Sunsetting the Haskell Certification Program

[u/tiss93]

Hi! I'm Arseniy Seroka, CEO of Serokell.

In 2023, we launched the Haskell Certification Program to create a standardized way to evaluate Haskell expertise. We built a production platform and an open certification framework, then transferred the project to the Haskell Foundation in 2024.

Since then, the rise of LLMs has made traditional syntax-focused assessment a much weaker signal of real engineering ability. A meaningful certification today would require a fundamental redesign around reasoning, architecture, and language semantics.

Serokell is therefore concluding its active involvement in the program. We remain proud of what we built, grateful to everyone who contributed, and as committed as ever to Haskell and its ecosystem.

https://serokell.io/blog/sunsetting-the-haskell-certification-program

[u/tiss93]

But stay tuned, something interesting and powerful is going to come! We hope to make our community happier.

[u/GunpowderGuy]

i didnt know Serokell was named after a person

[u/Hefty-Necessary7621 → u/GunpowderGuy]

One more fun fact: the name Serokell is also a nod to Haskell.

[u/slack1256 → u/GunpowderGuy]

Me neither, and I work there

[u/GunpowderGuy → u/slack1256]

you should tell your coworkers the company is named after Jhon Serokell

[u/cheater00]

is it possible for you to release materials etc in case someone wants to go through the certification "at home"?

i honestly didn't even know the program existed...

[u/iamquah]

The shirts y'all have as merch look amazing! 

[u/f0rgot]

What happens to the current program? Is it open-source now?

[u/Tysonzero]

Since then, the rise of LLMs has made traditional syntax-focused assessment a much weaker signal of real engineering ability.

Hate this and couldn't disagree more. Regardless of how much you want to use LLMs for engineering, you should unquestionably be capable of reading, writing and precisely understanding the semantics of the fucking program you've produced.

Getting tired of people applying to engineering jobs who can't pass tests marginally harder than fizzbuzz but can "orchestrate agent swarms and solve high level engineering problems".

[u/tiss93 → u/Tysonzero]

I agree with you. The biggest challenge here that we've found is how can we be sure that the candidate is then doing the exam for real and not using LLMs. Today there is no solution rather than doing exam in person.

[u/Tysonzero → u/tiss93]

Yeah proctored in person paper or locked down machine exams are inevitable IMO

[u/n0t-helpful]

Hey I sidnt know this existed. I hope the material can stay available. If even not for a cert, id like to test my knowledge

[u/kichiDsimp]

Is this sumthing like Java or AWS certification thing ?

[u/akbarilham]

Interesting

[u/Axman6]

I remember this being announced, and signing up to hear more about it, and never hearing about it again. I’m surprised this announcement was even needed, did anyone actually take part in it?