CDOS study plan
CDOS · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery & Source Code Management and Version Control
Diagram a reference CI/CD pipeline (commit → build → test → artifact → deploy) and label every gate and failure path
Set up a local Git repository with a trunk-based branching model, protected main branch, and signed commits
Write three automated tests at different levels (unit, integration, smoke) and wire them into a single build script
Explain the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment in writing, with one concrete example of each
Your checkpoint
A public Git repository containing a working pipeline script that builds, tests, and produces a versioned artifact, plus a README documenting every stage and gate
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery & Source Code Management and Version Control
Implement semantic versioning and automated changelog generation from commit messages
Add a build cache and parallel test stages to cut pipeline runtime, then measure the before/after duration
Configure branch protection rules and a pull-request review workflow with required status checks
Practice a rebase, a cherry-pick, and a revert on a scratch branch to resolve a simulated bad merge
Your checkpoint
A pipeline runtime comparison report showing measured before/after durations and a changelog generated automatically from at least ten commits
Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code & Cloud Platforms and Provisioning
Write declarative infrastructure code that provisions a network, a compute instance, and a storage bucket
Use remote state with locking and separate state files per environment
Add input validation and variable files so the same code deploys to dev and staging without edits
Run a plan/dry-run and interpret the diff output line by line
Your checkpoint
An infrastructure repository that provisions a two-environment stack from one codebase, with remote state and a documented plan output
Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code & Containers and Orchestration
Write a configuration management playbook or module that installs, configures, and idempotently re-runs a web server
Build a minimal container image for an application and reduce its size by choosing a slimmer base
Containerize the same app with a multi-stage build and compare image layers
Draft a Dockerfile lint checklist covering non-root user, pinned tags, and no secrets in layers
Your checkpoint
A containerized application with a multi-stage Dockerfile, an idempotency proof (second run reports zero changes), and a completed lint checklist
Containers and Orchestration & Cloud Platforms and Provisioning
Deploy the container to a managed orchestrator and expose it through a service and ingress
Configure liveness, readiness, and resource requests/limits, then trigger a deliberate failing probe
Scale the workload horizontally and observe rolling-update behavior during a version bump
Provision the cluster or managed service itself with infrastructure code rather than manual clicks
Your checkpoint
A running orchestrated deployment with manifests committed to Git, evidence of a zero-downtime rolling update, and a rollback demonstrated
Monitoring, Logging, and Observability & Security and Compliance in DevOps (DevSecOps)
Instrument the application with structured logs, metrics, and at least one distributed trace
Build a dashboard and two alerts (error rate, latency) with thresholds justified in writing
Scan the container image and dependencies for vulnerabilities and triage the findings by severity
Add secrets management so no credential appears in code, environment files, or image layers
Your checkpoint
An observability package (dashboard definition, alert rules, log schema) plus a vulnerability triage report with remediation status for every critical finding
Security and Compliance in DevOps (DevSecOps) & Release, Deployment, and Incident Management
Enforce a policy-as-code gate in the pipeline that blocks a deliberately non-compliant change
Design a deployment strategy (blue-green or canary) and document its rollback trigger and blast radius
Write an incident runbook with severity levels, escalation path, and communication template
Run a tabletop incident exercise and record a timeline from detection to resolution
Your checkpoint
A policy gate that demonstrably fails a bad change plus an incident runbook and a post-incident review document from the tabletop exercise
DevOps Foundations and Culture & Release, Deployment, and Incident Management & Monitoring, Logging, and Observability
Map each of the nine exam domains to your own project artifacts and rate your confidence 1-5
Re-run the full pipeline end to end from a clean environment and fix anything that breaks
Write blameless postmortem and DORA-metric definitions in your own words and check them against the artifacts
Complete two timed practice sets and log every missed question by domain
Your checkpoint
A domain-by-domain readiness matrix with confidence scores, two timed practice scores, and a prioritized list of remaining weak areas
Milestones
Week 2: You can explain, without notes, how a commit becomes a deployed artifact and name every automated gate it passes
Week 4: You can destroy and recreate your entire environment from code in under 20 minutes with no manual steps
Week 6: You can detect an injected failure from your dashboard and alerts before reading application logs
Week 8: Every domain has at least one project artifact you can point to, and your two timed practice scores are both above 75%