Zend recently announced that the version 4 of its PHP certification will no longer be available after March 31.

To become a Zend Certified Engineer after that date, candidates will have to take the version 5 exam. Zend released the version 5 track in September.

Candidates pass one exam to earn the designation. The Zend PHP 5 exam is available for $125 U.S. at Prometric testing centers worldwide. Objectives for the version 5 exam are available here.

While the version 4 exam will retire at the end of March, the certification will remain valid.

Zend had originally announced that the version 4 exam would be retired at the end of 2006, but the retirement was delayed.

For more information on the Zend Certified Engineer program, go here.