DCA
The Docker Certified Associate (DCA) is the industry credential that proves you can build, secure, orchestrate, and operate containers in production — the baseline many DevOps, platform, and cloud-engineering roles now expect on a résumé. It is a single 90-minute online sitting with an unusual scoring format and no second chance without paying again, so a fumbled attempt costs you both $199 and weeks before you can re-book. This page breaks down exactly what the exam tests, how it's delivered through Examity, and how to clear it cleanly the first time.
Pay Only After You Pass
No upfront fee — you settle only after your verified passing result. We advertise guaranteed results — 100% pass guaranteed or money back.
How the Docker Certified Associate exam is built — at a glance
55
13 standard multiple-choice questions plus 42 discrete option multiple-choice (DOMC) questions, all delivered in a single block.
90
Roughly 95 seconds per question on average. There is no extended break, so pacing across all six domains is part of the challenge.
6
Orchestration carries the heaviest weight at 25%, with the remaining five domains splitting the rest from 10% to 20%.
Discrete Option Multiple Choice shows answer options one at a time and asks you to accept or reject each. Wrong "accepts" and wrong "rejects" both cost you, so guessing is penalized differently from a normal multiple-choice test. You need genuine certainty on Docker behaviour, not just the ability to eliminate options.
Docker and Mirantis do not publish the passing score and reserve the right to change it without notice, so you receive a pass or fail outcome rather than a numeric percentage. Because the scale is unpublished, candidates aim for solid command across every domain rather than chasing a single number.
Six domains — bars show each domain's published share of the exam
Docker Swarm and orchestration: services, stacks, nodes, scaling, rolling updates, secrets, and high availability. The single heaviest domain.
Dockerfiles, image layers and caching, multi-stage builds, tagging, and pushing to and pulling from registries.
Installing and configuring the Docker engine, daemon settings, logging drivers, and preparing hosts for production.
Bridge, overlay, host and macvlan drivers, port publishing, DNS, and the routing mesh that connects Swarm services.
TLS, certificates, secrets, image signing and scanning, namespaces and capabilities, and securing the daemon and registry.
Volumes, bind mounts, tmpfs, storage drivers, and managing persistent data and the device-mapper layer.
Orchestration alone accounts for a quarter of the exam, so weak Swarm knowledge is the most common reason candidates fail. The lighter domains still appear in every sitting, so you cannot safely skip storage or networking to bank time on the heavier areas.
One delivery path — online only — and what to expect on test day
The DCA has no test-center option — you take it from a private room on your own computer, monitored through Examity. You run the exam on a current version of Windows or macOS in Google Chrome with a webcam; Linux is not supported. The fee is USD $199 (or EUR €200) per attempt.
You purchase through Mirantis and book a slot in the proctoring portal. A pre-exam system test confirms your browser, the required Chrome extension, your webcam, and your connection. A wired connection beats Wi-Fi, and hotspots are not recommended for the 90-minute window.
A valid, unexpired government photo ID with a name matching your registration. The proctor verifies your identity before the exam unlocks.
A clear desk, a 360° webcam scan of the room, no second monitor, no phone within reach, and no notes. No one else may be present.
Stay in frame and on-camera the whole time. Talking aloud, leaving your seat, or losing connection can flag or void the session.
The DCA is built for hands-on container practitioners
No formal requirements — but real hands-on time is assumed
Difficulty: The DCA is squarely intermediate. The concepts are familiar to anyone who runs Docker daily, but the breadth of Swarm orchestration plus the accept/reject DOMC format punishes shaky recall. Most candidates spend several weeks reviewing every domain — exactly the kind of pressure point our help is designed to remove.
The DCA is a single 90-minute online sitting where a fumbled attempt costs $199 and a re-book wait. Exam Assist pairs you with a vetted Docker specialist and works on a pay-after-you-pass model — so the risk sits with us, not you. No upfront fee, guaranteed results: Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end, and you settle only after the verified result.
Tell us your target date, your current Docker comfort level, and which domains worry you most. Takes a couple of minutes over WhatsApp, Telegram, or Discord.
We review your timeline and goal and tell you plainly whether it's realistic — before any money is discussed. If it isn't a fit, we say so.
Exam Assist handles the sitting end to end. You're matched with a Docker specialist who maps the work around the six weighted domains, the DOMC format, and the Examity environment — discreetly and confidentially.
You only pay once your passing result is confirmed. No verified result, nothing owed.
Tell us your exam date and target — get an honest feasibility answer and a pay-after-you-pass plan.
Straight answers about the Docker Certified Associate exam
Book your exam help and browse sibling certifications
Pair with a vetted Docker specialist on a results-first arrangement. No upfront fee — settle only after a verified passing result.
Book exam help CKAThe CNCF's hands-on Kubernetes admin exam — the natural next step once you've mastered containers with Docker.
View exam CKADThe CNCF's developer-focused Kubernetes exam — pairs well with DCA for engineers building containerized apps.
View exam TF-004HashiCorp's infrastructure-as-code certification — a common companion credential for DevOps engineers who already run Docker.
View examGet expert Docker Certified Associate help with no upfront fee — you settle only after your verified passing result. Honest feasibility answer first, results-first arrangement always.