Pranav Kalyan, a fourth grader from Willow Elementary School in California, has become the youngest Microsoft technology associate.
On Jan 9, nine-year-old Kalyan of Indian origin cracked the MCTS (Microsoft Certification Technology Specialist) exams based on ASP.NET Framework 3.5 to become the youngest certified Microsoft associate.
Before Kalyan's feat, a Dubai-based computer prodigy, Babar Iqbal, was the youngest certified Microsoft professional associate. He had accomplished the MCTS certification in .NET 3.5 at the age of 12.
"As a toddler, Pranav was more fascinated by computers than toys. He started writing small software programs at the age of six," said the prodigy's father Kalyan Kumar in a phone interview with Times of India.
Pranav's father hails from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He is now settled in California and currently works at the Bank of America, Los Angeles.
The elated father said,"He (Pranav) is capable of solving problems in differential calculus and integral calculus. His efficiency in mathematics helped him write programs".
The computer prodigy said that he spent the last 18 months to prepare for the MCTS exams and further claimed that he sat close to eight hours a day on computer programming in his holidays, reported the news agency.
Pranav's achievement is no small feat. His logical and mathematical skills put many computer graduates to shame. Microsoft's certification is one of the hardest technical tests to crack. Even many tech wizards find it very hard to clear the test. Only a few programmers in the world have received the honours till date.
Microsoft offers MCTS certification in a large array of technical fields such as SQL server, Visual Studio, Windows Server, Windows Client and many more topics.
Those interested in becoming Microsoft professional associate can click this link for more information on registration and training sessions.
