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SAS Certified Specialist: Base Programming Using SAS® 9.4 — Requirements & Free Practice

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SAS Certified Specialist: Base Programming Using SAS® 9.4

SAS certification of Base SAS programming skills in reading and creating data files, manipulating data, reporting, and resolving syntax and programming logic errors.

Licensing authority: SAS Institute Inc. · Application information

Initial by examination
SAS® 9.4 Base Programming - Performance-Based Exam
Academic Discount
Optional student/educator discounts require the appropriate SAS academic portal registration and a voucher requested before exam registration; these discount conditions do not become prerequisites for standard-fee candidates.
Account And Seat
Create or use the SAS Certification Portal account to schedule an appointment/access online exams; availability of a specific future appointment is not guaranteed by these public materials. Pay the applicable exam fee to Pearson VUE.
Award
Pass A00-231 and comply with the SAS Candidate Agreement and applicable certification/trademark requirements; the award is personal and nontransferable.
Candidate Agreement
Acceptance before testing is required. Certification remains subject to the corresponding SAS trademark guidelines and SAS written notification of award. Answer using legitimately acquired skills, follow test-provider/proctor login and exam rules, and do not use unauthorized assistance, AI tools, smart devices or disclose exam content.
Experience And Training
The official comparison lists 3–6 months hands-on programming experience for this level. Current courses are presented as exam preparation; they are not substituted for the examination or registered as additional required exams.
Prerequisite Credential
None, in the Base Programming Specialist column of the current official comparison and its linked comparison PDF.
Retakes
At most five attempts in 12 months, with at least 14 days between attempts; each attempt incurs exam charges. The current agreement prohibits further attempts after passing. The FAQ describes an exception for expiring credentials, which is not established as applicable to this award.
Scope
English investigation only; no other credential or exam prerequisite is manufactured. This route identifies the existing exam set, not an appointment reservation.

SAS® 9.4 Base Programming - Performance-Based Exam

Provider
SAS and Pearson VUE
Format
Performance based: write SAS programs for coding challenges and answer result questions; multiple choice and short-answer questions.
Exam questions
Total questions: 40–45.
Time limit
135 minutes
Passing score
725 on a 200–1,000 scale
Exam fee
USD 180; academic discounts are conditional, not the standard fee.
Examination outline

The authority publishes percentage ranges for each content area. The practice percentages below use the midpoint of each range, normalized to 100%; they are not exact percentages published by the authority. Practice question counts may differ slightly because of rounding.

  • Access and Create Data Structures — Official range: 20–25% (Practice allocation: 23.68%)
    • Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets.
    • Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures.
    • Access data.
    • Combine SAS data sets.
    • Create and manipulate SAS date values.
    • Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output.
  • Manage Data — Official range: 35–40% (Practice allocation: 39.47%)
    • Sort observations in a SAS data set.
    • Conditionally execute SAS statements.
    • Use assignment statements in the DATA step.
    • Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step.
    • Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements.
    • Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values.
    • Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa.
    • Process data using DO LOOPS.
    • Restructure SAS data sets with PROC TRANSPOSE.
    • Use macro variables to simplify program maintenance.
  • Error Handling — Official range: 15–20% (Practice allocation: 18.42%)
    • Identify and resolve programming logic errors.
    • Recognize and correct syntax errors.
  • Generate Reports and Output — Official range: 15–20% (Practice allocation: 18.42%)
    • Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure.
    • Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures.
    • Enhance reports using user-defined formats, titles, footnotes, and SAS System reporting options.
    • Generate reports using ODS statements.
    • Export data
Examination sources