Prep Course - Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer (CNPE)

The Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering (CNPE) course is expertly designed to help you confidently prepare for and clear the CNPE certification exam. Tailored for platform engineers, DevOps professionals, cloud architects, and senior infrastructure practitioners, this course builds upon foundational platform engineering knowledge and focuses on designing, operating, securing, and scaling production-grade cloud-native platforms.

Through a blend of theoretical concepts, hands-on demonstrations, practical labs, scenario-based learning, and knowledge checks, you'll develop the expertise required to architect modern internal developer platforms (IDPs), implement GitOps-driven delivery workflows, create self-service platform capabilities, enforce security and governance policies, and operate highly observable cloud-native environments at scale.

The curriculum emphasizes real-world platform engineering practices and industry-standard cloud-native technologies including Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Crossplane, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Istio, Tekton, OPA Gatekeeper, and Kyverno. By the end of this course, you'll be equipped to build platforms that improve developer productivity, enhance operational reliability, and support secure software delivery across complex enterprise environments.

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Course Modules & Learning Outcomes

1. Platform Architecture and Infrastructure

The Platform Architecture and Infrastructure module focuses on designing scalable, efficient, and cost-conscious cloud-native platforms. You'll learn platform architecture principles, workload resource management, multi-tenancy strategies, storage provisioning, networking fundamentals, and cost optimization techniques.

By completing this module, you'll gain the skills to:

• Design scalable platform architectures for enterprise workloads.
• Implement resource governance using requests, limits, quotas, and policies.
• Build multi-tenant Kubernetes environments with appropriate isolation models.
• Manage persistent storage using volumes, claims, and storage classes.
• Understand platform networking and traffic flow patterns.
• Optimize infrastructure utilization and reduce platform costs using tools such as OpenCost.

2. GitOps and Continuous Delivery

This module explores modern software delivery practices centered around GitOps and continuous delivery. You'll learn how to manage desired state, structure repositories, implement deployment automation, and safely release applications using progressive delivery techniques.

By completing this module, you'll be able to:

• Implement GitOps workflows using declarative infrastructure and reconciliation principles.
• Design repository structures that support multi-environment deployments.
• Deploy and manage applications using ArgoCD.
• Build and understand Kubernetes-native CI/CD pipelines with Tekton.
• Implement canary and blue-green deployment strategies using Argo Rollouts.
• Integrate service meshes into progressive delivery workflows.
• Troubleshoot delivery failures and configuration drift effectively.

3. Platform APIs and Self-Service Capabilities

The Platform APIs and Self-Service Capabilities module focuses on building extensible platforms that empower developers through automation and self-service workflows. You'll learn how to extend Kubernetes, design platform APIs, and automate infrastructure provisioning.

By completing this module, you'll gain the ability to:

• Design platform APIs that serve as clear contracts between platform and application teams.
• Extend Kubernetes using Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).
• Implement Kubernetes operators and understand reconciliation patterns.
• Build automated workflows using Argo Workflows.
• Create reusable infrastructure abstractions using Crossplane compositions and functions.
• Evaluate when to use operators, workflows, or pipelines for platform automation.
• Deliver self-service infrastructure capabilities that improve developer experience.

4. Observability and Operations

This module teaches the principles and practices required to operate cloud-native platforms reliably at scale. You'll learn how to collect, analyze, and visualize telemetry data while developing effective incident response workflows.

By completing this module, you'll learn to:

• Build observability strategies using metrics, logs, traces, and alerts.
• Implement monitoring solutions with Prometheus and Grafana.
• Configure alerting systems and notification routing using Alertmanager.
• Create dashboards that provide actionable operational insights.
• Implement distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry and Jaeger.
• Design scalable logging architectures.
• Diagnose platform issues and execute structured incident response processes.

5. Security and Policy Enforcement

The Security and Policy Enforcement module focuses on securing cloud-native platforms through governance, policy automation, identity management, and supply chain security practices.

By completing this module, you'll be able to:

• Apply platform security best practices and threat mitigation strategies.
• Implement role-based access control (RBAC) using least-privilege principles.
• Enforce governance policies using admission controllers and policy engines.
• Implement policy-as-code using OPA Gatekeeper and Kyverno.
• Apply Kubernetes Pod Security Standards to strengthen workload security.
• Secure service-to-service communication using Istio and mutual TLS (mTLS).
• Integrate security controls into software delivery pipelines, including image scanning and supply chain protection.

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Course Features

Exam-focused preparation

Every module is aligned with the CNPE certification objectives, ensuring you develop the knowledge and practical skills required to confidently pass the certification exam.

Extensive hands-on labs

Gain real-world experience through practical exercises covering Kubernetes resource management, GitOps workflows, Crossplane, ArgoCD, Tekton, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Istio, Gatekeeper, Kyverno, and more.

Production-grade platform engineering practices

Learn the techniques used by modern platform teams to design, automate, secure, and operate cloud-native platforms at scale.

Scenario-based learning

Develop problem-solving skills through realistic platform engineering scenarios that mirror challenges encountered in enterprise environments.

Modern cloud-native ecosystem

Build expertise with widely adopted CNCF and cloud-native technologies including Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Crossplane, Tekton, Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Istio, OPA Gatekeeper, and Kyverno.

Security, governance, and reliability focus

Master the operational and security practices necessary to run resilient and compliant cloud-native platforms.

Career advancement

Ideal for professionals seeking senior platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevOps leadership, and infrastructure engineering roles.

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About This Certification

The Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering (CNPE) certification validates advanced platform engineering knowledge and practical skills required to build, operate, secure, and scale cloud-native platforms in modern organizations.

The certification focuses on core platform engineering disciplines including platform architecture, GitOps and continuous delivery, self-service infrastructure provisioning, observability, operations, security, and policy enforcement. It demonstrates a candidate's ability to leverage cloud-native technologies and platform engineering principles to create reliable internal developer platforms that accelerate software delivery while maintaining governance and operational excellence.

Earning the CNPE certification showcases your expertise in designing production-ready cloud-native platforms, implementing automation at scale, and enabling developer self-service through modern platform engineering practices. It provides industry-recognized validation of your ability to lead platform initiatives and support large-scale cloud-native adoption.

Who Should Enroll?

• Platform engineers seeking advanced cloud-native platform engineering expertise.
• DevOps engineers looking to deepen their knowledge of GitOps, automation, and platform operations.
• Cloud architects responsible for designing scalable and secure cloud-native platforms.
• Kubernetes administrators and infrastructure engineers expanding into platform engineering roles.
• Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) working with cloud-native infrastructure and platform operations.
• Professionals preparing for the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering (CNPE) certification exam.

Equip yourself with the skills and confidence to architect, automate, secure, and operate production-grade cloud-native platforms. Through hands-on labs, real-world scenarios, and comprehensive coverage of modern platform engineering practices, this course prepares you to successfully clear the CNPE certification exam and excel as a cloud-native platform engineering professional.