CGOA

I’ve passed the Certified GitOps Associate (CGOA) exam.

Honestly, it felt pretty easy for me, mostly because I work with GitOps regularly, especially Argo CD

The exam is intentionally vendor-neutral, so you need to think in “GitOps concepts/patterns” more than “how Argo CD does it”.

Exam format

#

The exam is online, proctored, multiple-choice - 60 questions / 90 minutes. The certification is valid for 2 years.

Domains

#

The CGOA blueprint is split into five domains with the following weights:

%%{init: {"theme":"base","themeVariables":{"pie1":"#ff6b6b","pie2":"#feca57","pie3":"#48dbfb","pie4":"#1dd1a1","pie5":"#5f27cd"}}}%%
pie showData
  title CGOA domains (weights)
  "GitOps Terminology" : 20
  "GitOps Principles" : 30
  "Related Practices" : 16
  "GitOps Patterns" : 20
  "Tooling" : 14

A quick “what’s inside” breakdown:

• GitOps Terminology (20%)

  • Desired vs actual state, drift, reconciliation
  • Declarative config, state store, pull vs push

• GitOps Principles (30%)

  • Git as single source of truth
  • Versioned + auditable changes (PRs), approvals, rollbacks

• Related Practices (16%)

  • IaC / Configuration-as-Code
  • CI vs CD, DevOps/DevSecOps mapping to GitOps

• GitOps Patterns (20%)

  • Repo layouts (mono/multi), environment promotion patterns
  • Release strategies and multi-tenancy considerations

• Tooling (14%)

  • Reconciliation engines, policy/admission concepts (high-level)
  • Manifest packaging ideas (vendor-neutral overview)

Preparation

#

If you already do GitOps daily, you can probably pass with a quick read of the official blueprint + a short refresher.

If you’re new to GitOps (or want structured prep), I’d recommend:

• KodeKloud (practical labs + structured prep)
• Linux Foundation training resources / courses

Bonus: promos happening right now

#

• KodeKloud: free week is running today
• Linux Foundation: free courses for the whole month