OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) Exam Preparation
Master OpenTelemetry and prepare for the CNCF OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) certification exam. This comprehensive course covers all exam domains with content weighted according to official exam percentages, combining theoretical knowledge with extensive hands-on labs using real observability environments. Learn to instrument applications, configure the OpenTelemetry Collector, implement context propagation, and build production-grade observability pipelines.
Course Preview
Why This Course is Different
Get everything you need to master platform engineering and advance your career
Certificate of Completion
Earn a certificate while gaining real-world skills that go beyond traditional certification prep
Hands-on Labs
14 practical labs with real-world scenarios in pre-configured cloud environments
Expert-Led
Learn from Sam Gabrail, Former HashiCorp Sr. Solutions Engineer with 15+ years experience
Community Support
Join our community where members help each other and collaborate on learning
What You'll Master
Explain the fundamentals of observability and distinguish between monitoring and observability
Understand OpenTelemetry's three signal types: traces, metrics, and logs
Apply semantic conventions to ensure consistent telemetry data across services
Implement both automatic and manual instrumentation using OpenTelemetry SDKs
Configure and deploy the OpenTelemetry Collector in various deployment patterns
Build and optimize telemetry pipelines using receivers, processors, and exporters
Implement context propagation across distributed services using W3C Trace Context
Debug and maintain observability pipelines in production environments
Apply sampling strategies to manage telemetry data volume and costs
Prepare for the CNCF OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) certification exam
Course Curriculum
SECTION 1 – FUNDAMENTALS OF OBSERVABILITY
Understand the core concepts of observability, the three pillars of telemetry data, semantic conventions for standardized data, instrumentation approaches, and how to derive meaningful outcomes from observability data. This section covers 18% of the OTCA exam.
- •Introduction to Observability
- •The Three Pillars: Traces, Metrics, and Logs
- •Understanding Telemetry Data
- •Semantic Conventions
- •Instrumentation Fundamentals
- •Analysis and Outcomes
- •The OpenTelemetry Ecosystem
- •08 exploring telemetry data types labLab
- •09 working with semantic conventions labLab
- •Observability Fundamentals AssessmentQuiz
SECTION 2 – THE OPENTELEMETRY API AND SDK
Master the OpenTelemetry API and SDK, including data models, composability, configuration, all three signals (tracing, metrics, logs), SDK pipelines, context propagation, and instrumentation agents. This section covers 46% of the OTCA exam.
- •OpenTelemetry Data Model
- •API vs SDK: Understanding the Separation
- •Composability and Extension
- •OpenTelemetry Configuration
- •Distributed Tracing Fundamentals
- •Span Attributes and Events
- •Span Links and Span Kind
- •Trace Sampling Strategies
- •09 implementing distributed tracing labLab
- •10 configuring trace sampling labLab
- •Metrics Fundamentals
- •Metric Instruments Deep Dive
- •Metric Attributes and Cardinality
- •Views and Metric Readers
- •15 creating custom metrics labLab
- •OpenTelemetry Logging
- •Log Correlation with Traces
- •18 integrating logs with opentelemetry labLab
- •SDK Pipeline Architecture
- •OTLP Exporters
- •Auto-Instrumentation Agents
- •Instrumentation Libraries
- •23 building sdk pipelines labLab
- •24 auto instrumentation in practice labLab
- •Context Propagation Fundamentals
- •W3C Trace Context and Baggage
- •Custom Propagators
- •28 implementing context propagation labLab
- •OpenTelemetry API and SDK AssessmentQuiz
SECTION 3 – THE OPENTELEMETRY COLLECTOR
Master the OpenTelemetry Collector including configuration, deployment patterns, scaling strategies, pipeline construction, and data transformation capabilities. This section covers 26% of the OTCA exam.
- •OpenTelemetry Collector Overview
- •Collector Architecture Deep Dive
- •Collector Configuration
- •Receivers: Ingesting Telemetry
- •Processors: Transforming Data
- •Exporters: Sending Data
- •Extensions and Connectors
- •Deployment Patterns: Agent Mode
- •Deployment Patterns: Gateway Mode
- •Scaling the Collector
- •Building Custom Collector Distributions
- •12 configuring collector labLab
- •13 deploying collector agent gateway labLab
- •14 advanced collector pipelines labLab
- •15 collector scaling ha labLab
- •OpenTelemetry Collector QuizQuiz
SECTION 4 – MAINTAINING AND DEBUGGING OBSERVABILITY PIPELINES
Learn to maintain production observability pipelines, debug context propagation issues, handle errors gracefully, and manage schema evolution. This section covers 10% of the OTCA exam.
- •Debugging Context Propagation
- •Debugging Telemetry Pipelines
- •Error Handling Strategies
- •Schema Management and Evolution
- •Monitoring the Observability Pipeline
- •06 debugging observability pipelines labLab
- •Maintaining and Debugging Pipelines QuizQuiz
Course Features
Hands-on Labs
Lots of hands-on labs to learn by doing
Join our Community
Community support to ask questions and collaborate
Test Your Knowledge
Quizzes to help you grasp the material well
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Everything Included in Your Subscription
Content & Learning
- Access to all courses and bootcamps
- Video lessons with closed captions
- Interactive quizzes and assessments
- Course completion certificates
Hands-On Labs
- Browser-based cloud labs
- Pre-configured VMs ready to use
- Playgrounds for experiments
- Multi-VM realistic scenarios
AWS Integration
- Managed AWS Account included
- Pre-configured environments
- Real-world cloud scenarios
Support & Community
- Priority support
- Active community forum
No Setup Required
- Everything runs in your browser
- No software installation needed
- Automatic environment provisioning
- Works on any device
Hi there, I'm Sam
I'm a husband and father of two wonderful boys. I'm also very passionate 🔥 about all things technology. From when I was 10, I had a dream to become a computer 💻 engineer one day. Here I am today living the dream!
Thanks for visiting TeKanAid Academy. My goal is to teach you all things DevOps. Below are some of the things I've done over the years. I'm confident that I can help you achieve your dreams too.
- 15+ years of experience in various Information Technology fields from Telecommunications, Computer Networks, Digital Transformation, DevOps, Cybersecurity, and IoT
- President of TeKanAid Solutions Inc. building online content in the DevOps space
- Previous – Sr. Solutions Engineer at HashiCorp
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Terraform: Authorized HashiCorp Instructor
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HashiCorp Authorized Instructors are experienced DevOps professionals who deliver official HashiCorp training courses in person and virtually.
Issued by HashiCorp Partner Network (HPN)
Vault: Authorized HashiCorp Instructor
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HashiCorp Authorized Instructors are experienced DevOps professionals who deliver official HashiCorp training courses in person and virtually.
Issued by HashiCorp Partner Network (HPN)
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (002)
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Earners of the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate certification know the basic concepts, skills, and use cases associated with open source HashiCorp Terraform.
Issued by HashiCorp
HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002)
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Earners of the HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate certification know the basic concepts, skills, and use cases associated with open source HashiCorp Vault.
Issued by HashiCorp
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