session, the system will guide the user through a series of steps that verify the user's facial ID and exam-taking environment. If any immediate issues are flagged, users will be blocked from taking the exam. Any additional flags made during the exam session may be reviewed later. If you don’t comply with the exam guidelines, you could lose one of your two exam attempts or be barred from taking the Bubble Certification exam in the future.
Proctoring allows us to maintain the integrity of this exam for the benefit of the entire community by ensuring no one passes the exam through cheating. You can read more about our open-book and anti-cheating proctoring policies here.
How should you prepare for the exam?
We’ve created an exclusive study aide with practice questions, an answer key with explanations, and some other useful tidbits that will help you better understand what to expect from the exam. Head to our certification page to download it.
Beyond that, experience is the next best metric to gauge whether you’re prepared. If you’re trying to decide whether you have enough experience to pass the exam, you might ask yourself:
- Have I been building with Bubble for more than a year?
- Have I built pages with a complex design?
- Have I built and deployed an app with live users?
- Have I built an app with complex backend logic?
- Have I worked on an app with other developers as collaborators?
- Have I maintained a secure app that has more than 100 users?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unprepared to take the exam — they just reference the kind of developer experience that we believe will solidify a Bubbler’s understanding of the concepts it covers. If you feel like any of these questions highlight a gap in your skill set, use them as guidance as you study.
You can also boost your skills by exploring the Bubble Academy, familiarizing yourself with the information in our Bubble Manual, and learning more from our amazing community on the Bubble Forum. (Plus, as we’ve mentioned, this community is brimming with terrific educators and user-created resources if you feel like you need more.)
This is just the beginning
We have plans to offer even more certifications and ways to help you prepare in the future, and the Bubble Developer Certification is just one step in your path to growing as a professional Bubbler.
You can register and become an official Bubble-Certified Developer today! Or, you can also dive deeper into the FAQs on our certification page.
And that’s everything you need to know about Bubble’s first official certification offering. Stay tuned for more updates. Whenever you’re ready to take the exam, best of luck!
