I recently became a Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA), a new certification launched by The Linux Foundation that focuses entirely on platform engineering in modern, cloud native environments.
If you’re curious about the exam or considering taking it, here’s a quick breakdown of what CNPA is, what’s included, how I approached it, and how you can prepare with confidence.
🧠 What is CNPA?
The CNPA (Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate) is a certification designed for engineers working in platform, DevOps, and cloud-native roles. It focuses on the full lifecycle of modern platform engineering, from building internal developer platforms (IDPs), managing declarative infrastructure, and enabling GitOps, to securing CI/CD pipelines and measuring team productivity.
It’s not just about Kubernetes internals or CI/CD tools. It’s about how you build scalable, secure, and developer-friendly platforms.
🧩 What’s Included in CNPA?
The exam covers a wide range of topics across multiple core areas. More information can be found here – Official Page
- Platform Engineering Fundamentals – Declarative infra, GitOps, CI/CD, platform architecture, DevOps practices, and application environments.
- Observability, Security, and Governance – Metrics, traces, logs, secure comms, policy engines, and security in CI/CD.
- Continuous Delivery – Incident response, GitOps flows, CI/CD integration with platform teams.
- Platform APIs & Infra Provisioning – CRDs, reconciliation loops, Kubernetes-based infra management, operator patterns.
- Developer Experience & IDPs – Developer portals, API-driven service catalogs, and AI/ML in platform workflows.
- Platform Metrics & Measurement – DORA metrics, platform productivity, and measuring platform outcomes.
The topics go beyond tools, they’re framed around how and why platform teams do what they do.
🧪 My Experience Taking the Exam
What stood out to me was how practical and mindset-driven the exam felt.
It wasn’t focused on memorizing definitions or commands. It tested how you think, what trade-offs you’d make, how you’d approach a problem, or what design choice fits a given scenario.
If you’ve ever built CI/CD pipelines, worked on infra automation, introduced developer self-service, or implemented observability patterns, this exam will feel familiar. It’s not about knowing one “right” tool, but about understanding the ecosystem and choosing responsibly.
I took the exam in beta, and the experience was similar to that of a non-beta exam.
📚 How to Prep for CNPA
Here’s how I’d recommend preparing:
-
Anchor yourself in platform engineering foundations:
Think GitOps, Terraform, Kubernetes CRDs, CI/CD flows, and developer experience tooling. -
Study from what you’ve built:
If you’ve created environments, rolled out infra as code, or scaled apps using platforms, reflect on those experiences. A lot of the exam comes down to applied judgment. -
Dive into tools by problem, not popularity:
Don’t just study tools, understand what problems ArgoCD, Backstage, Crossplane, or OpenTelemetry are solving. That’s what CNPA focuses on. -
Check out the Official CNCF Platforms Whitepaper
-
Also, check out the Official CNCF Platform Maturity Model to understand more about how platforms evolve.
📝 Exam Details (Without Spoilers)
- Fully multiple-choice
- Remotely proctored, online for 120 minutes
- Covers practical, scenario-based questions
You can explore and register here:
💡 Tips & Tricks
Think like a platform team, optimize for scale, repeatability, and developer experience. Watch for key phrasing, “declarative,” “secure by default,” “least effort,” “self-service”, they often point toward the right choices. Don’t overcomplicate, many questions have multiple correct answers, but one that’s most aligned with the platform’s goals. Know your ecosystem, even if you haven’t used all the tools, understand what they do and where they fit.
Final Thoughts
CNPA is a much-needed addition to the cloud native certification world. It doesn’t test how well you know a tool, it tests how well you think as a platform engineer.
If you’re building platforms, enabling developer teams, or automating infrastructure, CNPA is a great checkpoint to see how aligned your thinking is with modern platform goals.
Feel free to reach out if you’re preparing or want to explore what platform engineering looks like in practice.
🔗 My Credly badge: Link
🌐 My portfolio: vinuja.tech