The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which sustains and integrates open source technologies like Kubernetes and Prometheus, announced today that it is expanding its certification program to include application developers who deploy to Kubernetes. After launching the highly successful Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam and corresponding Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) program back in September with more than 1,200 CKAs and 28 KCSPs to date, the natural follow-on was an exam focused on certifying application developers to cover the full spectrum of Kubernetes technical expertise.
We are looking for skilled Kubernetes professionals at vendor companies to beta test the exam curriculum.
Are you interested in getting an early peek as a beta tester? If so, please read on!
- The online exam consists of a set of performance-based items (problems) to be solved in a command line.
- The exam is expected to take approximately 2 hours to complete.
- Beta testing is targeted for late April — early May.
- After taking the exam, each beta tester will be asked to provide exam experience feedback in a questionnaire.
If you would like to be considered as a Beta tester for the CKAD exam, please sign-up via this short survey
You will be contacted with additional information when the exam is ready and the Beta team is selected. If you complete the beta exam with a passing grade, you will become one of the first Certified Kubernetes Application Developers.
With the majority of container-related job listings asking for proficiency in Kubernetes as an orchestration platform, the new program will help expand the pool of Kubernetes experts in the market, thereby enabling continued growth across the broad set of organizations a using the technology. Certification is a key step in that process, allowing certified application developers to quickly establish their credibility and value in the job market, and also allowing companies to more quickly hire high-quality teams to support their growth.
“The CKAD program was developed as an extension of CNCF’s Kubernetes training offerings which already includes certification for Kubernetes administrators. By introducing this new exam for application developers, anyone working with Kubernetes can now certify their competency in the platform,” said Dan Kohn Executive Director of Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
To create the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam, 19 Kubernetes subject matter experts (SMEs) participated over four days in job analysis and item writing sessions co-located with Kubecon + CloudNativeCon in Austin, Texas in December. During these work sessions, the following exam scope statement was agreed upon:
CKAD Exam Scope Statement
The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer can design, build, configure, and expose cloud native applications for Kubernetes. The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer can define application resources and use core primitives to build, monitor, and troubleshoot scalable applications & tools in Kubernetes.
The exam assumes knowledge of, but does not test for, container runtimes and microservice architecture.
The successful candidate will be comfortable using:
- An OCI-Compliant Container Runtime, such as Docker or rkt.
- Cloud native application concepts and architectures.
- A programming language, such as Python, Node.js, Go, or Java.
Also during the work sessions, the team defined seven content domains with a % weight in the exam:
- 13% Core Concepts
- 18% Configuration
- 10% Multi-Container Pods
- 18% Observability
- 20% Pod Design
- 13% Services & Networking
- 8% State Persistence
The SME group wrote exam problems, assigned complexity and difficulty ratings, and determine a provisional passing score of 66% during the working session.
CKAD exam launch is targeted for early May.