Paths · Exam prep

Your First Welding Cert

Welding credentials are earned in a test booth, not an exam hall: you weld a coupon and it gets inspected against a code. This path builds to that day: the arc processes and how to choose between them, the metallurgy that decides whether a weld passes, the symbols and procedure documents the test follows, and how welder qualification itself works.

24 steps

Goal credential: AWS Certified Welder

The arc and the processes

  1. 1Welding Fundamentals: Heat, Arc and the Weld Pool
  2. 2SMAW (Stick)
  3. 3GMAW (MIG)
  4. 4FCAW (Flux-Core)
  5. 5GTAW (TIG)
  6. 6Choosing the Right Process

Cutting

  1. 7Oxy-Fuel Cutting
  2. 8Plasma Cutting

The science under the bead

  1. 9Welding Metallurgy Basics
  2. 10Heat Input and Distortion Control
  3. 11Preheat and Interpass Temperature
  4. 12Filler Metal Selection
  5. 13Weld Defects and Discontinuities
  6. 14Visual Inspection
  7. 15NDT Methods Overview

The paperwork that runs the job

  1. 16Reading Welding Symbols
  2. 17WPS and PQR: How Procedures Work
  3. 18Navigating AWS D1.1
  4. 19ASME Section IX Basics

Getting qualified

  1. 20Welder Qualification: How It Actually Works
  2. 21The AWS Certified Welder Program
  3. 22Position Qualifications (1G-6G)
  4. 23Becoming a CWI
  5. 24Welding Career Paths: Shop, Structural, Pipe, Inspection