The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Linux Foundation Education are excited to announce the launch of the Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA) certification!
Why CNPA, and why now?
At recent KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, platform engineering has truly taken center stage. Dedicated tracks and co-located events focused on platform engineering are drawing record crowds—a clear sign that organizations everywhere are seeking clarity and standards in this fast-evolving space.
The CNPA was created in direct response to this growing momentum. Developed openly with input from platform engineers, architects, and educators across the CNCF landscape with participation from more than 50 companies, it provides a vendor-neutral way to validate key platform engineering skills—covering everything from automation and platform APIs to observability, security, and the developer experience. The goal? To validate the knowledge of professionals who design, build, and maintain cloud native platforms that help teams move faster and more securely, while freeing developers to focus on delivering value instead of battling infrastructure.
The exam, which consists of multiple-choice questions over 120 minutes, reflects the realities of platform engineering in today’s organizations.
You’ll be assessed on :
- Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals (36%):
Covers the foundational concepts and best practices of platform engineering, including automation, DevOps, platform architecture, infrastructure, and continuous integration and delivery. - Platform Observability, Security, and Conformance (20%):
Focuses on making platforms observable, secure, and compliant, encompassing logging, tracing, metrics, policy enforcement, and secure software supply chains. - Continuous Delivery & Platform Engineering (16%):
Addresses the principles and practices of building, automating, and managing continuous integration and delivery pipelines, incident response, and GitOps workflows. - Platform APIs and Provisioning Infrastructure (12%):
Explores API-driven platform design, infrastructure provisioning and automation with Kubernetes, self-service capabilities, and operator patterns. - IDPs and Developer Experience (8%):
Examines how platforms enhance developer experience with tools like Backstage, developer portals, and API-driven service catalogs. - Measuring Your Platform (8%):
Focuses on evaluating platform success and impact, including team productivity, platform efficiency, and the use of DORA metrics.
As Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of CNCF, explains:
“As platform engineering quickly takes on a central role, the CNPA certification highlights and recognizes engineers who are ready for this new generation of cloud native platforms—those who can bridge infrastructure, automation, and developer experience to help teams deliver software at scale. CNPA is designed to validate the unique combination of technical and collaborative skills that define today’s leading platform engineers.” said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF.
When you pass the CNPA exam, you’ll receive a verifiable digital badge that demonstrates your achievement and commitment to the field.
Community built, community driven
From the start, CNPA has been built in the open, with input from platform engineers and organizations across the CNCF landscape, in particular the CNCF Platforms Working Group and Community.
Special thanks to the following organizations who contributed to the creation of CNPA: “Archetypical Software”, “CloudIDR”, “Cloud Native Barcelona”, “Control Plane”, “Datadog”, “Devoteam”, “DevRel As Service”, “Diagrid”, “DojoBits”, “Dynatrace”, “Eficode”, “Empathy.co”, “Ericsson”, “Fidelity Investments”, “Fixedbyte”, “Github”, “Gojek (GoTo Financial)”, “Harness Inc”, “HashiCorp”, “Itaú Unibanco”, “Infosys”, “InfraCloud Technologies (an Improving company)”, “Krumware”, “Liquid Reply”, “London South Bank University”, “Missing Mass, LLC”, “NatWest Group”, ”OD10 Ventures”, “Platform Engineering community”, “Red Hat”, “Resizes”, “RX-M”, “Sopra Steria”, “SUSE”, “Testkube”, “Thoughtworks Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd”, “UST”, “Vodafone India pvt Ltd” and many many others !!
This launch is just the beginning: CNPA is the first step in a new platform engineering certification path, with the Cloud Native Platform Engineer (CNPE) certification already in development.
Get involved
If you’re passionate about platform engineering, now is the perfect time to learn more, get certified, and join the conversation. CNPA is a testament to what our community can accomplish together—and we’re excited to see where you take it next.
Ready to get started? Learn more about CNPA and register here.