Browse Exams — Mock Exams & Practice Tests

CCAAK Study Plan (30 / 60 / 90 Days)

A practical CCAAK study plan you can follow: 30-day intensive, 60-day balanced, and 90-day part-time schedules with weekly focus, suggested hours/week, and tips for using the Mastery Cloud practice app.

On this page

This page answers the question most candidates actually have: “How do I structure my CCAAK prep?”
Below are three realistic schedules built around what CCAAK rewards: operational correctness, safe changes, and diagnosis under pressure.

Use the plan that matches your available time, then follow the loop: Syllabus → drills → review misses → mixed sets → timed runs.

How long should you study?

Your starting point Typical total study time Best-fit timeline
You operate Kafka weekly (configs, topics, troubleshooting) 30–50 hours 30–60 days
You’ve supported Kafka but not as a primary owner 50–80 hours 60–90 days
You’re new to Kafka administration 80–120+ hours 90 days

Choose a plan based on hours per week:

Time you can commit Recommended plan What it feels like
10–12 hrs/week 30‑day intensive Fast learning + lots of scenario practice
6–8 hrs/week 60‑day balanced Steady progress + remediation time
3–5 hrs/week 90‑day part‑time Slow-and-solid with repetition

30-Day Intensive Plan

Target pace: ~10–12 hours/week.
Goal: cover the syllabus quickly, then harden instincts through drills and mixed sets.

Week Focus What to do Links
1 Architecture + core operations Master partitions/replication/ISR and how failures look. Learn the core admin CLI commands and what “healthy” looks like. Syllabus • Cheatsheet
2 Broker configuration + topic management Learn listeners, storage, and safe config changes. Practice topic configs: partitions, replication, retention/compaction, quotas. Cheatsheet • Practice
3 Security + observability TLS/SASL/ACL fundamentals, least privilege. Learn how to interpret metrics/log patterns (URP, offline partitions, controller churn). Syllabus • Practice
4 Troubleshooting + maintenance Rolling restarts/upgrades, reassignment, disk pressure, lag and rebalances. Finish with 2–3 timed mixed runs and remediation. Practice • FAQ

60-Day Balanced Plan

Target pace: ~6–8 hours/week.

Weeks Focus What to do
1–2 Architecture + health indicators Build mental models: ISR, leader election, controller role, internal topics; learn “healthy vs unhealthy” signals.
3–4 Config + topic lifecycle Broker configs, listener patterns, storage planning; topic configs, partitioning, retention/compaction; safe changes.
5–6 Security + governance TLS/SASL/ACLs, super users, least privilege; audit/logging patterns.
7–8 Troubleshooting + resilience Partition reassignment, rolling restarts/upgrades, DR/multi-cluster awareness; heavy practice + remediation loop.

90-Day Part-Time Plan

Target pace: ~3–5 hours/week.

Month Focus What to do
1 Fundamentals Learn partitions/replication/retention and core admin commands; do weekly drills.
2 Operating Kafka Broker config patterns, topic management, security basics; practice diagnosis scenarios.
3 Reliability Troubleshooting deep dives, safe maintenance patterns, mixed timed runs; final review and remediation.

How to integrate the Mastery Cloud app

  • Use Syllabus as your daily checklist and drill one section at a time.
  • In Practice, start with topic drills, then shift to mixed sets.
  • Keep a “miss log”: write a 1‑sentence rule for every repeated mistake (e.g., “URP usually means ISR shrink; check disk/network, then broker health”).
Overview
Syllabus