SolarWinds Exams

From Network Monitoring to Full-Stack Observability

SolarWinds launched in 1999 with a specific focus: building software to help IT professionals monitor physical networks. Over two decades later, the Austin-based company claims over 300,000 customers, including a massive footprint in enterprise and federal government environments. Their product line has expanded from simple ping sweeps and trace routes to full-stack observability platforms.

For network engineers and systems administrators, SolarWinds tools are ubiquitous. Knowing how to deploy, configure, and troubleshoot these platforms is a distinct operational skill. The company formalizes this expertise through its certification program.

The Certification Framework

The SolarWinds certification roster centers around the SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP) credential. Unlike vendor programs that force candidates through progressive tiers of associate, professional, and expert exams, SolarWinds aligns its certifications directly with its software products.

You earn the credential by passing a product-specific exam. This structure allows administrators to prove their competence on the exact tools their employers run, rather than studying abstract concepts or unrelated software suites.

The foundational credential is the SCP-500 (SolarWinds Certified Professional). This exam tests a candidate's ability to architect, design, and deploy the Orion Platform in scalable configurations. It covers system performance analysis, feature configuration, and platform tuning. Passing this exam proves you can keep the core SolarWinds infrastructure running securely and efficiently.

Core Network and Cloud Exams

Beyond the baseline platform knowledge, SolarWinds offers targeted exams for its major monitoring solutions.

The NPM (Network Performance Monitor) exam validates your ability to manage network efficiency and stability. Candidates must understand how to analyze bandwidth usage, configure SNMP polling, and troubleshoot network paths. In enterprise environments, network disruptions translate directly to lost revenue. This credential signals to hiring managers that you understand proactive monitoring and can intercept performance degradation before it causes an outage.

As infrastructure shifts away from strictly on-premises hardware, SolarWinds has adapted its tooling and its testing. The Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring (Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring) exam targets IT professionals managing multi-cloud or hybrid deployments. This test covers log analysis, flow monitoring, and the correlation of network telemetry with application metrics. You must demonstrate the ability to track network traffic flows, configure retention policies, and set baselines across fragmented cloud resources.

Exam Mechanics and Career Impact

SolarWinds exams are administered online through Pearson VUE. Candidates face 90 minutes to complete a mix of multiple-choice and multiple-select questions. The vendor sets the passing score at 75%.

These exams demand practical, applied skills. You cannot pass by memorizing definitions. The questions test your ability to read log patterns, configure flow collectors, and identify misconfigured routes in real-world scenarios.

Employers value SCP credentials because they reduce onboarding time. A network operations center running SolarWinds needs engineers who can build advanced SQL query reports and scale the platform immediately. If a candidate holds the SCP-500, the hiring manager knows they will not spend their first month reading documentation to figure out how to add a node or configure an alert threshold.