A few months ago, I took the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 exam, and in this post, I want to share materials I used to prepare for this exam.
For those who did not hear about this certification, NCP-CN measures your ability to use the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform product, which makes Kubernetes management much easier.
This guide outlines the preparation methodology I am using for certification exams, and it is applicable to other Nutanix exams as well.
Nutanix Certified Professional is the second stage in the Nutanix certification track. This certification requires the candidate to have good theoretical and practical knowledge of working with Nutanix solutions and is divided into several tracks:
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Automation (NCP-DB)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA)
Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Integration (NCP-CI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN)
In this article, we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN) exam version 6.10, and I will also share materials that you can use to prepare yourself.
Here is a brief overview of the exam and the passing procedure:
The exam consists of 75 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions. The exam allows 120 minutes for answers. The maximum number of points that can be scored on the exam is 6000. The passing score is 3000. Questions have different weights, which means that simply answering half of them may not be enough.
The cost of the exam is $199, but very often you can get a promo code for a 50% or even 100% discount, so you should stay tuned for news on next.nutanix.com, as well as follow the Nutanix University X (twitter) account. Usually, you can see a 100% discount on Pi Day, on Halloween, you may see that Nutanix Technology Champions are sharing vouchers during the year. So stay tuned!
You can take the exam either at the PSI test center or online. Since I took the exam online, I will briefly describe the requirements:
- You must have a document confirming your identity. The first and last name must be in Latin;
- Having a computer/laptop with a webcam and microphone is mandatory;
- Stable Internet connection;
- There should be nothing unnecessary in the room, especially behind the workplace where the exam is being taken. Preferably, a completely free table with only a keyboard and mouse. Additional displays, TVs, etc., will need to be turned off;
- Of course, there should be no one in the room, and it should be quiet.
Let’s move on to preparation:
Nutanix recommends this exam to specialists with at least two years of experience in building and managing Kubernetes clusters and the same level of experience working with Linux. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification level of knowledge is recommended.
Definitely, the candidate should have the knowledge and skills necessary to deploy, configure, optimize, troubleshoot, and perform administrative tasks on a Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) cluster, because this is the subject of the exam.
In my case, I have knowledge of how Kubernetes works and operated a few clusters for a couple of years. I also had a solid experience with Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (this is another product), but Nutanix Kubernetes Platform was a new product to me.
You may not be an expert, but it’s helpful if you know, in addition to Kubernetes, the classic DevOps stack, including monitoring, logging, CI/CD, etc.
To prepare for an exam, start with the official document that lists the topics.
The Blueprint Guide for the NCP-CN 6.10 exam can be found here.
In addition to the topics that will appear on the exam, Blueprint provides a list of recommended documents for preparing for each topic, as well as general preparation guidelines.
The exam is based on AOS 6.10, Prism Central version pc2024.2, and NKP version 2.12.
Let’s look at the sections from Blueprint:
1. Prepare the Environment for an NKP Deployment – Licensing, Creating a Registry for Air-Gapped Deployments, Preparing bastion host and bootstrap cluster, Building machine images and all the basics you need prior to deployment;
2. Manage Building an NKP Cluster – Customizing and deploying an NKP cluster, Kommander, and applying licenses;
3. Perform Day 2 Operations – Configuring authentication, logging, backups, monitoring performance and health, configuring autoscaling, and conducting lifecycle;
4. Conduct NKP Fleet Management – Managing workspaces and projects and configuring platform applications.
Above I described the main, but not all, topics from the Blueprint, so be sure to check it out.
Having understood the list of topics, you can build a preparation plan for the exam.
Online courses:
As usual, we will start with the Nutanix University. On the portal, look for the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Administration (NKPA) Online Course. This online course is free and consists of eight modules, covering the NKP basics.
During the course, you will familiarize yourself with the NKP and learn how to operate the product.
Instructor-led courses:
Another option is to take a paid instructor-led course, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Administration (NKPA) Class.
Usually, I do not include paid courses in the prep guide, but this time I had the opportunity to participate in the NKPA beta labs, and I can recommend this course and lab as a great way to learn NKP and get hands-on experience because practice experience is essential to passing this exam.
Literature:
I assume that you are familiar with The Nutanix Cloud Bible. This book contains a little chapter related to the NKP.
Official documentation:
The most important document to be familiar with is the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Guide.
The guide is a large document, but it contains everything you need to successfully operate and manage the NKP, and it can help you learn and prepare for the exam.
Video:
For those who like to learn through video, I can recommend visiting the Nutanix University YouTube channel, where you can find many videos on all sorts of topics. There are also thematic playlists there.
Unfortunately, no specific exam preparation playlist this time, but one of the playlists contains NKP-related videos and is called simply “Nutanix Kubernetes Platform“.
Practice:
As I told you before, practical experience is essential to taking this exam, so I want to advise you to practice with NKP whenever possible. If you have an opportunity, do it in your environment.
If, for some reason, you don’t know what NKP looks like, you can start with the Nutanix Test Drive. Among the list, find the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) test drive and register.
During the test drive, you will look at how to deploy, secure, manage, and upgrade Kubernetes clusters. In addition, a test drive will demonstrate the monitoring and logging features of NKP.
Check the knowledge:
A great way to test your knowledge and understand the gaps is to take the NCP-CN practice exam on the Nutanix University portal.
The exam questions are as close to the real ones as possible, so you can identify and master your weaknesses before the exam.
In conclusion:
When studying, I strongly recommend writing down what you didn’t know before in a special cheat sheet. This will help you quickly repeat what you need the day before the exam and refresh your memory.
I wish everyone good luck. I hope someone may find this material useful in their preparation.
