AssociateDocker

Docker Certified Associate (DCA) — Study Guide & Exam Overview

Docker containers are the foundation of modern cloud-native deployments. The DCA certifies that you have production-level skills in container management, orchestration, and security — making you more effective in DevOps, platform engineering, and SRE roles.

Duration

90 min

Passing Score

65%

Level

Associate

Provider

Docker

What This Certification Covers

  • Managing the full container lifecycle: build, run, inspect, and remove containers and images
  • Writing optimized Dockerfiles with multi-stage builds, caching strategies, and minimal base images
  • Orchestrating containerized services with Docker Swarm: services, stacks, secrets, and configs
  • Configuring Docker networking: bridge, host, overlay, and macvlan network drivers
  • Implementing container security: image scanning, content trust, rootless mode, and user namespaces

Exam Domain Breakdown

  • Orchestration (25%)
  • Image Creation, Management & Registry (20%)
  • Installation & Configuration (15%)
  • Networking (15%)
  • Security (15%)
  • Storage & Volumes (10%)

Exam Format

55 multiple choice questions, 90 minutes, passing score approximately 65%

Study Tips to Pass DCA

  1. 1Install Docker Desktop and practice every command in the official Docker CLI reference
  2. 2Build multi-stage Dockerfiles to understand how layer caching and image size optimization work
  3. 3Set up a local Docker Swarm cluster (even with just two VMs) and deploy stacks with compose files
  4. 4Study Docker networking in depth — overlay networking and service discovery are frequently tested
  5. 5Review Docker security scanning with Docker Scout and understand the risks of running as root

Ready to test your knowledge? Take a free timed mock exam below.

Official DCA exam page