HTML certificate: how the final exam and certificate work
AdvertisementIf you finish the free HTML course, you can finish it with something to show: a certificate with your name on it and a link that anyone can open to confirm it is real. This post explains exactly how that works, so there are no surprises: what you must do first, how the exam runs, what happens if you fail, what the certificate contains, and what it is and is not worth.
The requirements
A certificate needs three things:
- A free account. Without an account your lesson ticks live only in one browser. The exam and certificate need an account so that the certificate carries your name and your progress is tied to you.
- Every lesson completed. The HTML course has 31 lessons in seven sections, from "What HTML is and how a browser reads it" to the final project, a profile page. You tick each lesson as complete after reading it and answering its short quiz. The exam stays locked until all 31 are ticked, and the page tells you how many you have done.
- A pass in the final exam.
You do not need to take the exam. The lessons are free and open to everyone. The exam and certificate are for people who want proof.
What the course covers
The exam draws on the whole course, so it helps to know what that is:
| Section | Lessons | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | 5 | How browsers read HTML, a first page, elements, tags and nesting, attributes, comments and whitespace |
| Text and links | 5 | Headings and paragraphs, text meaning, links, lists, quotes and code |
| Images and media | 5 | Images, sizes and formats, figures and captions, audio and video, embeds |
| Page structure | 4 | Header, nav, main and footer, div and span, semantic HTML, block and inline elements |
| Tables | 2 | Tables, headers and captions |
| Forms | 5 | Forms, input types, labels and accessibility, dropdowns and buttons, validation |
| Going further | 5 | The head and meta tags, HTML for search engines, accessibility, entities, the profile page project |
How the exam works
The rules are the same for every course on the site:
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Questions | 15, multiple choice |
| Source | Drawn at random from a larger bank of questions for the course (20 for HTML) |
| Time | 30 minutes |
| Pass mark | 70%, which means at least 11 of 15 correct |
| Attempts | 3 in any rolling 24 hours |
Some details that matter:
- Questions differ between attempts. Each try draws a new random set from the bank, so your second attempt will share some questions with the first but not all.
- The timer keeps running if you close the page or leave. The exam is submitted automatically when time runs out, so start only when you have 30 uninterrupted minutes.
- The questions are meant to be hard. They test understanding, such as what an element does or why one markup is better than another, not memorised lists.
- Right answers are not shown after you finish. The bank is reused in later attempts, so showing answers would turn the exam into a lookup. You see your score, and which questions you got right or wrong, so you know what to revise.
- Work on your own. The certificate says you can do this without looking things up, so the exam is only worth taking in that way.
If you do not pass
A failed attempt is not a mark on your account. The page tells you your score and the pass mark. You can try again, up to three times in 24 hours. If you use all three, wait until the window passes.
A sensible response to a fail is to revise before retrying, not to retry at once. Open the lessons for the topics you missed, redo the exercises, and try the next day. Typical weak spots in HTML are:
- the difference between block and inline elements,
- attributes (
alt,href,src,type,for,id), - which element is correct for a job (semantic HTML),
- forms: labels, input types and validation attributes,
- what goes in the
<head>.
The certificate
On passing, the certificate appears on your dashboard at once. It shows:
- the words "Certificate of completion",
- your name, as entered in your account,
- the course title,
- your score,
- the issue date,
- a certificate ID such as
MH-HTML-7K3Q9XPA, - the address where it can be verified.
Each certificate has its own public page, …/learn/certificate/?id=<ID>. Anyone who has the link or the ID can open the page to see the certificate and confirm it is genuine. A verification form on the same page accepts an ID typed in by hand. If a certificate were ever withdrawn, for example because of cheating, the page would show it as revoked.
You can print it or save it as a PDF from your browser, copy the link, or use the Add to LinkedIn button, which pre-fills a LinkedIn certification entry with the course name, the date, the link and the ID. The post How to add your certificate to LinkedIn and your CV walks through it.
What the certificate is worth
Be honest with yourself and with employers. This certificate is not an accredited qualification or a university degree. It is a verifiable record that you completed a specific course of 31 lessons and passed a timed exam on it. That has real but modest value:
- It shows initiative and consistency: you finished something.
- It gives a recruiter a link to check, which is better than an unverifiable line on a CV.
- It is a good way to structure your learning, since there is a clear finish line.
What employers and clients actually look for in web work is things you have built. The best use of the certificate is next to a portfolio: the profile page from the final lesson, plus one or two pages of your own. Put the certificate and the projects on the same CV.
Preparing
A short method that works for most learners:
- Finish the course normally, doing every exercise.
- A few days later, reread the headings of each lesson and ask yourself what you can still explain.
- Rebuild the profile page from a blank file without looking.
- Redo the quizzes of the lessons that felt weakest.
- Take the exam when you have time, a quiet place and no notes.
The post How to prepare for an online programming exam gives a general method, and the 30-day HTML and CSS study plan lays out the whole course in a schedule.
Next steps
After HTML, the natural next course is CSS, then MySQL and PHP if you want to build dynamic sites. The roadmap shows the best order.
Quick answers
Is the certificate free? Yes.
How many questions are there? 15 per attempt, drawn from the course's question bank.
What is the pass mark? 70%, which is 11 of 15 correct.
How many retries do I get? Three attempts in any 24 hours.
Can employers verify my certificate? Yes, by opening its link or typing its ID on the verification page.
Does it expire? No expiry date is printed on it. Technologies change, so keep your skills current.