Side by side
| CCDAK | CCAAK | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka | Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka |
| For | Developers and solution architects who build applications with Apache Kafka | Professionals who manage and maintain Kafka cluster environments |
| Validates | Developing, deploying and maintaining streaming applications with Kafka's core APIs | Configuring, deploying, monitoring and supporting Kafka clusters |
| Exam fee | USD 150 | USD 150 |
| Exam | 90 minutes, proctored remotely | 90 minutes, proctored remotely |
| Valid for | Two years | Two years |
| Confluent course | Confluent Developer Skills for Building Apache Kafka, USD 2,000 | Apache Kafka Administration by Confluent, USD 2,000 |
Which one to take
If you write producers, consumers, Streams applications or connectors, take the CCDAK. If you size clusters, run upgrades, look after security and watch broker metrics, the CCAAK is the one.
They share the same basics, like partitions, replication and delivery guarantees. But if you're a developer who later goes for the CCAAK, expect to learn the operations side more or less from scratch.
Where they overlap
Both expect you to understand partitions, leaders and followers, in-sync replicas, retention, compaction and consumer groups. The difference is the angle. The CCDAK asks how a producer or consumer setting changes your application, and the CCAAK asks how a broker setting changes the cluster.
What this site covers
Everything on this site is for the CCDAK. The exam topics page lists what that exam covers, and Confluent Kafka certification compares all three of Confluent's exams.
