CCDAK Exam Blueprint: Kafka Developer Topic Checklist
Map the six CCDAK domains to developer tasks, distinguish published weights from practice choices and identify what to review next.
Use this checklist to choose your next study task. It summarizes the available Confluent developer outline ; the task examples below are our preparation prompts, not additional official objectives.
Source checked: September 30, 2026. The linked PDF is the 2025 outline. Check the current Confluent preparation guide before booking in case the issuer has revised it.
Six domains and useful evidence of understanding
| Domain | Published weight | Preparation task |
|---|---|---|
| Apache Kafka Fundamentals | 23% | Explain how topics, partitions, keys, replication and retention affect a record’s order and availability. |
| Apache Kafka Application Development | 28% | Trace producer and consumer behavior through configuration, serialization, retries, commits and a failure. |
| Apache Kafka Streams | 12% | Explain a topology’s transformation, state and output for a small input sequence. |
| Kafka Connect | 15% | Follow a record through a source or sink connector and identify the roles of workers, tasks and converters. |
| Application Testing | 8% | Choose a test that can establish the required behavior and identify what that test does not simulate. |
| Application Observability | 13% | Combine application metrics and logs with processing evidence to investigate a symptom. |
The six printed percentages sum to 99%, although the PDF’s total line says 100%. We preserve the printed figures here. Practice allocation normalizes their proportions and rounds to whole questions; it does not change the official outline.
Turn the checklist into a review plan
For each domain, record one of three states: not studied, can explain with notes, or can apply to fresh evidence. Keep a short example beside the rating, such as an offset trace, a topology test or a configuration diagnosis. These are study notes, not a calculated probability of passing.
Start with a heavily weighted area you cannot explain, then revisit missed distinctions across every domain. Use the study plan to schedule the work and the cheat sheet for recall between sessions.
Official exam and public practice are different
Confluent’s certification FAQ lists 90-minute proctored exams and several interaction types. The materials checked do not establish a fixed official question count, a numeric passing score or one required Kafka release. Follow the requirements associated with your booking.
Our 24-question preview is a short editorial sample with single-answer and Select TWO exercises. It is not a full-length official-format mock. Version-sensitive practice examples state their assumptions; use the corresponding documentation when investigating an answer.