OTCA - OpenTelemetry Certified Associate¶

The OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) certification validates foundational knowledge of observability concepts and the OpenTelemetry framework, including the API, SDK, Collector, and observability pipeline management.

Exam Details¶

Detail	Value
Format	Multiple Choice
Duration	90 minutes
Questions	60
Passing Score	75%
Cost	$250
Validity	2 years
Prerequisites	None
Delivery	Online proctored (PSI Secure Browser)

Domain Breakdown¶

Domain	Weight
Fundamentals of Observability	18%
The OpenTelemetry API and SDK	46%
The OpenTelemetry Collector	26%
Maintaining and Debugging Observability Pipelines	10%
Total	100%

pie title OTCA Exam Domain Weights
    "Fundamentals of Observability" : 18
    "OpenTelemetry API and SDK" : 46
    "OpenTelemetry Collector" : 26
    "Maintaining & Debugging Pipelines" : 10

Exam Tip

The OpenTelemetry API and SDK domain accounts for a massive 46% of the exam. Focus on tracing (spans, context propagation), metrics (instruments, temporality, aggregation), logs, SDK pipelines, and sampling strategies. Combined with the Collector (26%), these two domains make up 72% of the exam.

Key Resources¶

Official Resources¶

Resource	Description
OTCA Curriculum (PDF)	Official exam curriculum maintained by CNCF
OTCA Certification Page	Registration, handbook, and exam policies
OpenTelemetry Documentation	Official OpenTelemetry docs
OpenTelemetry Collector Docs	Collector configuration reference

Courses¶

Course	Platform
OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA)	KodeKloud
Getting Started with OpenTelemetry	OpenTelemetry / CNCF

Community Resources¶

Resource	Description
OpenTelemetry Blog — OTCA Insights	Official guidance for exam preparation
OpenTelemetry GitHub	Official OpenTelemetry repositories