Changes and Reminders for ICA Certification

Upcoming policy change: Please note that the ICA certification expiration policy will change on April 1, 2024, at 00:00UTC. Certifications obtained on or after this date will expire 24 months after meeting the certification requirements (including passing the exam). We encourage anyone interested and prepared to schedule and take the exam before the policy change. Please see more detailed information here .

The current certification validity period is 3 years, and certifications obtained after April 1st will be valid for 2 years.

Background on Tetrate Academy

Tetrate Academy , operated by Tetrate, has been around for several years, launching Istio fundamentals tutorials, Envoy fundamentals tutorials, and CIAT certification exams, with over 13,000 people having taken Tetrate Academy courses. In September last year, Tetrate contributed CIAT to CNCF, renamed it ICA exam , and the certification exam was officially launched in November.

Exam Background

• ICA is derived from the CIAT exam contributed by Tetrate, providing validation of extensive knowledge and skills in Istio.
• The exam is conducted remotely online, with a time limit of 2 hours, during which candidates need to operate Kubernetes clusters and Istio in a virtual machine environment.
• The exam includes a series of problem-solving questions and some multiple-choice questions, requiring a passing score of 75%.
• The PSI system provides an online exam environment, and exam results will be emailed to candidates within 24 hours after the exam.
• The exam environment provides tools such as Kubernetes clusters, Istio installation, VS Code, kubectl, istioctl, etc.
• Access to Istio documentation is available during the exam, and questions and responses are in English only.

Recommendations and Reminders

• Familiarize yourself with the Istio documentation before the exam, and prepare in advance, including checking the PSI system, identification, and exam environment.
• Take Tetrate’s free Istio fundamentals tutorial to deepen your understanding of Istio.
• Stay calm during the exam, answer familiar questions first, then unfamiliar ones, to ensure efficient completion of the exam.

Reference Links

• ICA Certification FAQs
• Important Instructions for ICA Certification