Confluent Certified Administrator - Study Plan¶

6-Week Comprehensive Study Schedule¶

Week 1: Kafka Architecture and Internals¶

Day 1-2: Broker Architecture¶

• Study broker internals (log directories, segment files, indexes)
• Understand controller election and responsibilities
• Learn broker discovery and metadata propagation
• Hands-on: Deploy a 3-broker cluster with Docker Compose
• Lab: Explore log directories and examine segment files
• Review Notes: 01-kafka-architecture.md

Day 3-4: Replication Deep Dive¶

• Study ISR mechanics and replica.lag.time.max.ms
• Understand leader election and unclean leader election
• Learn min.insync.replicas behavior with different acks settings
• Hands-on: Create topics with RF=3 and simulate broker failures
• Lab: Monitor ISR changes during broker stop/start cycles

Day 5-6: ZooKeeper and KRaft¶

• Study ZooKeeper role (metadata, controller election, configuration)
• Learn ZooKeeper ensemble deployment and configuration
• Understand KRaft mode architecture and migration
• Hands-on: Deploy ZooKeeper ensemble and KRaft cluster
• Lab: Perform ZooKeeper to KRaft migration

Day 7: Week 1 Review¶

• Complete architecture practice questions
• Review broker configuration parameters
• Summarize key architectural concepts

Week 2: Cluster Operations - Part 1¶

Day 8-9: Topic Management¶

• Master kafka-topics CLI tool (create, describe, alter, delete)
• Study topic configuration overrides (retention, compaction, compression)
• Learn kafka-configs for dynamic configuration
• Hands-on: Create topics with various configurations
• Lab: Modify topic configurations and observe effects
• Review Notes: 02-cluster-operations.md

Day 10-11: Partition Reassignment¶

• Study kafka-reassign-partitions tool (generate, execute, verify)
• Understand preferred leader election
• Learn partition balancing strategies
• Hands-on: Execute partition reassignment across brokers
• Lab: Decommission a broker by reassigning all partitions

Day 12-13: Client Configuration¶

• Study producer configuration tuning for operations
• Learn consumer group management (describe, reset-offsets)
• Understand client quotas (produce, fetch, request rate)
• Hands-on: Configure and apply client quotas
• Lab: Reset consumer group offsets to specific positions

Day 14: Week 2 Review¶

• Complete operations practice questions
• Practice CLI commands from memory
• Review partition reassignment workflows

Week 3: Cluster Operations - Part 2¶

Day 15-16: Rolling Upgrades¶

• Study rolling upgrade procedures for Kafka brokers
• Understand inter.broker.protocol.version and log.message.format.version
• Learn compatibility matrix between versions
• Hands-on: Perform a rolling upgrade in test environment
• Lab: Upgrade broker configurations with zero downtime
• Review Notes: 02-cluster-operations.md

Day 17-18: Capacity Planning¶

• Study disk sizing for log retention and replication
• Learn network capacity planning (replication factor impact)
• Understand memory requirements (page cache, JVM heap)
• Hands-on: Calculate disk requirements for given throughput
• Lab: Tune JVM settings and monitor GC behavior

Day 19-20: Log Management¶

• Study log cleanup policies (delete vs compact)
• Understand log compaction mechanics and configuration
• Learn segment management and retention enforcement
• Hands-on: Configure log compaction and observe behavior
• Lab: Set up time-based and size-based retention policies

Day 21: Week 3 Review¶

• Complete advanced operations practice questions
• Review upgrade procedures and compatibility
• Practice capacity planning calculations

Week 4: Monitoring and Troubleshooting¶

Day 22-23: JMX Metrics¶

• Study critical broker metrics (UnderReplicatedPartitions, ISR changes)
• Learn request metrics (latency, queue time, handler idle)
• Understand topic and partition metrics
• Hands-on: Set up JMX monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana
• Lab: Create dashboards for critical Kafka metrics
• Review Notes: 03-monitoring-troubleshooting.md

Day 24-25: Consumer Lag and Troubleshooting¶

• Study consumer lag monitoring tools and metrics
• Learn common causes of consumer lag
• Understand under-replicated partition troubleshooting
• Hands-on: Simulate and troubleshoot consumer lag
• Lab: Diagnose under-replicated partitions

Day 26-27: Performance Troubleshooting¶

• Study OS-level metrics (disk I/O, network, CPU, memory)
• Learn request queue and handler saturation diagnosis
• Understand producer and consumer performance tuning
• Hands-on: Use kafka-producer-perf-test and kafka-consumer-perf-test
• Lab: Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks

Day 28: Week 4 Review¶

• Complete monitoring practice questions
• Review key metrics and alert thresholds
• Practice troubleshooting scenarios

Week 5: Security and Confluent Platform¶

Day 29-30: Security Configuration¶

• Study SASL mechanisms (PLAIN, SCRAM, GSSAPI, OAUTHBEARER)
• Learn SSL/TLS configuration for brokers and clients
• Understand ACL management and authorization
• Hands-on: Configure SASL/SCRAM authentication
• Lab: Set up SSL/TLS encryption and ACLs
• Review Notes: 04-security.md

Day 31-32: Confluent Control Center and Schema Registry¶

• Study Control Center features and configuration
• Learn Schema Registry high availability setup
• Understand Schema Registry security and access control
• Hands-on: Deploy and configure Control Center
• Lab: Set up Schema Registry cluster with HA
• Review Notes: 05-confluent-platform.md

Day 33-34: Connect and ksqlDB Administration¶

• Study Connect distributed cluster management
• Learn ksqlDB server deployment and configuration
• Understand Connect plugin management and worker tuning
• Hands-on: Deploy Connect cluster and manage connectors
• Lab: Deploy ksqlDB cluster in headless mode

Day 35: Week 5 Review¶

• Complete security and platform practice questions
• Review security protocol matrix
• Practice Confluent Platform deployment scenarios

Week 6: Exam Preparation¶

Day 36-37: Full Practice Exams¶

• Take first full-length practice exam
• Review all incorrect answers with documentation
• Identify weak domains and knowledge gaps
• Create flashcards for missed concepts

Day 38-39: Targeted Review¶

• Focus study on weakest domains
• Review all CLI commands and their flags
• Review all critical JMX metrics
• Practice troubleshooting decision trees

Day 40-41: Final Review¶

• Take second full-length practice exam
• Review broker configuration defaults table
• Review security configuration matrix
• Review rolling upgrade procedures
• Light review of all notes

Day 42: Exam Day Preparation¶

• Quick review of fact sheet
• Review common pitfalls and tricky topics
• Ensure exam environment is ready
• Rest and prepare mentally

Domain Study Time Allocation¶