The Certification Lab Exam is bundled with RH300, the RHCE Rapid Track course, but may be taken separately. Prospective enrollees in RH302 should consider taking one or more of Red Hat's RHCE courses in preparation for the exam, but these courses are not required. Candidates are also advised that real-world system administration experience is an important aspect of preparation for the exam, and that study without such experience is unlikely to result in success.

Exam Requirements under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3:
Under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, the certification exam consists of two parts conducted in a single day. The exam is performance-based, meaning that candidates must perform tasks on a live system, rather than answering questions about how one might perform those tasks.

The two parts of the RHCE Exam consist of:

• Section I: Troubleshooting and System Maintenance (2.5 hours)
• Section II: Installation and Configuration (3 hours)

In order to pass the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 you must meet all of the following requirements:

• a score of 80 or higher on Section I, consisting of five compulsory and five optionals problems;
• successful completion of the five Section I compulsory troubleshooting problems within one hour of that section's start time;
• 70 percent or more on the RHCT-level skills in Section II;
• 70 percent or more on the RHCE-level skills in Section II.

These last two requirements enable RHCEs to demonstrate that they possess both RHCT-level and RHCE-level skills, as well as enabling a person who only has RHCT level skills to earn RHCT if they pass the required competencies.

Candidates will be emailed exam results within three business days following the exam.

As of the end of 2003, all RHCE exams conducted in the U.S. are conducted under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3; other localities will be transitioning to this version in the first months of 2004.

Exam Requirements under Red Hat Linux 9:
The RHCE Certification Exam under Red Hat Linux 9 differs somewhat from the requirements above. It consists of three parts:

• Section I: Troubleshooting (2.5 hours)
• Section II: Multiple Choice (1 hour)
• Section III: Installation and Configuration (2.5 hours)

In order to pass the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam on Red Hat Linux 9 you must meet all of the following requirements:

• an average score of 80 or higher across all three sections, equally weighted;
• no section score lower than 50 points;
• successful completion of the four Section I compulsory troubleshooting problems within one hour of that section's start time;
• 70 percent or more on the RHCT-level skills in Section III;
• 70 percent or more on the RHCE-level skills in Section III.

Audience:
The audience for RH302 includes the following:

• people who have taken the exam before but have not passed it
• people who have taken the Standard Track (i.e., RH033, RH133, RH253) as preparation for the exam
• people who have taken the RH301 Red Hat Linux Rapid Track course
• people who have taken the exam under an earlier version of Red Hat Linux, but are conversant in the current version and wish to update their certification
• people with extensive system administration experience on the current version of Red Hat Linux, or with extensive experience on a recent version who are also familiar with changes between that version and the current version who have prepared for the exam on their own
• Red Hat strongly recommends that experienced Unix system administrators new to Red Hat Linux take RH300, as it will provide the most direct migration of their existing skills and the most concise preparation for the exam.

System administrators with experience on operating systems such as Windows NT^TM, Windows 2000^TM, and NetWare^TM who are not familiar with Linux or Unix should take the Standard Track of RH033, RH133, and RH253 before sitting for the exam.