PCA Mock Exam and Practice Questions
Practise for the Prometheus Certified Associate exam with mock exams in its real format: 60 multi-choice questions, 90 minutes and a 75% pass mark, with an explanation for every option. Monitoring and alerting with Prometheus and PromQL.
PCA is one of the 16 certifications required for Golden Kubestronaut. See the full Golden Kubestronaut list →
PCA exam domains and topics
The official PCA curriculum splits the exam into 5 weighted domains. Under each are the competencies it lists — the topics the mock exams here are written against.
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Observability Concepts 18% · ~11 questions
- Metrics
- Understand logs and events
- Tracing and Spans
- Push vs Pull
- Service Discovery
- Basics of SLOs, SLAs, and SLIs
-
Prometheus Fundamentals 20% · ~12 questions
- System Architecture
- Configuration and Scraping
- Understanding Prometheus Limitations
- Data Model and Labels
- Exposition Format
-
PromQL 28% · ~17 questions
- Selecting Data
- Rates and Derivatives
- Aggregating over time
- Aggregating over dimensions
- Binary operators
- Histograms
- Timestamp Metrics
-
Instrumentation and Exporters 16% · ~10 questions
- Client Libraries
- Instrumentation
- Exporters
- Structuring and naming metrics
-
Alerting & Dashboarding 18% · ~11 questions
- Dashboarding basics
- Configuring Alerting rules
- Understand and Use Alertmanager
- Alerting basics (when, what, and why)
Questions per domain are the official weight applied to the exam's 60 questions, rounded.
A free PCA sample question
What is in the PCA mock exams
- 3 full mock exams of 60 questions each: 180 original questions across all 5 domains.
- Exam simulation on the real 90-minute timer, with your score and a breakdown by domain at the end.
- Practice mode with the explanation after every answer, plus domain drills and a review of the questions you missed.
- The full mocks need a paid plan; the sample question on this page is free.
Prerequisites and background knowledge
Basic observability concepts (metrics, logs, traces). Familiarity with Kubernetes helps. No prior Prometheus experience required.
Official reference: cncf.io/training/certification/pca.
More PCA practice resources
Where to go after PCA
Once you pass PCA, these certs are natural next steps on the Golden Kubestronaut path:
OTCA — OpenTelemetry Certified AssociateCNPA — Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate
Frequently asked questions about PCA
How many questions are on the PCA exam?
60 multi-choice questions in 90 minutes. Each PCA mock exam here matches that: 60 questions on a 90-minute timer.
What is the passing score for PCA?
75%.
How long is the PCA exam?
90 minutes.
What topics does the PCA exam cover?
The PCA curriculum has 5 domains: Observability Concepts (18%), Prometheus Fundamentals (20%), PromQL (28%), Instrumentation and Exporters (16%) and Alerting & Dashboarding (18%).
How difficult is the PCA exam?
Rated intermediate. Plan 2–8 weeks depending on your background.
How much does the PCA exam cost?
Pricing changes periodically — check the official CNCF PCA page at https://www.cncf.io/training/certification/pca/.
Are these PCA mock exams free?
The sample question on this page is free with no account. Full timed PCA mocks require a paid plan.
How is this mock exam different from the real PCA exam?
Original questions written against the official CNCF curriculum — not scraped dumps. Format mirrors the real exam; the real one is proctored, these are self-paced.
How current are the PCA questions?
The PCA question bank is checked every month against the official curriculum: the Linux Foundation and CNCF certification pages and the curriculum PDF. The last check was in October 2026. When the curriculum changes, the questions are revised.
Is PCA required for Golden Kubestronaut?
Yes. PCA is one of the 16 certifications required for Golden Kubestronaut.
What is the best way to study for PCA?
Work through the official curriculum in order of domain weight (heaviest first), then run full timed mocks until you hit 85%+ consistently.