We’re excited to announce that the latest Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Certification Learning Paths and Exams are now live. As with every annual release, we’ve made significant updates this year, including two new certification tracks, a refreshed naming approach, and an expanded set of free certifications. I’ll walk through all of it below. 

Agentic AI + Cloud + Data 

OCI offers role-based training and certifications across AI, Cloud, Data, and now Agentic AI (more on Agentic AI below). Whether you’re an AI engineer, cloud architect, multicloud architect, data scientist, security engineer, cloud developer, DevOps engineer, cloud operator, data engineer, or database administrator, we have tailored courseware for you. 

For beginners and business professionals, we provide entry-level certifications that require no prior technical background. And this year, we’ve gone further: in addition to our free Foundations certifications, the OCI Architect Associate course and certification are now completely free as well. 

Our latest certification lineup spans five tracks: OCI, Multicloud, AI, Agentic AI, and Database: 

What’s New in 2026 

Here are the most important changes in this release. 

A complete Agentic AI track: 4 new courses and exams 

Agentic AI is one of the fastest-moving areas in our industry, and we’ve built an end-to-end track to match. It includes four courses and certifications: 

  • Agentic AI Foundations: entry-level grounding in AI agents, agentic patterns, and core concepts (free). 
  • OCI Enterprise AI Professional: building and operating enterprise AI agents on OCI. 
  • Agentic AI for Oracle AI Database Professional: agentic workflows built on the Oracle AI Database. 
  • Agentic AI for Oracle Data Platform Professional: agentic solutions across the Oracle AI Data Platform. 

This gives learners a clear path from first principles all the way to professional-level agentic AI skills. 

A complete Multicloud track: Oracle Database@AWS, @Azure, and @GCP 

Our Multicloud track now includes professional-level certifications across all three hyperscalers: 

  • Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional 
  • Oracle Database@Azure Architect Professional 
  • Oracle Database@Google Cloud Architect Professional 

Whether you run on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, you can now validate your skills in deploying and managing Oracle Database services in your environment of choice. 

Certifications no longer carry the calendar year 

Starting with this release, certification titles and logos no longer include the calendar year. You’ll now earn the OCI Architect Associate certification, not the “OCI 2026 Architect Associate.” 

This is a change many of you have asked for. It keeps your credential current and clean on your résumé and LinkedIn profile. OCI certifications are valid for a period of 24 months from the date the credential is earned. We’ll continue to refresh course content and exam objectives regularly; the credential name simply stays evergreen. 

Coming soon: two new learning paths and certifications 

We’re also expanding the lineup with two upcoming certifications: 

  • Multicloud Foundations: a new entry-level Multicloud certification, planned for September 2026. 
  • Exadata Database Service: a new professional-level certification, planned for October 2026. 

We’ll share dedicated announcements as each becomes available. 

An updated approach to course access 

As our curriculum has grown deeper and more hands-on with live OCI lab environments, Hands-on Performance Exams (HPE), and continuously updated content we’re introducing a new approach to course access designed to keep that quality high while keeping the on-ramp wide open: 

  • Foundations courses remain available at no cost. Every Foundations-level course and certification stays free, just as before. 
  • The OCI Architect Associate course and certification are now free, too. This is new. You can now go beyond the basics and become a certified cloud architect at no cost learning core OCI primitives like Identity, Networking, Compute, and Storage, and earning an Associate-level credential. 
  • Professional-level courses move to paid access. Our Professional courses covering advanced, specialized, and role-deep content will now require paid access. This lets us keep investing in the hands-on labs, real-world HPE scenarios, and frequent content refreshes that make these courses valuable. 

In short: you can learn the fundamentals and earn a full cloud architect certification at no cost and step up to paid Professional courses when you’re ready to specialize. 

Your Feedback Matters 

Our team has worked hard to bring you this release, and we hope you find it valuable. We’re constantly improving our training integrating feedback and tracking learner engagement. If something isn’t working or could be better, we want to hear from you. You can share feedback directly within any course, and we’d love for you to rate your experience. 

Good luck with your OCI Learning Paths and Certification Exams!