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PCA Study Plan

4-Week Study Schedule

Week 1: Observability Concepts and Prometheus Fundamentals

Day 1-2: Observability Theory

  • Study the three pillars of observability (metrics, logs, traces)
  • Learn monitoring vs observability distinction
  • Study golden signals, RED method, USE method
  • Understand SLIs, SLOs, and SLAs with examples
  • Review push vs pull monitoring models
  • Review Notes: notes/01-observability-concepts.md

Day 3-4: Prometheus Architecture

  • Study Prometheus components (server, TSDB, service discovery, rules)
  • Learn the data model (metric name, labels, time series)
  • Understand configuration structure (global, scrape_configs, rules)
  • Study service discovery mechanisms (Kubernetes, file, DNS, static)
  • Review Notes: notes/02-prometheus-fundamentals.md

Day 5-6: Storage and Federation

  • Study local TSDB storage (WAL, blocks, retention)
  • Learn remote write/read for long-term storage
  • Understand federation for hierarchical setups
  • Study metric naming conventions and best practices
  • Optional: Set up local Prometheus with Docker Compose

Day 7: Week 1 Review

  • Take a practice quiz on observability and Prometheus fundamentals
  • Draw the Prometheus architecture from memory
  • Review any weak areas

Week 2: PromQL (Primary Focus)

Day 8-9: PromQL Basics

  • Study selectors and matchers (=, !=, =~, !~)
  • Understand instant vectors vs range vectors
  • Practice basic queries with label filtering
  • Learn time duration syntax and offset modifier
  • Review Notes: notes/03-promql.md

Day 10-11: Rate Functions and Aggregations

  • Study rate(), irate(), increase() for counters
  • Practice aggregation operators (sum, avg, min, max, count)
  • Learn by() and without() clauses for grouping
  • Practice topk(), bottomk() queries
  • Write queries combining rate and aggregation

Day 12-13: Advanced PromQL

  • Study histogram_quantile() for percentile calculations
  • Learn binary operators and vector matching
  • Understand on(), ignoring(), group_left, group_right
  • Practice absent() and predict_linear()
  • Study recording rules and subqueries

Day 14: Week 2 Review

  • Write PromQL queries for common monitoring scenarios
  • Practice without references: rate, increase, histogram_quantile
  • Complete PromQL-focused practice questions

Week 3: Instrumentation, Alerting, and Dashboarding

Day 15-16: Metric Types and Instrumentation

  • Study all four metric types in detail (counter, gauge, histogram, summary)
  • Learn histogram vs summary trade-offs
  • Understand naming conventions and label best practices
  • Study client library instrumentation patterns
  • Review Notes: notes/04-instrumentation-exporters.md

Day 17-18: Exporters and Pushgateway

  • Study Node Exporter metrics and use cases
  • Learn Blackbox Exporter (HTTP, TCP, DNS probing)
  • Understand kube-state-metrics vs cAdvisor
  • Study Pushgateway use cases and limitations
  • Review other common exporters (database, message queue)

Day 19-20: Alerting and Dashboarding

  • Study alerting rules configuration in Prometheus
  • Learn Alertmanager routing tree, grouping, inhibition, silencing
  • Understand notification receivers
  • Study Grafana dashboard design basics
  • Learn dashboard variables and templating
  • Review Notes: notes/05-alerting-dashboarding.md

Day 21: Week 3 Review

  • Take a practice quiz on instrumentation and alerting
  • Write alerting rules for common scenarios
  • Review all metric type differences

Week 4: Comprehensive Review and Exam Prep

Day 22-23: Full Review - High-Weight Domains

  • Deep review of PromQL (28%) - practice writing queries
  • Review Prometheus Fundamentals (20%) - architecture, config, data model
  • Review Observability Concepts (18%) - theory and methodologies

Day 24-25: Full Review - Remaining Domains

  • Review Instrumentation (16%) - metric types, exporters
  • Review Alerting (10%) - rules, Alertmanager features
  • Review Dashboarding (8%) - Grafana basics
  • Create flashcards for key concepts

Day 26-27: Practice Exams

  • Take a full-length practice exam (timed, 90 minutes)
  • Review all incorrect answers - especially PromQL questions
  • Identify weak areas and do targeted review
  • Take a second practice exam

Day 28: Pre-Exam Preparation

  • Light review of key PromQL functions and patterns
  • Review metric type differences one final time
  • Verify exam environment and system requirements
  • Rest and mental preparation

Daily Study Routine (1-2 hours/day)

  1. 30 minutes: Read documentation and study materials
  2. 30 minutes: Practice PromQL queries (use PromLens or local Prometheus)
  3. 30 minutes: Practice questions and self-assessment

Weekend Extended Sessions (3-4 hours)

  1. 1 hour: Complex PromQL query practice
  2. 1 hour: Practice exams and review
  3. 1-2 hours: Hands-on with local Prometheus stack

Practice Environment Setup

  • Docker Compose with Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager
  • Node Exporter for host metrics
  • A sample application generating HTTP metrics
  • Alertmanager configured with test receivers
  • PromLens for query visualization

Study Resources

Practice Resources

  • PromLens - PromQL query builder and explainer
  • KodeKloud PCA - Course with practice tests
  • Killercoda - Free Prometheus scenarios
  • Local Prometheus stack - Hands-on PromQL practice

Final Exam Checklist

One Week Before

  • Scoring 80%+ consistently on practice exams
  • Comfortable writing PromQL queries without references
  • All domains reviewed
  • Metric type differences clear

Day Before Exam

  • Light review of PromQL functions
  • Test exam environment (webcam, microphone, browser)
  • Prepare workspace per PSI requirements
  • Get adequate rest

Exam Day

  • Log in 15 minutes early
  • Read each question fully, especially PromQL syntax
  • Check for correct metric type usage in answers
  • Flag uncertain questions and return later
  • Use the full 90 minutes