So, you have been preparing for Spring certification for quite a sometime and now you feel you are ready to take the exam and it's time to buy the Spring certification voucher and schedule your exam. In this article, I'll show you how to buy the Spring certification voucher online. But, before purchasing a voucher, I would like to remind you that Spring certification voucher is only valid for 90 days, after that it will expire. So, it's best to buy the voucher only if you are ready for the exam i.e. you have gone through several

Spring Mock tests and practice tests given in Spring study guides and you are consistently scoring over 80% on them.

Since passing score of Spring certification exam is quite high, around 76% there is no way you should attempt exam if you are not scoring over 80% on mock tests unless you just want to give Spring certification for the experience, which is also not a bad idea if you can afford cost of spring certification $200.

Anyway, I am not a big fan of that strategy because I like to prepare hard and clear the exam with flying color in one chance. It's not that I haven't tried that strategy but I found that your best effort is always on the first chance, slowly you start losing your mojo and interest.

That's why when I went for my Java certification, I did both Enthuware and Whizlabs tests multiple times to full proof my preparation. Unfortunately, with Spring, you don't have many choices, there is only one good Spring simulator available i.e.  

David Mayer's Spring Mock Simulator, but for many, it's more than enough because it contains over 400 quality questions.

Step by Step Guide to buying Spring Professional certification vouchers

Anyway, If you think you are ready with your preparation of becoming a Pivotal certified Spring developer, you can purchase the Spring certification voucher from Pivotal's training website (

https://pivotal.io/training/certification). 
Here are the steps to purchase the spring certification voucher online:

1. Decide which Spring certification you want to take?

There are three types of Spring certification available on Pivotal's website: Spring Professional, Spring Web Application Developer, and Enterprise Integration Specialist. You have to first decide which one you want to attend. If you are not sure, I suggest you check this article first. Generally, you would like to go for Core Spring certification which is also known as Spring Professional certification.

2. Go to https://pivotal.io/training/certification

3. Choose the Certification on left-hand side, Developer Certifications

4. Click the Purchase exam

This will open the following screen where the exam and their price is listed:



Just be careful because there are multiple Spring Professional certifications are listed e.g. Spring Professional V4.2 Exam, Spring Professional V4.3 Exam, and Spring Professional V5.0 Exam. You need to choose the one you have been preparing.

The first exam is based on Spring 4.2 release and the second exam is based upon Spring 4.3 release.

Btw, there is no such confusion if you are purchasing Spring Web Application developer certification or Enterprise Integration Specialist certification.

Also, the cost of every certification is USD 200 which is fairly reasonable. In fact, it's cheaper than the cost of Oracle's Java certification, which cost you around 246 US Dollars.

5. Add to Card

Select the certification you want to take and add that to the cart by clicking "Add to Cart" button. After that, you can continue shopping or just begin checkout by clicking on "begin checkout" button.

Once you click on Begin Checkout, you will be presented with the following screen where you need to create your account on the Pivotal website, required for billing and scheduling purpose.  assign the course to yourself or someone else. This means you can buy the Spring Certification voucher for someone else too.

6. Create Account

In order to purchase and schedule any Spring certifications, you need to create an account on the Pivotal website. After you click the button, it will present you a login form with title "Login for Schedules and Pricing". If you have an existing Pivotal account then you can log in with that but if you don't then you need to create one right there by clicking "Register Now" link.

7. Enter Your details and Register

In the registration form, you need to enter your First Name, Last Name, Company, email address, password, Country and currency, all these are mandatory. You can also add your phone number but that is optional.




Btw, you must accurately enter your details as it may be used in your certification. After that just check the checkbox "Accept our Terms & Condition" and click on "Register" button. It will then try to create your account and say "Please wait while we create your account".

8. Course and its price

Here you will see the page where your selected course is listed with its price. You also have two option, first "Assign to me" and "Assign to Others". If you are buying the certification for yourself then you can click the "Assign to Me" button and it will then assign it to you by putting your name and email address there. It will also enable "Continue to Billing" button which was disabled until you assign the certification to yourself or others.



Once you assign the course to yourself then you can see that is assigned to you as shown below:



Depending upon your company, you may in for a discount as well e.g. for one of my friend the price of Core Spring or Spring Professional certification shows $150 in this page, instead of $200, which is good 50 USD less.

9. Add a Payment Method

In the next page, it will ask you for GST/VAT Id but if you are consumer then you just choose the option that "I am a consumer who does not have a VAT/GST ID" and you can add a payment method. Pivotal allows you to buy the voucher using VISA, MasterCard or American Express card. Once you enter your details, you can click at checkout.

10. Done

Once you make the payment, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for accessing your exam within a few minutes. The email's subject contains "Pivotal Academy: Exam Enrollment." If you do not see the email in your inbox, please check your spam folder.

If you don't receive the voucher after making payment to the website, you can contact them by filling out the contact form given on https://pivotal.io/training-contact-popup-form. Ideally, you should receive a proof of purchase and exam registration instructions within an hour.

That's all about how to purchase Spring certification voucher online from Pivotal's website. As I have said, the voucher is only valid for 90 days or 3 months, hence you should only buy it when you are ready for the exam.

How do you check if you are ready for the exam? Well, you can use the David Mayer's Spring Mock test for that. If you consistently score more than 80% then you are ready for the exam. This means you have a higher chance of passing the Spring Professional exam in one chance.


Other Spring Certification Resources for Java Programmers
Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like this article and find it useful for your Spring certification journey then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions related to spring certifications then please drop a note.