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CCAC Overview — What’s Tested, Common Traps & How to Prepare

Everything to know before CCAC (Confluent Cloud Certified Operator): exam focus areas, common operational traps (networking, RBAC, quotas), and a practical prep funnel.

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Exam snapshot (high level)

  • Certification: Confluent Cloud Certified Operator (CCAC)
  • Audience: engineers operating Kafka in Confluent Cloud (platform/data/streaming teams)
  • Skills level: you should understand Kafka fundamentals and Confluent Cloud features (networking, RBAC, connectors, governance)
  • Official details: registration, pricing, and delivery mode can change—use the official links in Resources for the most current info.

Study funnel: Follow the Study Plan → work the Syllabus objective-by-objective → use the Cheatsheet for recall → validate with Practice.

What CCAC measures (what you should be able to do)

1) Operate Confluent Cloud’s resource model

  • Organizations and environments, clusters, service accounts, API keys.
  • When and why to separate environments (dev/test/prod) and isolate blast radius.

2) Secure access correctly

  • RBAC roles and scopes, least privilege, API key lifecycle.
  • Recognize authentication vs authorization issues quickly.

3) Configure networking safely

  • Public endpoints vs private connectivity options (PrivateLink/peering/PSC), allowlists, and DNS implications.
  • Understand which approach matches compliance and routing requirements.

4) Use platform capabilities

  • Cluster Linking for multi-cluster replication and DR patterns.
  • Managed connectors for integrations (and what “managed” does and doesn’t solve).
  • Governance primitives: Schema Registry usage and Stream Governance concepts (catalog and lineage awareness).

5) Monitor, troubleshoot, and control costs

  • Identify common signals: client auth failures, quotas/limits, connector/task failures, throughput constraints, lag symptoms.
  • Use the right tool for the question (metrics, logs, governance views).

Who should take CCAC?

  • Engineers responsible for Kafka reliability and integration in Confluent Cloud
  • Teams building multi-region streaming platforms with managed connectors and governance
  • Operators moving from self-managed Kafka to managed cloud operations

Readiness checklist

  • I understand Confluent Cloud’s org → environment → cluster model and can place resources intentionally.
  • I can explain service accounts, API keys, and RBAC scopes and apply least privilege.
  • I can choose public vs private connectivity options and understand why DNS/routing matters.
  • I can explain what Cluster Linking does and when it’s preferred over custom replication pipelines.
  • I can diagnose common Confluent Cloud operational failures (auth, quotas, connector errors) and pick the next step.
  • Study Plan: 30/60/90 day schedules → Open
  • Syllabus: objectives by topic → Open
  • Cheatsheet: tables + operational pickers → Open
  • Practice: drills and mixed sets → Start
Study Plan