HCL Software Academy Exams

A Legacy of Enterprise Infrastructure

In 2019, HCL Technologies spent $1.8 billion to acquire a portfolio of enterprise software from IBM. Among the properties changing hands was BigFix, an endpoint management platform with roots dating back to 1997. Following the acquisition, the company formed HCL Software to operate BigFix alongside other acquired tools like AppScan and Commerce.

BigFix allows administrators to automate discovery, patching, and compliance across servers, laptops, and virtual machines. The platform supports nearly 100 different operating systems. Because it operates at a massive scale - often managing hundreds of thousands of devices in a single deployment - configuration errors carry heavy consequences. HCL Software Academy built its certification program to verify that administrators understand the architecture before they take control of a live environment.

The BigFix Certification Standard

Unlike broad cloud certifications that cover dozens of disparate services, HCL Software Academy credentials focus intensely on specific software platforms. The program evaluates administrators on their ability to deploy, tune, and troubleshoot live enterprise environments.

For endpoint administrators, the primary benchmark is the HCL-BF-PRO-10: HCL Software Certified Professional - BigFix Platform 10. This credential targets deployment professionals who are expected to operate independently. Passing the exam proves you can handle the platform's core components: the BigFix Server, Relays, Clients, and the WebUI.

What to Expect on the HCL-BF-PRO-10

The HCL-BF-PRO-10 is a lean, strictly focused exam. Candidates have 75 minutes to answer 60 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions.

The grading standard is notably strict. While many IT certifications set the passing threshold around 70%, the HCL-BF-PRO-10 requires an 81% to pass. You must answer at least 49 out of 60 questions correctly. HCL uses the Angoff method for scoring, meaning a panel of subject matter experts determines the minimum pass rate based on the difficulty of the specific question pool. There is no penalty for guessing, but the high threshold leaves little room for knowledge gaps.

The syllabus divides into five domains:

• Installation and Configuration (25%)
• Administration and Management (25%)
• Planning and Architecture (20%)
• Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting (15%)
• Operations and Usage (15%)

You will be tested on practical interactions, such as writing queries using Relevance Language. This is BigFix's proprietary query language for retrieving hardware and software properties. It abstracts platform-specific mechanisms like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or procfs, allowing an administrator to write a single query that works across different operating systems.

You also need to understand ActionScript, the scripting language used to execute commands and deploy Fixlets across remote clients. The exam questions focus heavily on how data flows upstream from the agent to the server, and how baselines are deployed across the network.

Market Position and Career Value

BigFix is an enterprise-grade tool. It lives in large corporate networks, government agencies, and managed service providers where endpoint counts exceed 100,000 devices.

Employers hiring for BigFix Administrator or Endpoint Security Engineer roles look for this specific experience. Managing compliance and automated patching at scale is a niche skill set. The HCL-BF-PRO-10 serves as proof that a candidate understands the specific communication workflows between BigFix relays and clients, reducing the risk of deployment bottlenecks.

Because the passing score is set at 81%, candidates cannot rely on partial knowledge or process-of-elimination guessing to earn the credential. Earning this certification requires actual time spent configuring the console and troubleshooting client-server connectivity.