CNPE - Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer

Performance-based exam | 120 minutes | Passing score: TBD | $445 USD | Launched November 2025

Overview

The CNPE (Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer) validates skills in designing, building, and operating Internal Developer Platforms on Kubernetes. It’s a hands-on exam — you’ll configure real infrastructure, not answer multiple-choice questions.

KubeDojo covers ~90% of CNPE topics through our existing Platform Engineering track. This page maps CNPE domains to existing modules so you can prepare efficiently.

Unlike other certifications, CNPE is NOT K8s-version-specific. It tests platform engineering practices, not raw kubectl skills. Think of it as “CKA for platform teams.”

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Exam Domains

Domain	Weight	KubeDojo Coverage
GitOps & Continuous Delivery	25%	Excellent (6 discipline + 7 toolkit modules)
Platform APIs & Self-Service	25%	Excellent (6 discipline + 4 toolkit modules)
Observability & Operations	20%	Excellent (4 foundation + 7 discipline + 10 toolkit modules)
Platform Architecture	15%	Excellent (7 foundation + 3 discipline modules)
Security & Policy	15%	Excellent (4 foundation + 6 discipline + 6 toolkit modules)

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Domain 1: GitOps & Continuous Delivery (25%)

Competencies

• Implementing GitOps workflows for application and infrastructure deployment
• Building and configuring CI/CD pipelines integrated with Kubernetes
• Deploying applications using progressive delivery strategies (blue/green, canary)

KubeDojo Learning Path

Theory (start here):

Module	Topic	Relevance
GitOps 3.1	What is GitOps? OpenGitOps 4 principles	Direct
GitOps 3.2	Repository strategies, mono vs multi-repo	Direct
GitOps 3.3	Environment promotion patterns	Direct
GitOps 3.4	Drift detection and reconciliation	Direct
GitOps 3.5	Secrets management in GitOps	Direct
GitOps 3.6	Multi-cluster GitOps	Direct

Tools (hands-on):

Module	Topic	Relevance
ArgoCD	ArgoCD: Application CRD, sync, RBAC, ApplicationSet	Direct
Argo Rollouts	Progressive delivery: canary, blue-green, analysis	Direct
Flux	Flux CD: 5 controllers, GitRepository, HelmRelease	Direct
Helm & Kustomize	Packaging and customization	Direct
Dagger	CI/CD pipeline design	Direct
Tekton	K8s-native CI/CD pipelines	Direct
Argo Workflows	Workflow automation	Direct

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Domain 2: Platform APIs & Self-Service (25%)

Competencies

• Designing and creating CRDs for platform services
• Implementing self-service provisioning using platform APIs
• Using Kubernetes Operators for platform automation
• Using automation frameworks for self-service provisioning

KubeDojo Learning Path

Theory:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Platform Eng 2.1	What is Platform Engineering?	Direct
Platform Eng 2.2	Developer Experience (DevEx)	Direct
Platform Eng 2.3	Internal Developer Platforms	Direct
Platform Eng 2.4	Golden Paths and paved roads	Direct
Platform Eng 2.5	Self-Service Infrastructure	Direct
Platform Eng 2.6	Platform Maturity Models	Direct

Tools:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Backstage	Software Catalog, Templates, TechDocs	Direct
Crossplane	XRDs, Compositions, Providers	Direct
Kubebuilder	Building custom operators	Direct
Cluster API	Declarative cluster lifecycle	Direct
vCluster	Virtual clusters for self-service	Direct
CKA CRDs	CRD creation and operator pattern	Direct

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Domain 3: Observability & Operations (20%)

Competencies

• Implementing monitoring, alerting, logging, and tracing solutions
• Measuring platform efficiency using deployment metrics (DORA)
• Diagnosing and remediating platform issues

KubeDojo Learning Path

Theory:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Observability 3.1	What is Observability?	Direct
Observability 3.2	Metrics, Logs, Traces	Direct
Observability 3.3	Instrumentation principles	Direct
SRE 1.1	What is SRE?	Direct
SRE 1.2	SLOs (SLIs, SLAs)	Direct
SRE 1.3	Error Budgets and burn rates	Direct
SRE 1.5	Incident Management	Direct

Tools:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Prometheus	Pull-based monitoring, PromQL, ServiceMonitor	Direct
OpenTelemetry	OTel Collector, auto-instrumentation	Direct
Grafana	Dashboards, data sources, provisioning	Direct
Loki	Log aggregation, LogQL	Direct
Tracing	Jaeger/Tempo, context propagation	Direct
SLO Tooling	Sloth, Pyrra, error budget dashboards	Direct
Continuous Profiling	Parca, Pyroscope (4th pillar)	Partial
FinOps	OpenCost, cost allocation, right-sizing	Direct

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Domain 4: Platform Architecture (15%)

Competencies

• Applying best practices for networking, storage, and compute
• Using cost management solutions for right-sizing and scaling
• Optimizing multi-tenancy resource usage

KubeDojo Learning Path

Theory:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Systems Thinking 1.1	Systems thinking for architects	Partial
Distributed Systems 5.1	Distributed systems fundamentals	Direct
Distributed Systems 5.2	Consensus and coordination	Direct
Reliability 2.3	Redundancy and fault tolerance	Direct
IaC 6.1	Infrastructure as Code	Direct
IaC 6.4	IaC at Scale	Direct

Tools:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Karpenter	Autoscaling, right-sizing	Direct
KEDA	Event-driven autoscaling	Direct
FinOps	Cost management, OpenCost	Direct
vCluster	Multi-tenancy with virtual clusters	Direct
Cilium	eBPF networking, policies	Direct

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Domain 5: Security & Policy (15%)

Competencies

• Configuring secure service-to-service communication
• Applying RBAC and security controls
• Generating audit trails and enforcing compliance (SBOM)
• Using policy engines and admission controllers
• Integrating security scanning into pipelines

KubeDojo Learning Path

Theory:

Module	Topic	Relevance
Security 4.1	Security mindset	Direct
Security 4.2	Defense in depth	Direct
DevSecOps 4.1	DevSecOps fundamentals	Direct
DevSecOps 4.2	Shift-left security	Direct
DevSecOps 4.3	Security in CI/CD	Direct
DevSecOps 4.4	Supply chain security, SBOM	Direct
DevSecOps 4.5	Runtime security	Direct

Tools:

Module	Topic	Relevance
OPA/Gatekeeper	Policy engine (Rego), admission control	Direct
Kyverno	YAML-native policy engine	Direct
Falco	Runtime threat detection	Direct
Supply Chain	Sigstore/Cosign, image signing, SBOM	Direct
Vault & ESO	Secrets management	Direct
SPIFFE/SPIRE	Workload identity, mTLS	Direct
Service Mesh	Istio/Linkerd mTLS	Direct

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Study Strategy

CNPE PREPARATION PATH (recommended order)
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Week 1-2: Foundations
├── Platform Engineering discipline (6 modules)
├── Security Principles foundation (4 modules)
└── Observability Theory foundation (4 modules)

Week 3-4: GitOps & CD (25% of exam!)
├── GitOps discipline (6 modules)
├── ArgoCD + Flux toolkit modules
└── Argo Rollouts (progressive delivery)

Week 5-6: Platform APIs & Self-Service (25% of exam!)
├── Backstage + Crossplane toolkit modules
├── CKA CRDs/Operators module
├── Kubebuilder module (build an operator)
└── vCluster for multi-tenancy

Week 7-8: Observability & Operations (20%)
├── SRE discipline (SLOs, error budgets, incidents)
├── Prometheus + OTel + Grafana + Loki toolkit
├── SLO Tooling (Sloth/Pyrra)
└── FinOps / OpenCost

Week 9-10: Security & Policy (15%)
├── DevSecOps discipline (5 modules)
├── OPA/Gatekeeper + Kyverno
├── Supply chain security (Sigstore/SBOM)
└── SPIFFE/SPIRE + Service Mesh mTLS

Week 11-12: Architecture & Practice (15%)
├── Distributed Systems foundation
├── Karpenter + KEDA (autoscaling)
├── Chaos Engineering (resilience testing)
└── Mock exercises, killer.sh equivalent

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Exam Tips

• This is a hands-on exam — you’ll configure real clusters, not answer theory questions
• Focus on ArgoCD and Crossplane — they’re the most heavily tested tools (GitOps + Self-Service = 50% of exam)
• Know your CRDs — designing and creating CRDs is a core skill
• Practice PromQL — you’ll need to write queries and create alerts
• RBAC + OPA/Kyverno policies — security is tested with real policy enforcement scenarios
• Time management: 120 minutes for ~15-20 tasks. Budget ~6-8 minutes per task.

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Gap Analysis

Our Platform Engineering track covers ~95%+ of the CNPE curriculum. Remaining minor gaps:

Topic	Status	Notes
Argo Events (event-driven automation)	Covered	See Argo Events in the CAPA track — EventSource, Sensor, EventBus, Triggers
DORA metrics implementation	Covered	DORA metrics now covered in the SRE discipline modules; SLOs and error budgets provide the measurement framework
Hierarchical Namespaces	Minor gap (niche topic)	Niche multi-tenancy topic, unlikely to be exam-critical; vCluster module covers multi-tenancy alternatives

These gaps are minor. The 60+ modules mapped above provide comprehensive CNPE preparation.

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Related Certifications

CERTIFICATION PATH
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Entry Level:
├── KCNA (Cloud Native Associate) — K8s fundamentals
├── KCSA (Security Associate) — Security fundamentals
└── CNPA (Platform Engineering Associate) — Platform basics

Professional Level:
├── CKA (K8s Administrator) — Cluster operations
├── CKAD (K8s Developer) — Application deployment
├── CKS (K8s Security Specialist) — Security hardening
└── CNPE (Platform Engineer) ← YOU ARE HERE

Specialist (Coming):
└── CKNE (K8s Network Engineer) — Advanced networking

The CNPE complements CKA/CKS by testing platform-level skills rather than cluster-level operations. If you’ve completed KubeDojo’s CKA + Platform Engineering tracks, you’re well-prepared.