Experience with Docker Certified Associate (DCA)
In this post, I will share the details on how I prepared for the Docker Certified Associate Exam.
I was not having exposure to Docker in my 9+ years of IT experience. I will share a detailed plan which helped me clear this certification.
I started preparing for DCA in the third week of August and cleared on 8th Nov 2020. During this duration, my focus was on Docker and slightly on Kubernetes.
How I started:
I started exploring Docker from various sources but started with Kubernetes Deep Dive by Nigel Poulton. It’s an awesome book to start with as the language used is simple and clear. Though I started enjoying Docker after reading through this book but after Docker Networking it went off my head.
Then, I started reading docker from official documentation, I think its the best place to understand docker in depth. It’s huge, so focus topic wise
To start quickly with docker, use play with Docker https://labs.play-with-docker.com/
It gives you an instance on a click with a docker installed.
One more important point:
Mirantis exam portal says candidate cannot reschedule exam in last 24 hours but that is possible by reaching to customer care via chat. I registered for exam within 24 hours and then I was unable to install one plugin mentioned on site so I rescheduled it as I wanted to arrange for another laptop.
There was no such plugin they as mentioned on the portal.
Various Study sources I used for this certification:
1) Official documentation: I found official documentation best for Docker Networking, Volume and Storage, Image creation management and registry.
I did hands-on while reading Docker Networking. Docker Registry, Docker Image Creation, and created step by step guide for commands. I was able to quickly cover the concepts as the practicals in the official documentation is enough for this.
2) Zeal Vora Udemy course: This is a good course as it covers all the topics of Docker but I found this is outdated when it comes to various docker concept like Docker Networking is not updated, he has explained rmi command to stop and remove docker container but these are outdated commands.
I used this course to mainly cover Docker Enterprise Edition and Kubernetes.
Zeal notes at the end of the tutorial are useful to memorize concepts related to Docker.
I would suggest going through Docker EE videos one day before at 2X speed to memorize the concepts.
3) Sample questions: Used this sample question https://chercher.tech/docker-certification/ to find the areas which I need to work on.
4) Kubernetes Documentation: I covered a few topics from Kubernetes documentation to understand them better.
5) Sample questions: Quickly went through https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/250-practice-questions-for-the-dca-exam-84f3b9e8f5ce for DCA question but I didn’t find them much useful.
Approach tp prepare for the exam:
There are many topics in which these sources will not help you memorize Docker concepts and I would suggest making notes on Docker compose, Docker stack, Docker registry, Installing and uninstalling Docker EE components.
1) Start taking notes when you start reading the official documentation. I created handmade notes and a few on Microsoft notes with a series of commands I executed which help me memorize the sequence of steps related to the scenario.
2) Prefer making a comparative study of Docker and Kubernetes concepts such as ConfigMap, secrets else you will get confused looking at the questions.
3) Make a comparative study of docker export/import, commit, and save.
Exam Day:
I took a good sleep a day before and took one hour nap on 8th Nov afternoon. Scheduled my exam for 6 PM
I feel I got most of the starting 10 questions wrong on the DCA exam and was losing confidence, then I got a few questions correct in sequence.
Don’t be tensed if you feel you are not sure of the option. Questions are challenging and 90 min is good time to complete the test.
All the best!! Please comment on this post if you have any further questions.