Mirantis

Mirantis manages the Docker Enterprise platform and cloud-native infrastructure. Its certification validates skills in building, securing, and managing containerized applications using Docker Swarm and Kubernetes fundamentals.

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Available Exams

DCA

Docker Certified Associate

The Mirantis Container Ecosystem

Mirantis, founded in 1999, secured a central role in the containerization market when it acquired the Docker Enterprise platform business in November 2019. This acquisition transferred Docker's enterprise technology, hundreds of corporate customers, and the official Docker certification program to Mirantis. Today, the company focuses on cloud-native infrastructure, providing Kubernetes and container management platforms for large organizations.

The vendor's certification program remains tightly focused on core containerization skills. Rather than offering a sprawling catalog of role-based credentials, Mirantis maintains a single foundational exam for practitioners working with Docker technologies.

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The Docker Certified Associate (DCA)

The DCA: Docker Certified Associate validates your ability to build, manage, and secure containerized applications. Mirantis targets this exam at professionals with six to 12 months of hands-on Docker experience.

The exam runs for 90 minutes and contains 55 questions. Unlike traditional exams that rely solely on standard multiple-choice formats, the DCA makes heavy use of Discrete Option Multiple Choice (DOMC) questions. In a DOMC format, options appear one at a time. You must accept or reject each option independently without seeing the remaining choices. This format reduces test-taking strategies like process-of-elimination and forces you to know the exact command or concept.

Expect the syllabus to cover six primary domains. Orchestration carries the most weight, accounting for a quarter of the exam, and tests your knowledge of both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes fundamentals. You must know how to set up swarm mode clusters, deploy applications using stack files, and manage replica sets.

Image creation, management, and registry operations form the next largest segment. The exam tests your ability to write efficient Dockerfiles, manage local and remote registries, and handle image tagging. The remaining questions are divided equally among installation, networking, security, and storage. You will need to demonstrate how to route traffic using overlay networks, apply Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) policies, and mount persistent volumes to containers.

Professional Value

A Docker certification proves practical competence in a technology that forms the bedrock of modern software deployment. Employers hiring for DevOps, platform engineering, or system administration roles expect baseline container fluency.

While many developers learn Docker through trial and error on local machines, the DCA focuses on enterprise-grade deployments. Passing the exam proves you know the difference between a running container and a replicated service. It shows you understand how quorum works in a cluster and how to secure node communication using mutual TLS.

Because the DCA covers both Docker Swarm and foundational Kubernetes concepts, it acts as a practical bridge. It helps administrators move from single-host container management into distributed cluster orchestration. The credential remains valid for two years, after which you must pass the exam again to maintain active status.