Overview of a hands-on course preparing engineers for the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer performance exam covering platform architecture, GitOps, APIs, observability, and security
Welcome. This lesson explains why the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer (CNPE) certification matters and what this course will help you achieve. Whether you’re transitioning from DevOps, already building internal platforms, or pursuing the Kubestronaut title, this lesson provides the context and outcomes you can expect.Platform engineering is more than a new job title — it’s a shift in how teams deliver developer productivity and operational consistency. Over time we’ve moved from manual system administration to DevOps practices and now to dedicated platform teams that design internal platforms, self‑service APIs, and automation to speed every engineering team.Gartner predicts that 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams by 2026. That trend is already visible across the industry.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) introduced CNPE to validate the practical skills platform engineers need. Unlike multiple-choice exams, CNPE is performance-based: you’ll build, configure, and troubleshoot in a live environment. This proves you can execute the work required to design, operate, and evolve internal platforms.
What this course delivers
Hands-on platform skills with demos and guided labs for every core concept.
Tasks and scenarios mapped directly to the five CNPE exam domains to replicate the performance exam format.
Real-world patterns: how architecture choices affect cost, how GitOps integrates with security, and how observability informs operations.
End-to-end platform thinking: infrastructure, APIs, delivery pipelines, monitoring, and security.
Who this course is for
DevOps engineers moving into platform engineering — you likely know Kubernetes and CI/CD; this course adds product thinking and platform design.
Platform enthusiasts — learners who want structured coverage across the five CNPE domains.
Kubestronaut seekers — CNPE is now part of the certification pathway for the Kubestronaut title.
GitOps resources and tool documentation (Argo CD, Flux) for delivery practices
By the end of this course you should be able to design platform architectures, implement GitOps pipelines, expose self-service APIs, operate observability stacks, and apply security controls — all with the hands-on experience needed for the CNPE performance exam.
