Meet five-year-old Ayan Qureshi: The youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world

Fahad Al-Riyami

Five-year old Ayan Quraishi: The youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world

Becoming a Microsoft Certified Professional is no easy task, let alone if one is only 5 years old! But that’s exactly what young Ayan Qureshi managed to accomplish.

Ayan was born to Pakistani immigrants to the UK — his mother is a GP in training and father is an IT consultant who introduced his son to computer hardware at the mere age of 3. Ayan was apparently very receptive to how computers worked and grasped the concepts very quickly.

“I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he’d remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information,” said Mr. Qureshi.

Ayan has since spent about 2 hours every day learning about the Windows operating system, how to install programs, and what/how PC components such as motherboards and hard drives work, and has his own IT lab at home with a computer network that he built.

Five-year old Ayan Quraishi: The youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the worldDespite concerns from Microsoft invigilators that Ayan was too young to take the exam, which lasts between 2 to 3 hours and features up to 90 multiple choice, drag-and-drop, hotspot, and scenario-based questions, his father reassured them that he would be alright.

“The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory,” explained his father.

Ayan found the exam difficult, but enjoyed it, and passed, making the Coventry-based wonderkid the youngest certified computer specialist in the world.

“I’m very happy and very proud, I don’t want to see him set a world record every day. But I want him to do his best whatever he does in his life,” said his mother.

When he grows up, Ayan plans to launch a UK-based IT hub (think Silicon Valley) in the UK which he has already called E-Valley. He also plans to become an entrepreneur and start his own company. Is he also the first five year old in the world that doesn’t want to become Batman when he grows up?

Huge congratulations to Ayan for this epic achievement and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors.

Five-year old Ayan Qureshi: The youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world