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:
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
