Exam: Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration exam (EX280)

The Red Hat Certified System Administrator in OpenShift exam (EX280) tests the knowledge, skills, and ability to create, configure, and manage a cloud application platform using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. 

By passing this exam, you become a Red Hat Certified System Administrator in OpenShift that also counts towards earning a Red Hat Certified Architect in OpenShift.

This exam is based on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform 4.18.

Updated 11/7/2026

Audience for this exam

• System and Software Architects who need an understanding of the  features and functionality of an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
• System Administrators who need to support the initial establishment of an OpenShift cluster.
• Cluster Operators who need to support ongoing maintenance of an OpenShift cluster.
• Site Reliability Engineers who need to support the ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting of an OpenShift cluster.
• System administrators who want to demonstrate their OpenShift Container Platform skills
• System administrators or developers who are working in a DevOps environment using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Recommended next exam or course

• Red Hat OpenShift Administration III: Scaling Kubernetes Deployments in the Enterprise (DO380)
• Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in OpenShift exam (EX380)

Preparation

Red Hat encourages you to consider taking Red Hat OpenShift Administration I: Containers & Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift Administration II: Operating a Production Kubernetes Cluster to help prepare.

This exam is a performance-based evaluation of skills and knowledge required to configure and manage a cloud application platform. Candidates perform routine configuration and administrative tasks using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and are evaluated on whether they have met specific objective criteria. Performance-based testing means that candidates must perform tasks similar to what they perform on the job.

Candidates should be able to:

• Manage OpenShift Container Platform
• Work with resource manifests
• Deploy applications
• Manage authentication and authorization
• Configure network security
• Expose non-HTTP/SNI Applications
• Enable developer self-service
• Manage OpenShift operators
• Configure application security

As with all Red Hat performance-based exams, configurations must persist after reboot without intervention.

Manage OpenShift Container Platform

• Use the web console to manage and configure an OpenShift cluster
• Use the command-line interface to manage and configure an OpenShift cluster
• Create and delete projects
• Locate and examine container images
• Identify images using tags and digests
• Query, format, and filter attributes of Kubernetes resources
• Import, export, and configure Kubernetes resources
• Examine resources and cluster status
• Monitor cluster events and alerts
• View logs
• Assess the health of an OpenShift cluster
• Troubleshoot common container, pod, and cluster events and alerts
• Use product documentation
• Be prepared to perform all tasks of a Red Hat Certified Technologist in OpenShift

Work with resource manifests

• Deploy applications from YAML resource manifests
• Update application deployments
• Deploy applications using Kustomize
• Work with Kustomize overlays
• Create and use secrets
• Create and use configuration maps

Deploy applications

• Deploy applications from templates and Helm charts
• Manage application deployments
• Work with replica sets
• Work with labels and selectors
• Configure services
• Expose applications to external access

Manage authentication and authorization

• Configure the HTPasswd identity provider for authentication
• Create and delete users
• Modify user passwords
• Create and manage groups
• Modify user and group permissions

Configure network security

• Configure networking components
• Troubleshoot software defined networking
• Create and edit external routes
• Control cluster network ingress
• Secure external and internal traffic using TLS certificates
• Configure application network policies

Expose non-HTTP/SNI Applications

• Configure a load balancer service
• Configure external application access

Enable developer self-service

• Configure cluster resource quotas
• Configure project quotas
• Configure project resource requirements
• Configure project limit ranges
• Configure project templates

Manage OpenShift operators

• Install an operator
• Uninstall an operator
• Delete an operator

Configure application security

• Configure and manage service accounts
• Run privileged applications
• Manage and apply permissions using security context constraints
• Create and apply secrets to manage sensitive information
• Configure application access to Kubernetes APIs
• Deploy jobs to perform one-time tasks
• Configure Kubernetes cron jobs

Candidates for this exam should:

• Have taken Red Hat System Administration I (RH124) or have comparable experience.  Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) is strongly recommended but not required.
• Have taken Red Hat OpenShift Administration I: Operating a Production Cluster (DO180) course or have comparable work experience using OpenShift Container Platform
• Have taken Red Hat OpenShift Administration II: Configuring a Production Cluster (DO280) course or have comparable work experience using OpenShift Container Platform
• Review the Red Hat Certified System Administrator in OpenShift exam (EX280) objectives
• Experience with container technology is recommended