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2026 Statistics

Key Facts: ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Exam

NQF 6

Swiss Qualification Level

ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz (NQR level 6, bachelor-level equivalence)

Grade 4.0

Minimum Passing Grade

ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz (Scale 1-6)

CHF 3,000

Federal Exam Fee

ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz, published examination fee

50%

Federal Tuition Subsidy

SBFI Bundesbeiträge (Up to CHF 9,500)

660 min

Total examination time (practical + written + oral)

ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz, Prüfungsordnung/Wegleitung PDS

100

Practice Questions

OpenExamPrep

50/30/20

Weighting of examination parts 1/2/3

Wegleitung PDS, section 4.2

The Swiss Federal Diploma in ICT Platform Development (ICT-Platform Development Specialist FA) is a tertiary qualification placed at NQF level 6 (bachelor-level equivalence). Administered by ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz under SBFI oversight, it tests four core infrastructure domains: Cloud & Infrastructure Engineering, Enterprise Networking & Protocols, Platform Automation & Containers, and Cybersecurity, Identity & ITIL Operations.

Sample ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to test your ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1In enterprise virtualization architectures (e.g., VMware vSphere ESXi, KVM), what is the architectural distinction between a Type 1 (Bare-Metal) Hypervisor and a Type 2 (Hosted) Hypervisor?

A.A Type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the physical host hardware with direct hardware access and minimal overhead; a Type 2 hypervisor runs as an application on top of an existing host operating system (e.g., Windows or Linux)

B.A Type 1 hypervisor can only run Windows VMs, while a Type 2 hypervisor can only run Linux VMs

C.A Type 2 hypervisor has direct memory mapping, while a Type 1 hypervisor uses software emulation for all CPU instructions

D.Type 1 hypervisors require cloud connectivity, while Type 2 hypervisors operate offline

Explanation: Type 1 hypervisors (ESXi, KVM, Xen, Hyper-V core) run directly on bare metal without an intermediate general-purpose OS, providing superior I/O performance, hardware virtualization efficiency, and security. Type 2 hypervisors (VirtualBox, VMware Workstation) run within a host OS, incurring extra scheduling and I/O translation overhead.

2In a VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) cluster, how does the cluster determine if an ESXi host has failed versus experiencing a management network isolation (split-brain scenario)?

A.The primary HA agent (Master Host) checks heartbeats over the management network and uses Datastore Heartbeating (pinging shared SAN/NAS datastores) to verify if the isolated host is still accessing storage

B.The master host immediately formats the isolated host's local hard drives

C.The cluster sends an SMS to the IT administrator before taking action

D.The hypervisor shuts down all virtual machines across all healthy cluster nodes

Explanation: In vSphere HA, if management network heartbeats are lost between the master host and a slave host, the master uses Datastore Heartbeating across shared SAN/NFS storage. If the host is still heartbeating to datastores, it is deemed 'Network Isolated', and the configured Isolation Response (e.g., Shut down and restart VMs) is triggered without risking split-brain dual-writes.

3A systems engineer designs a storage array for an enterprise database using 8 enterprise NVMe SSDs of 2 TB capacity each in a RAID 6 configuration. What is the usable storage capacity and how many drive failures can the array tolerate simultaneously without data loss?

A.Usable capacity: 12 TB (6 × 2 TB); can tolerate up to 2 simultaneous drive failures without data loss

B.Usable capacity: 14 TB (7 × 2 TB); can tolerate 1 drive failure

C.Usable capacity: 8 TB (4 × 2 TB); can tolerate 4 drive failures

D.Usable capacity: 16 TB (8 × 2 TB); can tolerate 0 drive failures

Explanation: In RAID 6 (block-level striping with dual distributed parity), two full disk capacities ($2 \times N$) are consumed for parity ($P$ and $Q$ Reed-Solomon syndrome). For 8 drives of 2 TB: Usable capacity = $(N - 2) \times \text{Drive Size} = (8 - 2) \times 2\text{ TB} = 12\text{ TB}$. RAID 6 can survive 2 concurrent drive failures.

4What is the primary technical distinction between Block Storage (SAN / iSCSI / Fibre Channel) and File Storage (NAS / NFS / SMB)?

A.Block storage exposes raw, unformatted storage volumes (LUNs) directly to the host OS, which formats them with its own filesystem; File storage exposes a pre-formatted shared filesystem where files and directories are managed over network protocols

B.Block storage is accessed via web browsers, while File storage requires dedicated PCIe cards

C.File storage can only store images, while Block storage stores only numbers

D.Block storage does not support data redundancy

Explanation: Block storage presents raw blocks/LUNs over Fibre Channel or iSCSI/NVMe-oF; the host operating system creates and manages the filesystem (VMFS, NTFS, ext4) locally. File storage (NAS using NFS or SMB) manages the filesystem internally on the storage array and shares directory trees over IP networks.

5In disaster recovery and business continuity planning, what is the exact definition of Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO)?

A.RPO is the maximum acceptable age of data lost due to a disaster (maximum tolerable data loss measured in time); RTO is the maximum acceptable duration of time to restore systems and resume operations

B.RTO measures the cost of replacement hardware; RPO measures the number of employees required to perform restores

C.RPO is the time to rebuild hardware; RTO is the backup tape speed

D.RPO and RTO are identical metrics measuring backup download bandwidth

Explanation: RPO (Recovery Point Objective) dictates how much data loss the business can tolerate (e.g., an RPO of 1 hour means backups must run at least hourly). RTO (Recovery Time Objective) dictates how quickly systems must be back online following an outage (e.g., an RTO of 4 hours means systems must be fully functional within 4 hours).

6In enterprise SSD storage arrays, what is the 'Write Penalty' (Parity Overhead) associated with RAID 5 and RAID 6 write operations?

A.RAID 5 requires 4 I/O operations per random write (Read old data, Read old parity, Write new data, Write new parity = 4 IOPS); RAID 6 requires 6 I/O operations (2 reads + 1 data write + 2 parity writes = 6 IOPS)

B.RAID 5 has zero write penalty, while RAID 6 has a 50% write penalty

C.RAID 6 write operations take 6 minutes to complete

D.Write penalty only applies to read-only optical drives

Explanation: For random small block writes on parity RAID: RAID 5 must read the old data and old parity, calculate the new parity difference, and write the new data and new parity (2 Reads + 2 Writes = 4 I/Os per write). RAID 6 maintains dual parity ($P$ and $Q$), requiring 3 Reads and 3 Writes (6 I/Os per write), making RAID 10 preferred for write-heavy transactional workloads.

7In enterprise compute virtualization, what is Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) and what occurs when a virtual machine's vCPU accesses memory assigned to a remote NUMA node?

A.Memory access to local NUMA nodes (directly attached to the physical CPU socket) is fast; accessing remote NUMA nodes across inter-socket interconnects (QPI/UPI/Infinity Fabric) incurs higher latency and lower bandwidth

B.NUMA disables RAM caching in the Linux kernel

C.Remote NUMA access causes immediate virtual machine operating system kernel crashes

D.NUMA converts DDR5 memory into virtual hard disk space

Explanation: Multi-socket servers divide physical RAM into NUMA nodes attached directly to specific CPU sockets. When a vCPU on Socket 0 accesses memory wired to Socket 1, the request traverses the inter-socket interconnect (Intel UPI / AMD Infinity Fabric), incurring a latency penalty. Proper vNUMA sizing ensures VMs fit within single NUMA node boundaries.

8What is NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) and what is its primary performance advantage over traditional Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI protocols in enterprise storage?

A.It extends the lightweight NVMe protocol and parallelism (up to 64k queues with 64k commands each) over low-latency fabrics (RDMA / RoCE, InfiniBand, or TCP), drastically reducing I/O latency and CPU overhead

B.It compresses data using MP3 audio algorithms

C.It replaces all fiber optic cables with Wi-Fi 6 wireless connections

D.It eliminates the need for solid-state drives by storing data in CPU registers

Explanation: Traditional SAN protocols (Fibre Channel FCP, iSCSI) translate SCSI commands, creating protocol bottlenecks for flash. NVMe-oF transmits native NVMe commands directly over RDMA (RoCE v2, iWARP) or NVMe/TCP with massive parallelism (thousands of queues), lowering latency down to single-digit microseconds.

9In cloud and on-premises storage architectures, what is S3 Object Storage Immutability (WORM - Write Once, Read Many / Object Lock)?

A.A compliance and ransomware defense mechanism that locks objects in a bucket so they cannot be overwritten, modified, or deleted by any user or API (even root/admin) until a defined retention period expires

B.A feature that automatically converts images to black and white

C.A protocol that deletes all objects after 24 hours

D.A database indexing tool for full-text search

Explanation: S3 Object Lock enforces WORM storage (Compliance Mode or Governance Mode). Once written, objects cannot be altered or deleted by attackers or ransomware with compromised admin credentials until the retention timestamp passes, providing impenetrable ransomware backup protection.

10In virtualized environments, what is the purpose of Memory Ballooning (e.g., `vmmemctl` in VMware Tools)?

A.A memory reclamation mechanism where the hypervisor inflates a balloon driver inside a guest VM, forcing the guest OS to page out inactive memory to its own swap space so the hypervisor can reclaim physical RAM for other VMs

B.A tool that increases the physical RAM capacity of the server motherboard dynamically

C.A software feature that compresses virtual machine hard disks

D.A monitoring widget that displays memory usage as a circular pie chart

Explanation: When the hypervisor experiences physical host memory pressure, it instructs the balloon driver inside the guest VM to allocate private memory (inflate). The guest OS treats this as internal memory pressure and swaps out idle processes to disk. The hypervisor reclaims the freed physical host RAM pages without crashing VMs.

About the ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Exam

The ICT-Platform Development Specialist mit eidgenössischem Fachausweis (Swiss Federal Diploma of Higher VET in Platform Development / Spécialiste en développement de plateformes TIC avec brevet fédéral, formerly ICT-System- und Netzwerktechniker/in FA) is Switzerland's benchmark professional qualification for senior platform engineers, cloud infrastructure architects, systems engineers, and network administrators. Governed by the Prüfungsordnung and Wegleitung issued by ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz under SBFI supervision and placed at level 6 of the Swiss National Qualifications Framework, which the association equates to bachelor-level requirements, it certifies comprehensive competence in hybrid cloud infrastructure, software-defined networking (BGP, OSPF, EVPN-VXLAN), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), container platforms (Kubernetes), Zero Trust security, IAM, and enterprise ITIL service operations. Note on format and language: the official federal examination is conducted in German, French, and Italian and consists of modular written case studies, practical simulations, and oral examination rather than multiple-choice questions. This question bank is an English-language multiple-choice study adaptation created by OpenExamPrep—not an official translation and not a simulation of the exam format—that preserves authentic technical and regulatory standards.

Assessment

Part 1 'Komplexe Herausforderungen in der Plattformentwicklung' — practical case simulations, 360 min, weighted 50%, focused on competence areas D and E. Part 2 'Entwickeln und Betreiben von Plattformen' — written case study and mini-cases, 240 min, weighted 30%, focused on competence areas A and C. Part 3 'Fachliches Führen und Befähigen von Teams' — oral Critical Incidents, 60 min, weighted 20%. Total 660 minutes. Part 1 may present its virtual environment and technical terms in English, but answers are given in the chosen examination language.

Time Limit

660 minutes in total: 360 minutes practical, 240 minutes written, 60 minutes oral

Passing Score

Grades run 6 to 1 in half steps. The examination is passed when the overall grade is at least 4.0, the grade for part 1 is not below 4.0, the grades for parts 2 and 3 are not below 3.0, and at most one part grade is below 4.0.

Exam Fee

CHF 3,000 including additional fees, of which CHF 200 covers issuing the Fachausweis, the graduation ceremony or inspection of the examination file; preparatory courses are eligible for the 50% Swiss federal tuition subsidy (Bundesbeiträge, capped at CHF 9,500) (ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz, under SBFI supervision)

ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Exam Content Outline

25%

Cloud & On-Premises Infrastructure Engineering

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud architectures, virtualization (VMware ESXi, KVM), enterprise storage (SAN, NAS, NVMe-oF, RAID), server clustering, high availability, disaster recovery (RTO/RPO), and hardware capacity sizing.

25%

Enterprise Networking, Protocols & Services

TCP/IP routing and switching (VLANs, 802.1Q, RSTP, OSPF, BGP, EVPN-VXLAN), core infrastructure services (DNS/DNSSEC, DHCP, NTP), VPNs (IPsec, WireGuard), SD-WAN, and Layer 4-7 load balancing.

25%

Platform Automation, Orchestration & DevOps

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, OpenTofu), configuration management (Ansible), container platforms (Docker, containerd, Kubernetes architecture, Helm), platform scripting (Bash, PowerShell, Python), and GitOps (ArgoCD).

25%

Cybersecurity, Identity & IT Operations Management

Zero Trust architecture, Identity and Access Management (Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, SAML, OAuth/OIDC, MFA, RBAC), endpoint hardening, SIEM/SOC monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK), 3-2-1 backup strategies, and ITIL 4 service operations.

How to Pass the ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Exam

What You Need to Know

Passing score: Grades run 6 to 1 in half steps. The examination is passed when the overall grade is at least 4.0, the grade for part 1 is not below 4.0, the grades for parts 2 and 3 are not below 3.0, and at most one part grade is below 4.0.
Assessment: Part 1 'Komplexe Herausforderungen in der Plattformentwicklung' — practical case simulations, 360 min, weighted 50%, focused on competence areas D and E. Part 2 'Entwickeln und Betreiben von Plattformen' — written case study and mini-cases, 240 min, weighted 30%, focused on competence areas A and C. Part 3 'Fachliches Führen und Befähigen von Teams' — oral Critical Incidents, 60 min, weighted 20%. Total 660 minutes. Part 1 may present its virtual environment and technical terms in English, but answers are given in the chosen examination language.
Time limit: 660 minutes in total: 360 minutes practical, 240 minutes written, 60 minutes oral
Exam fee: CHF 3,000 including additional fees, of which CHF 200 covers issuing the Fachausweis, the graduation ceremony or inspection of the examination file; preparatory courses are eligible for the 50% Swiss federal tuition subsidy (Bundesbeiträge, capped at CHF 9,500)

Keys to Passing

Work through all 100 available questions
Review every answer and explanation
Track weak areas and revisit them
Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

ICT-Platform Dev Specialist FA Study Tips from Top Performers

1Master Kubernetes Platform Internals: Understand control plane components (etcd, kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, kube-scheduler), pod lifecycle hooks, readiness vs liveness probes, CNI networking, and Service/Ingress routing.

2Design High-Availability Storage Architectures: Calculate effective storage capacities across RAID 5, 6, and 10 arrays, understand write amplification on flash/NVMe storage, and differentiate block (iSCSI/FC), file (NFS/SMB), and object (S3) semantics.

3Analyze Enterprise Routing and Overlay Networks: Practice configuring BGP autonomous systems, route reflectors, OSPF area topologies, and EVPN-VXLAN encapsulation for multi-tenant data center fabrics.

4Author Idempotent Infrastructure as Code: Master Terraform state locking, backend configuration, module reusability, resource dependencies (`depends_on`), and Ansible playbook idempotency.

5Implement Zero Trust Identity Controls: Differentiate between Kerberos ticket-granting workflows, SAML 2.0 web SSO assertions, OAuth 2.0 authorization code flows with PKCE, and Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ICT-Platform Development Specialist mit eidg. Fachausweis?

The ICT-Platform Development Specialist mit eidgenössischem Fachausweis (formerly ICT-System- und Netzwerktechniker/in FA) is a federally accredited professional qualification (Berufsprüfung) in Switzerland placed at NQF level 6, validating advanced expertise in designing, automating, securing, and operating enterprise IT platform infrastructures.

Who organizes the Swiss ICT Platform Development Federal Examination?

The examination is organized and delivered by ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz under the federal authority and oversight of the SBFI.

What are the admission requirements for the Federal Examination?

ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz publishes three routes: an Informatiker/in EFZ plus at least two years of professional practice in platform development; another EFZ in the ICT field plus at least three years of such practice; or an EFZ, gymnasiale Maturität, Fachmaturität, Berufsmaturität or equivalent qualification plus at least four years of professional practice in the ICT field. Admission is decided only through the association's Vorabklärungsportal.

How is the Federal Examination structured and scored?

Three parts totalling 660 minutes: part 1 'Komplexe Herausforderungen in der Plattformentwicklung', practical case simulations of 360 minutes weighted 50%; part 2 'Entwickeln und Betreiben von Plattformen', a written case study with mini-cases of 240 minutes weighted 30%; and part 3 'Fachliches Führen und Befähigen von Teams', an oral Critical-Incidents examination of 60 minutes weighted 20%. It is passed when the overall grade is at least 4.0, part 1 is not below 4.0, parts 2 and 3 are not below 3.0, and at most one part is below 4.0.

Are preparatory courses subsidized by the Swiss Federal Government?

Yes. Under the SBFI federal subsidy scheme for higher vocational education (Bundesbeiträge), candidates receive a 50% direct reimbursement of eligible course tuition (up to CHF 9,500) upon participating in the federal examination.

Why are practice questions provided in English on OpenExamPrep?

While official Swiss sittings are conducted in German, French, or Italian, modern cloud platforms, networking standards, automation tools (Terraform, Kubernetes), and enterprise infrastructure documentation are standard in English. This practice bank provides an English-language study adaptation aligned with the Swiss qualification profile.