A 4-year-old girl sets a world record after being certified by Microsoft as an IT expert.
Arish Fatima, residing in Karachi, Pakistan, is the youngest person in the world to achieve the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certification in information technology (IT).
At just 4 years old, the little girl scored 831 points on the MCP exam, Microsoft's certification for IT professionals and programmers. Fatima's score was 131 points higher than the minimum score required to obtain the MCP certification (700 points).
The Pakistani government announced on Twitter that Fatima had broken the world record, becoming the youngest person to achieve this certification.
Fatima's father is also an IT professional, having earned his MCP certification at a very young age. While working from home to avoid the pandemic, he noticed his daughter's interest in technology and helped her prepare for the exam.
Earlier in January, Guinness World Records honored Kautilya Katariya from the UK as the 'World's Youngest Programmer' when he was just 6 years and 346 days old.
Despite his young age, Kautilya Katariya has taken numerous IBM computer courses, including artificial intelligence (AI) programming. He currently holds at least six different certifications in data science and AI, including five IBM certifications in Python programming and AI. He has also completed the Python for Data Science course in the IBM Cognitive Class program and a professional AI certification on edX from Foundations of AI.
The impressive achievements of Kautilya Katariya and Fatima show that there are no age limits to participating in "coding" and becoming a professional programmer; anyone, even very young, can learn about IT.