PCA: CNCF PCA (Prometheus Certified Associate)
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Exam Resources
Official learning paths, exam details, skills measured, and community resources to supplement your study.
About the PCA Exam
Monitor cloud native systems with Prometheus and PromQL
Master open-source monitoring with Prometheus — observability concepts (metrics, logs and events, tracing, push vs pull, service discovery, and SLOs/SLIs/SLAs), Prometheus architecture and the pull model, scrape configuration, the data model and exposition format, PromQL (selectors, rate/increase, aggregation over time and dimensions, binary operators, and histogram_quantile), instrumentation with client libraries, exporters like node_exporter and blackbox_exporter, metric naming conventions, recording and alerting rules, Alertmanager routing and grouping, and dashboarding with Grafana. Original practice questions covering all 5 official PCA domains. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sourced from CNCF or Linux Foundation certification exams.
Who Should Take This Exam?
The PCA is designed for SREs, platform engineers, and observability engineers who run Prometheus in production. There are no formal prerequisites; hands-on experience with Prometheus and PromQL is recommended.
Typical study time: 3-6 weeks of focused study
Exam Quick Facts
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Exam Code | PCA |
| Title | CNCF PCA (Prometheus Certified Associate) |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Questions | 60 |
| Pass Score | 75% |
| Cost | $250 USD |
| Provider | Linux Foundation / PSI |
| Validity | 2 years |
| Question Types | Multiple choice |
Exam Domains & Weights
The PCA exam covers 5 domains. Focus your study time based on the weights below — higher-weighted domains have more exam questions.
| Domain | Weight | Practice Qs |
|---|---|---|
| Observability Concepts | 18% | 45 |
| Prometheus Fundamentals | 20% | 50 |
| PromQL | 28% | 70 |
| Instrumentation and Exporters | 16% | 40 |
| Alerting & Dashboarding | 18% | 45 |
| Total | 100% | 250 |
💡 Study tip: PromQL carries the most weight (28%) — get comfortable writing selectors, rates, and aggregations first. Instrumentation and Exporters has the least (16%), but don’t skip it — exam questions can come from any domain.
Practice Exam — 250 Questions
Prepare for the PCA with our 250-question practice exam covering all 5 exam domains. Every question includes detailed explanations and maps to official exam objectives.
What you get:
- ✅ Exam simulation mode with timer
- ✅ Spaced repetition for weak areas
- ✅ Detailed explanations for every question
- ✅ Progress tracking across domains
- ✅ 20 free questions — no account needed
CNCF Certification Path
Start with KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) for cloud native fundamentals. The PCA (Prometheus) is the observability specialist credential, pairing naturally with the Kubernetes track — CKA (administrator), CKAD (developer), and KCSA/CKS (security).
Related CNCF Certifications
If you’re studying for the PCA, you might also be interested in these CNCF certifications:
- KCNA: CNCF Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate — 250 practice questions
- CKA: CNCF CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) — 250 practice questions
- KCSA: Kubernetes and Cloud Native Security Associate — 250 practice questions
- CKAD: CNCF CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer) — 250 practice questions
Study Tips
- Start with the heaviest domain — PromQL is 28% of the exam; practice writing queries by hand
- Use our practice exam — try the 20 free questions first to gauge your readiness
- Review explanations — don’t just check if you got it right; read why each answer is correct
- Simulate exam conditions — use the timed exam mode to practice under pressure