Looking to pass Argo Certification? In this guide, you will learn all about the Certified Argo Project Associate (CAPA) certification and how to prepare for the certification exam.
By the end of the guide, you will have a clear understanding of the following:
- About the CAPA certification and who will benefit from it
- Complete exam syllabus and exam details
- Complete roadmap and resource for preparation
- Tips to pass the Argo certification exam.
What is CAPA Certification?
CAPA is a certification provided by the Linux Foundation and CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) for people who pass the CAPA certification exam. It is built by collaborating with Akuity, which is the company founded by the people who co-created Argo projects.
Overall, this exam tests your knowledge of the four tools in the Argo project, such as:
- Argo workflows
- Argo CD
- Argo Rollouts
- Argo Events
The following table shows the use case of each tool.
| Argo Tool | Primary Use Case | Key Functionality |
|---|---|---|
| Argo Workflows | Workflow Engine | Orchestrates parallel jobs on K8s. |
| Argo CD | GitOps / CD | Syncs Git repositories with live cluster states. |
| Argo Rollouts | Advanced Deployment | Manages Canary and Blue-Green deployment strategies. |
| Argo Events | Automation | Triggers workflows based on webhooks, S3, or Kafka events. |
Who is Eligible to take the CAPA Exam?
There is no eligibility criterion for taking this exam, but it will be beneficial for people who are working with Kubernetes and GitOps.
For example, it will benefit DevOps engineers who deploy applications on Kubernetes and also work with CI/CD pipelines.
What are the CAPA exam format and costs?
The following table has the complete CAPA exam details.
| Exam Type | Online, Proctored, Multiple Choice Questions |
| Exam Cost | $250 USD |
| Exam Duration | 90 minutes |
| Number of Questions | 60 |
| Passing Percentage | 75% |
| Validity | 2 years |
| Retake Policy | One retake |
Register for the Argo Certification Exam [Save 30% Today]
To begin your journey of becoming a Certified Argo Project Associate, start by registering for the exam on the Linux Foundation portal.
Note: Save 30% Today on CAPA certification using the Voucher code given below. This code expires soon.
CAPA Exam Syllabus
Below is the CAPA exam syllabus and its weightage.
| Topic | Concepts | Weightage |
|---|---|---|
| Argo Workflows |
|
36% |
| Argo CD |
|
34% |
| Argo Rollouts |
|
18% |
| Argo Events |
|
12% |
Argo workflows and Argo CD combine to make 70%, so focus more on them.
CAPA Exam Preparation Roadmap
We have created a complete roadmap of what you need to prepare for the CAPA certification exam.
To pass this exam, you need both theoretical and hands-on knowledge.
Do not think this is a multiple choice exam, we don't have to do hands-on while preparing.
Most of the questions will be scenario-based, so proper hands-on knowledge is also a must.
To do hands-on practise, you need a Kubernetes cluster, so set up a Kind, Minikube, or a Kubeadm cluster before starting the preparation.
Given below are the official documentation of the four tools we need for this exam:
Argo Workflow - 36%
Let's start with Argo Workflow.
To work on the Argo Workflow installed in your system, use the official installation guide to install it.
Understand Argo Workflow Fundamentals
Argo Workflow is an open source workflow engine that runs jobs directly on Kubernetes in a container.
Each step specified in the workflow will be run in separate containers.
Argo workflow is mostly for ML pipeline, data and batch processing, infrastructure automation, and CI workflows.
When you deploy the Argo Workflow, you can see two components:
- Workflow Controller - Watches for workflows and runs them.
- Argo Server - Provides UI and APIs.
For the exam, you need to understand the following:
- How to create a workflow.
- How to define the workflow steps in a YAML file.
- Difference between workflows and templates
| Workflow Installation | Quick Start |
| Core Concepts | Core Concept Documentation |
Generating and Consuming Artifacts
In Argo workflows, Artifacts are referred to as files or folders, which can be either used in workflows or generated by workflows.
Artifacts are packaged as tar and Gzip files by default.
Argo workflows use external artifact stores like MiniO, AWS S3, Azure blob, etc to store and pull artifacts.
| Artifacts | Artifact Documentation |
| Artifact Registry | Configure Artifact Registry |
Understand Argo Workflow Templates
Templates are reusable configurations that can be used in workflow files.
There are several types of templates available in Argo workflow, which is divided into two parts.
Template Definitions:
These are the templates that does the work.
- Container - This is the template that allows you to create a container in Kubernetes to run your workflow.
- Script - Allows you to run your scripts in the container.
- Resource - These are responsible for creating, updating, and deleting resources in kubernetes.
- Suspend - This makes Argo workflows stop running until a specific time or until you manually approve them.
- Plugin - These are executors that are run at the start of the workflow steps. For example, for notifications.
- Container Set - Allows you to create and run multiple containers inside a single pod.
- HTTP - Used to run HTTP request.
Template Invocators:
These are the templates that call other templates and run them.
- Steps - Allows you to run multiple templates in steps.
- DAG - Only run tasks after a specific task runs.
| Templates | Types |
| Workflow Templates | Workflow Templates Documentation |
Understand the Argo Workflow Spec
Understanding the specs in workflow is really important, we specify the steps, templates, and other fields to run a workflow inside specs.
Some of the important fields we specify inside the specs block are given below.
- entrypoint - This specifies the template that runs first.
- templates - The required templates are listed under this.
- arguments - In arguments, we specify the parameters and artifact need for the workflow.
Below are the key specs related to the Cron workflow.
- schedules - Tells the workflow to trigger on a specific time, day, or year.
- timezone - This tells the workflow to use a specific timezone to trigger the workflow.
| Workflow Spec | Spec list |
| Cron Workflow Spec | Spec list |
Work with DAG (Directed Acyclic Graphs)
DAG is specifying only run steps if specific dependencies are met, which means you can specify steps to run only if certain steps run.
For example, let say you have 2 steps A and B.
In this step, A runs first, and step B runs only if step A is completed successfully.
If step A fails, step B will not run.
This is the default method of how DAG works. If one fails, the next steps will not run.
But you can use the field failFast: false to run all the steps if the previous step failed.
| DAG | DAG Documentation |
Run Data Processing Jobs with Argo Workflows
Understand in which use cases Argo workflows are used for and how to use them effectively.
Do hands-on workflows that contain multiple step batch jobs. For practice, go through the Argo Workflows examples.
| Data Processing Jobs | Examples |
Practise with loops in workflows.
| Loops in workflow | Loop Documentation and Examples |
Practise with retries in workflows for failed steps.
| Retries in workflow | Retries Documentation and Examples |
Practise with exithandlers in workflows.
| ExitHandlers in workflow | Retries Documentation and Example |
Argo CD - 34%
In this section, let's look at the things you need to cover about Argo CD for the exam.
To work on the Argo CD installed in your system, use our installation guide to install it.
Understand Argo CD Fundamentals
Argo CD is a declarative Continuous Delivery tool for Kubernetes, which uses the GitOps principle to deploy applications.
Argo CD continuously monitors the specified Git repository to deploy and manage the application by checking the desired and live state of the application.
Argo CD always tries to keep the desired state in Git with the live state, if they differ, Argo CD marks them as OutOfSync.
Learn about Argo CD components, their function, and how they work together.
| Argo CD | Components |
Learn about the key concepts of Argo CD.
| Argo CD | Key Concepts |
Synchronize Applications Using Argo CD
Synchronizing applications deployed in the cluster with the desired state defined in Git is the main function of Argo CD.
The concept that makes all that possible is the Sync policy, so understanding and how to use sync policies are very important.
Learn about the difference and where to use manual and automated sync.
| Sync Options | Documentation |
Learn about sync phases and waves and how they can be enabled by using it in annotations.
| Sync Phases and Waves | Documentation |
Use Argo CD Application
Application is the most important concept you need to learn in Argo CD.
Every deployment created by Argo CD is defined as an Application and it is managed by the Application CRD.
In Application CRD, we will specify where to get the manifest to deploy the application, the destination, and other options require Argo CD to create a deployment.
| Argo CD Application | Documentation |
| Creating Application | Example |
| Argo CD ApplicationSet | Documentation |
Configure Argo CD with Helm and Kustomize
In production, applications are deployed using Argo CD with Helm and Kustomize, not just a simple manifest file.
So understanding and having hands-on experience to deploy an application with Helm and Kustomize is very important.
Just like a single YAML manifest file, you need to specify the Helm chart or Kustomize file in the Application CRD, and Argo CD will get it from Git and deploy it.
| Creating Application with Helm | Documentation |
| Creating Application with Helm | Example |
| Creating Application with Kustomize | Documentation and Example |
Identify Common Reconciliation Patterns
As we see above, Argo CD's core concept is comparing the desired stateon Git with the real state of the application.
And, that's what reconciliation means, comparing the desired and the real state.
Learn about health checks and creating custom health checks.
| Health Checks | Documentation |
Once again go through sync options, sync waves and hooks if needed.
| Sync Options | Documentation |
| Sync Phases and Waves | Documentation |
Argo Rollouts - 18%
Even though Argo CD does basic rollout whenever a change is made in Git, it cannot do advanced rollouts like Canary and Blue-Green deployments.
That's where Argo Rollouts comes, which is a part of the Argo project that does advanced rollouts.
Understand Argo Rollouts Fundamentals
Argo Rollouts is a controller for Kubernetes that can be used to do advanced rollouts.
In the rollout configuration, we can add analytic templates that contain steps to check the deployments and can be integrated with service meshes to check application performance based on traffic flow.
Do hands-on by deploying simple rollouts and learn about the important concepts in Argo rollouts.
| Argo Rollouts | Basics |
| Argo Rollouts | Concepts |
Use Common Progressive Rollout Strategies
Learn and do hands-on Argo Rollouts strategies, Canary and BlueGreen.
Canary - Slowly move traffic to the new version if the verification steps are successful.
BlueGreen - Runs both old and new versions at the same time, once the testing on the new version is completed, completely move to the new version.
| Argo Rollouts | BlueGreen |
| Argo Rollouts | Canary |
Describe the Analysis Template and AnalysisRun
The new version is not simply rolled out after some time, the rollout process involves analysis steps that check the application before completely rolling out.
Analysis templates contain the steps to test the deployment, and AnalysisRuns runs the analysis templates during the rollout process.
| Analysis | Documentaion |
Argo Events - 12%
Argo Events is an event-driven framework of Kubernetes, which triggers the Argo workflow based on the events from different HTTP POST requests from sources like webhook, S2, Kafka, etc.
Understand Argo Events Fundamentals
Argo Events needs Argo Workflow configured for it to work.
Argo Events gets events from configured objects, and the Argo Workflow controller, which continuously listens to the Argo Events, gets triggered based on the request.
To understand it properly, install Argo Events and Workflow, then generate events from supported objects to trigger the workflow.
| Argo Events | Basics |
| Argo Events | Concepts |
Understand Argo Event Components and Architecture
Argo Events has four main components:
- Event Source - Gets events from external sources
- Eventbus - Moves events from source to sensor
- Sensor - Listens for events from the events source and triggers the action
- Trigger - Actions run by the sensor once it gets the events
Learn how these four components work together in Argo Events and the types of triggers available.
| EventSource | Documentation |
| EventBus | Documentation |
| Sensor | Documentation |
| Triggers | Documentation |
CAPA Exam Tips
Time management is very important because you have to answer 60 questions in 90 minutes, so take 1.5 minutes for each question.
If the question is simple, complete it and move on to the next question, so you will get more time for the difficult question.
If the question is hard, you are unsure about the answer, mark it, so you can finish it later.
Do not get stuck on a single question for more than 2 minutes at the beginning of the exam.
Read every question very carefully before answering.
CAPA exam FAQ's
Is the CAPA exam hands-on?
No, the CAPA is a multiple-choice exam. However, 2026 exam feedback suggests many questions are "scenario-based,". It means you need to understand YAML manifests and CLI outputs as if you were performing hands-on tasks.
Can I use a voucher for the CAPA exam?
Yes, you can use code DCUBE30 to save flat 30% on CAPA certification.
Conclusion
In this guide, I have covered everything you need to prepare for a CAPA certification exam.
Preparing for this certification not only helps you in the exam but also helps you work with all the tools of the Argo project in a production environment.
Do more hands-on and understand everything, you will be more than prepared for the exam, especially on Argo Workflow and Argo CD.
Hope this study guide will help you prepare for the CAPA exam.
Over to you.
How are you planning to prepare for the exam?
