Certification Survey Extra is a series of periodic dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our most recent Certification Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Certification Survey data.

Some certified professionals are so thoroughly versed in their knowledge of a given topic that they often don't resort to training before a certification exam: no books, no videos, no online training courses. There's a lot to be said, after all, for the combined weight of things like accumulated work experience, workplace training, product documentation, and familiarity with daily tasks.

Among certified web design and development professionals who participated in our recent Web Design and Development Certification Survey, about 59 percent did not use any training materials or study aids created by the certification provider to prepare for their most recent certification exam.

In a similar vein, about the same number (close to 60 percent) of survey respondents did not use any training materials or study aids created by a third-party training provider to prepare for their most recent certification exam. So one key takeaway relating to the various kinds of the certification study and training materials out there is that a lot of people in the industry don't use them.

Some individuals, on the other hand, probably especially including those who are relatively new to web design and development, do indeed rely on certification training materials and study aids to help them prepare for certification exams. For those who do use books, videos, training courses, and so forth, we asked them where they tend to get their training from.

Among certified web professionals who prepared for their most recent web design or development certification exam using certification training materials created by the certification provider, the five most popular sources of training are as follows:

1) Adobe
2) Microsoft
3) CIW
4) Amazon Web Services
5) Google

Among certified web professionals who prepared for their most recent web design or development certification exam using certification training materials created by a third-party training company, the five most popular sources of training are as follows:

1) W3Schools
2) General Assembly
3) O'Reilly Media
4) Codeacademy
5) Udemy

If there's a web design or development certification in your future, and you'd like to have the benefits of some additional training, but haven't been certain where to turn — well, now you have some options.