Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)

Yes, to earn the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) credential, you must first hold a current Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certification. You can take the RHCE exam (EX294) before taking the RHCSA exam, but you will not be awarded the RHCE title until both are successfully completed. The RHCSA ensures you have the baseline Linux administration skills.

The modern RHCE exam (EX294) focuses entirely on automation using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Unlike older versions of the exam that tested general system administration tasks, the current exam requires candidates to write Ansible playbooks to configure systems, manage users, and deploy services. It is a completely practical, hands-on exam.

The Red Hat Certified Engineer exam (EX294) is a rigorous, performance-based exam that lasts for 4 hours. During this time, candidates are given one or more real Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems to configure using Ansible. There are no multiple-choice questions; you are graded solely on whether your configurations work.

Yes, the RHCE remains highly relevant because the current exam tests Ansible automation skills, which can be applied across almost any modern IT environment, including Ubuntu, SUSE, and cloud infrastructure. Earning the RHCE proves you know how to automate IT infrastructure at scale. Red Hat's enterprise ecosystem is also heavily used in global corporate environments.