Certified Backstage Associate study plan

Scaffold a local Backstage app with npx @backstage/create-app and start the frontend and backend dev servers

Trace the plugin architecture by listing every package in packages/ and plugins/ and writing one sentence on each package's role

Identify the three extension points (frontend plugin, backend plugin, catalog entity page) and where each is registered in code

Configure a personal GitHub OAuth app in app-config.local.yaml and confirm you can sign in locally

Create a frontend plugin from the CLI template and render it on a custom route

Add a backend plugin from the CLI template and expose one endpoint that returns JSON

Wire the frontend plugin to call the backend plugin through the backend base URL rather than a hardcoded host

Replace the default home page with a custom page component registered in the app routes

Extend the entity page by adding a custom tab to the default catalog entity page component

Build a small custom card that reads entity annotations and displays them

Use the catalog client in a plugin to fetch entities by kind and filter the result in code

Add a theme override and verify it applies across an existing plugin without editing that plugin

Run the full test suite and add a unit test for the custom plugin using the Backstage test utilities

Package the app for production with yarn tsc and yarn build and fix any type errors surfaced

Containerize the app with a multi-stage Dockerfile and run it locally

Explain in writing how the frontend bundle is served and where static assets resolve from

Deploy the container to a Kubernetes cluster with a Deployment and Service and confirm pod health

Configure app-config.production.yaml with an external PostgreSQL connection and verify the backend connects

Set up a PostgreSQL instance for the catalog and confirm migrations run on startup

Document the difference between static and dynamic configuration and which values must never be committed

Register five components via catalog-info.yaml files using both location and entity descriptors

Add a system and a domain entity and link components to them with relations

Attach ownership, lifecycle, and a valid annotation set to each entity and confirm they render

Configure a GitHub discovery processor and verify a repository is ingested automatically

Diagnose and fix one failed entity by reading the catalog processing log

Add a custom entity kind or a custom processor and verify it appears in the catalog

Define a custom field extension on a catalog entity and validate it against a schema

Write a permission policy that restricts who can read a sensitive entity and test it with two identities

Review the software template flow and create a template that scaffolds a component and registers it

Take two full-length practice exams under timed conditions and score each domain separately

Re-study only the domains scoring below 75 percent, using the official docs for each weak area

Rewrite your architecture map and config inventory from memory and diff against week 1 and week 5 versions

Prepare a one-page cheat sheet of CLI commands, config keys, and catalog entity fields