"My experience taking the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA) beta exam and how you can prepare effectively."
CNPA: Know Before You Go
I recently had the opportunity to take the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA) beta exam on May 11. It was a 3-hour, proctored exam with 185 questions, administered via PSI. I’m pleased to share that I passed the exam with a score of 94%, well above the 75% passing threshold.
Now that the certification has been officially released, it's clear that CNPA is designed to validate your foundational knowledge of cloud-native technologies, covering core concepts like microservices, containers, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), observability, and platform security. Whether you're a platform engineer, DevOps practitioner, SRE, or cloud-native enthusiast, this certification offers a practical entry point for those with 6–12 months of hands-on experience in a supporting role within platform engineering teams.
The official exam is 90 minutes long, consists of multiple-choice questions, and includes one retake. Certification is valid for two years, and candidates have a 12-month window of eligibility to schedule their exam.
Want to see the exam domains? Check them out here
My Experience and Study Strategy
While the CNPA is designed as an introductory certification, my previous experience with KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) proved incredibly valuable. KCNA laid the groundwork for many core concepts that appeared in the CNPA.
A Tight Timeline
Since this was a beta exam, no official study materials were available when I got the invite. I had just one week to prepare. Here's what worked for me:
1. ChatGPT Deep Search for Study Notes
I used ChatGPT’s Deep Search feature to generate detailed study notes for each domain of the exam. These notes included key definitions, principles, tools, and best practices.
2. NotebookLM + Podcast-Style Learning
A friend introduced me to NotebookLM by Google, and it was a game-changer. I transformed my notes into a 32-minute, two-host podcast, which I could listen to while juggling chores and “dad duty” with my two daughters.
You can find both my study notes and the audio podcast here: audio podcast
Note:
The Linux Foundation Education team released official training content alongside the exam earlier this month. After reviewing the published domains and competencies on their platform, I can confidently say it covers everything you need to succeed in the exam. I’ve included a link to the course in the resources section of this article.
Key Topics You Should Master
Here’s a high-level checklist of concepts you should understand before taking the CNPA exam:
- Platform Engineering Principles
- DevOps and Platform Engineering: Where they overlap
- DORA Metrics for platform performance
- Deep understanding of GitOps:
- Understanding of operational models in GitOps workflows
- Familiarity with synchronization and state management mechanisms
- Mechanisms for maintaining system consistency through state reconciliation
- Awareness of configuration management strategies in modern delivery pipelines
- Selecting appropriate orchestration and provisioning frameworks based on workload requirements
- Policy engines in the cloud-native stack
- Approaches to secure inter-service communication within distributed systems
- Understanding service orchestration frameworks based on traffic management and policy enforcement needs
- Approaches to enforcing access control and traffic segmentation in containerized environments
- Foundational knowledge of observability practices in cloud-native platforms:
- Understanding core capabilities
- Recognizing current limitations
- Awareness of complementary ecosystem tools
- The Kubernetes Reconciliation Loop
- What are Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)?
- Building extensible, API-first systems
- Facilitating self-service via developer portals
- How to measure IDP success
Recommended Resources
Review Important Exam information (including exam curriculum) here:
Final Thoughts
If you can confidently tackle the topics listed above, you're in great shape for the CNPA. Whether you're new to platform engineering or looking to formalize your knowledge, this exam offers a meaningful credential for the cloud-native ecosystem.
I'd love to hear your thoughts or answer questions if you're preparing for the exam!
Connect with Me
Thanks for reading — and good luck on your CNPA journey!
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