Docker Certified Associate (DCA) still worth it in 2024?
The Docker Certified Associate (DCA) Certification is a certification that validates an individual’s expertise and proficiency in containerization and the Docker platform. This certification is designed for IT professionals with at least six to twelve months of hands-on experience with Docker, aiming to demonstrate their skills in deploying, managing, and troubleshooting containerized applications. The DCA exam covers a broad range of topics, including Docker architecture, image creation, networking, orchestration, security, and storage.
Intro
I just passed the Docker Certified Associate (DCA) and I want to share a few things with you guys. With all of you who plan to take this exam and are worried about it.
I can’t say that I have so much experience with docker, but I had a few containers running in production and a bit of experience with troubleshooting.
Study days
I tried to study for 10–15 days, 5 hours a day.
Someone a few months ago said in a post on r/Docker that there are no online courses to prepare to pass the exam. They are all outdated. Don’t waste your money on them. Kinda true, but are these courses paid for by your company? If yes, then I would recommend these from Udemy (I used these for study):
If these are not paid for by your company, you can wait for a discount. On practice tests from these two courses, I tried to achieve 90%, and only then did I feel like I was kinda prepared for the exam. For me, these two courses were enough.
To pass this exam, hands-on experience is required and if you don’t have a system to play on, you can use Labs Play With Docker. I used it a lot, and it was a perfect environment.
I didn’t put so much effort into Kubernetes, but you will need to play with it if you want to pass this exam. You can use Labs Play With k8s if you need a fresh environment. I was a bit stressed on the exam when I saw a few questions about Kubernetes.
Overall impression
Overall, is this certification worth it? Depends… Is this certification paid for by your company? Go for it, why not? If you are going to pay with your own money… aam try to skip this certification and go for something else I don’t think this certification is worth $195-$220.
