Microsoft Kicks Off Second KiPi Challenge

First of all, a note to the people behind the scenes at Microsoft Learning. "KiPi" looks weird. You, um, "know" that, right? IT certification is a universe of three- or four-letter (occasionally five-letter) all-caps acronyms. Like MCSA, for example. Or maybe MCSE. MTA, MCP, MOS. It should be Know It Prove It and KIPI, and we think you know it. Of course, it should really be Know IT Prove IT.

(Get it? Or should we say, "Get IT?")

All right, All right. It's your party, Microsoft, and we'll play along. Microsoft Learning inaugurated the Know it. Prove it. certification challenge last year, inviting Microsofties everywhere to test their certification mettle by getting a cert from start to finish in just three short months. This time around, the goal is different, and the time frame is tighter: You have just 29 days to accomplish one of 10 different learning challenges.

February is right about when New Year's Day and its resolutions are "fading into Bolivian," as Mike Tyson once put it, so the timing couldn't be better, right? The new Know it. Prove it. challenge kicks off on Monday (Feb. 1), so there's no time to waste. If you've been planning to boost your IT skill set anyway, then why not get the added motivation and synergistic mojo of group participation? It's like having a friend kick your butt out of bed in the morning and get you to the gym.

Microsoft Virtual Academy has 10 different learning challenges for KiPi participants: Introduction to Development, Big Data, Game Development, Universal Apps Platform, Web Development, Introduction to IT, Enterprise Mobility Management, Hybrid Cloud, DevOps, and Security. If you love IT then there's bound to be something on that list that jives with your current career ambitions, or at least appeals to your sense of adventure. Open the gates and seize the day, people.

The KiPi challenge even has, um, IT superheroes to ... encourage participants? Save them from a late night study crash? We aren't entirely certain what "Suprema Code" and "Captain Binary" are actually available for, but they are part of the action, too. And someone spent at least a couple of hours designing them, so they must be here to do more than just look cool. (We aren't kidding. They really are part of this thing. Captain Binary even has a shield that says "MVA" on it.)

Each of the challenges awards a badge, which jives with a report from last year that Microsoft wanted to start making "mini-certifications" available, the better to capture the interest of hard-to-please millennials with short attention spans.