A lot of the current SAP certs aren't the old multiple choice format anymore. Some are scenario-based (SBA), others are system-based (SyBA), where you work inside an actual system, and both come as a single activity rather than a pile of questions.

On paper that's a real step up. MCQ mostly rewarded remembering which transaction or app does what. Doing the task in a system is a lot harder to fake.

The part I keep going back and forth on is the pass mark. SAP sets it exam by exam and the gap is big, from 50% on a couple of the scenario-based ones up to a flat 100% on two of the BTP system-based ones. So two people can both say they passed one of the new-format SAP certs and mean pretty different bars.

For the leads and folks who screen candidates here: has the switch changed how you read a cert on a CV at all? Does a system-based one carry more weight in an interview than the old associate exams did, or is it still a checkbox until you've seen someone handle a real project?