Docker Certified Associate: operations and delivery

Objectives and progression

Initial course with seven lessons and 42 original decisions, including seven fictional operations and delivery cases. Internal assessment of 28 decisions in 60 minutes. All six domains have introductory coverage; enterprise administration, practical installation, Kubernetes, and recovery labs need deeper study. DCA: January 2025 guide 1.5. Advertised exam has 13 multiple-choice and 42 DOMC questions in 90 minutes, in English. Public passing score unconfirmed. Legacy topics are distinguished from current practice.

Audience: Linux administrators, APS/L3, DevOps engineers, and technical managers responsible for container platforms.

Prerequisites: Linux, networking, and container-use foundations. Mirantis describes the exam for professionals with six to twelve months of Docker experience; confirm conditions directly with the provider.

370 estimated study minutes

• Explain pending tasks and prepare maintenance preserving control and service.
• Define rollback scope and distinguish configuration from application health.
• Connect tested artifacts to deployment and reduce runtime dependencies.
• Diagnose startup and define recoverable operational evidence.
• Trace the request path and distinguish connectivity from encryption.
• Separate authentication, authorization, and artifact integrity.
• Plan persistence that survives node failure and preserves valid data.

Modules

1. Swarm: desired state, placement, and quorum
2. Delivery, rollback, and readiness
3. Reproducible images and registries
4. Daemon, logs, and recovery
5. Networking, DNS, and service publishing
6. Identity, secrets, and trust
7. Volumes, retention, and consistency

Continue learning

DevOps

• CKA — Certified Kubernetes Administrator
• CKAD — Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
• KCNA — Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate
• Docker

References and version

DCA Study Guide v1.5 (January2025); current exam listing checked2026-09-30

• Docker Certified Associate examination · 2026-09-30
• DCA Study Guide · 2026-09-30
• DCA examination registration · 2026-09-30
• Swarm administration · 2026-09-30
• Swarm services · 2026-09-30
• Drain a Swarm node · 2026-09-30
• Deploy a stack · 2026-09-30
• Dockerfile reference · 2026-09-30
• Multi-stage builds · 2026-09-30
• Build cache invalidation · 2026-09-30
• Docker daemon troubleshooting · 2026-09-30
• Logging drivers and delivery · 2026-09-30
• Bridge networks · 2026-09-30
• Port publishing · 2026-09-30
• Overlay network driver · 2026-09-30
• Swarm routing mesh · 2026-09-30
• Protect Docker daemon access · 2026-09-30
• Linux post-installation · 2026-09-30
• Swarm secrets · 2026-09-30
• Docker volumes · 2026-09-30
• Bind mounts · 2026-09-30
• Pruning resources · 2026-09-30
• Pull image · 2026-09-30
• Tag image · 2026-09-30
• Multi-platform builds · 2026-09-30
• Container networking · 2026-09-30
• Image storage · 2026-09-30
• Removed and deprecated features · 2026-09-30
• Docker Content Trust · 2026-09-30
• Retired Docker products · 2026-09-30
• Kubernetes ConfigMaps · 2026-09-30
• Configure probes · 2026-09-30
• MKE access grants · 2026-09-30
• MKE overview · 2026-09-30
• Persistent volumes and claims · 2026-09-30