100+ Free CCAAK Practice Questions

Pass your Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka (CCAAK) exam on the first try — instant access, no signup required.

✓ No registration✓ No credit card✓ No hidden fees✓ Start practicing immediately

~70-80% Pass Rate

100+ Questions

100% Free

1 / 10

Question 1

Score: 0/0

In Apache Kafka's KRaft mode, which component replaces the role previously performed by ZooKeeper?

The broker leader election process

The controller quorum

The Schema Registry

The MirrorMaker service

to track

2026 Statistics

Key Facts: CCAAK Exam

~60

Exam Questions

Confluent

90 min

Exam Duration

Confluent

$150

Exam Fee

Confluent

2 years

Validity

Confluent

~22%

Cluster Configuration

Largest domain

PSI Online

Delivery

Confluent

The CCAAK exam has approximately 60 multiple-choice, matching, and list-order questions in 90 minutes. Question weightings: Apache Kafka Cluster Configuration (~22%), Apache Kafka Fundamentals (~15%), Apache Kafka Security (~15%), Troubleshooting (~15%), Deployment Architecture (~12%), Observability (~10%), and Kafka Connect. Exam fee is $150 USD, delivered via PSI online proctored. Certification is valid for 2 years. Must be completed within 12 months from date of purchase.

Sample CCAAK Practice Questions

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

1In Apache Kafka's KRaft mode, which component replaces the role previously performed by ZooKeeper?

A.The broker leader election process

B.The controller quorum

C.The Schema Registry

D.The MirrorMaker service

Explanation: KRaft (Kafka Raft) mode introduces a controller quorum that stores cluster metadata internally in a dedicated __cluster_metadata topic using the Raft consensus protocol. This eliminates the external ZooKeeper dependency that was required in earlier Kafka versions. The controller quorum elects an active controller that handles metadata operations across the cluster.

2Which Kafka command-line tool is used to create, list, describe, and delete topics?

A.kafka-configs.sh

B.kafka-topics.sh

C.kafka-console-producer.sh

D.kafka-acls.sh

Explanation: The kafka-topics.sh utility is the standard administrative tool for managing topics. It supports operations such as --create, --list, --describe, --alter, and --delete. kafka-configs.sh manages dynamic configuration, kafka-acls.sh manages ACLs, and kafka-console-producer.sh is for publishing messages.

3What does the producer configuration acks=all guarantee?

A.The message is written to the leader only

B.The producer receives acknowledgement once the message is written to all in-sync replicas

C.The message is compressed before being sent

D.The producer never retries failed sends

Explanation: acks=all (also acks=-1) means the producer waits until the leader confirms the record has been written to all in-sync replicas (ISR). This provides the strongest durability guarantee. acks=0 means fire-and-forget, and acks=1 means wait only for the leader to write.

4Which Kafka consumer configuration determines what happens when there is no initial offset or the current offset no longer exists?

A.fetch.min.bytes

B.auto.offset.reset

C.max.poll.records

D.session.timeout.ms

Explanation: The auto.offset.reset setting controls the behavior when no committed offset is found for a consumer group. Valid values are earliest (start from the beginning of the log), latest (start from the end), and none (throw an exception). The other settings control fetch sizing, polling batch size, and group membership timing.

5A Kafka topic has a replication factor of 3 and min.insync.replicas=2. How many replicas can be offline before producers using acks=all are blocked from writing?

A.0

B.1

C.2

D.3

Explanation: With replication factor 3 and min.insync.replicas=2, at least 2 replicas must be in-sync for a producer with acks=all to write successfully. If 1 replica goes offline, 2 remain and writes continue. If 2 replicas go offline, only 1 remains and producers will receive NotEnoughReplicasException.

6What is the default partitioner behavior when a producer sends a record without a key?

A.Records are always sent to partition 0

B.Records use the sticky partitioner to batch to one partition at a time

C.Records are broadcast to all partitions

D.Records are rejected without a key

Explanation: Since Kafka 2.4, keyless records use the sticky partitioner, which chooses a partition per batch rather than round-robin per record. This reduces latency and improves batching. With keyed records, the default partitioner uses murmur2 hashing on the key to determine the partition.

7Which consumer assignment strategy supports cooperative incremental rebalancing to avoid stop-the-world rebalances?

A.RangeAssignor

B.RoundRobinAssignor

C.StickyAssignor

D.CooperativeStickyAssignor

Explanation: CooperativeStickyAssignor implements incremental cooperative rebalancing (KIP-429), where only the partitions that need to move are revoked rather than revoking all assignments. This significantly reduces consumer group disruption during rebalance events. The other assignors use eager rebalancing, which revokes all partitions before reassigning.

8Which SASL mechanism uses salted challenge-response authentication with SHA-512?

A.SASL/PLAIN

B.SASL/SCRAM-SHA-512

C.SASL/GSSAPI

D.SASL/OAUTHBEARER

Explanation: SASL/SCRAM-SHA-512 uses the Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism with SHA-512 hashing. SCRAM avoids sending plaintext passwords on the wire. SASL/PLAIN sends credentials in plaintext (should only be used over TLS), GSSAPI is for Kerberos, and OAUTHBEARER is for OAuth 2.0 token-based authentication.

9Which tool is commonly used in Confluent Platform to automatically rebalance partitions and detect anomalies in a Kafka cluster?

A.kafka-topics.sh

B.Cruise Control

C.Kafka Connect

D.Schema Registry

Explanation: Kafka Cruise Control is LinkedIn's open-source tool (integrated with Confluent Platform) that monitors cluster state, detects anomalies like broker imbalance, and automatically rebalances partitions to optimize resource utilization. It uses analyzer goals (e.g., leader balance, replica distribution) to drive optimization.

10Which JMX metric indicates partitions that have fewer in-sync replicas than their replication factor requires?

A.OfflinePartitionsCount

B.UnderReplicatedPartitions

C.ActiveControllerCount

D.RequestQueueSize

Explanation: UnderReplicatedPartitions is the standard health metric for detecting when replicas have fallen behind. A non-zero value means the ISR is smaller than the replication factor, which compromises durability guarantees. OfflinePartitionsCount indicates partitions with no leader, which is a more severe outage condition.

About the CCAAK Exam

The Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka (CCAAK) exam validates the key skills required to configure, deploy, monitor, and support Apache Kafka clusters—ensuring reliable performance and operational excellence. It covers Kafka fundamentals, security, deployment architecture, cluster configuration, observability, and troubleshooting.

Questions

60 scored questions

Time Limit

90 minutes

Passing Score

Scaled (not publicly disclosed)

Exam Fee

$150 USD (Confluent / PSI Online Proctored)

CCAAK Exam Content Outline

~22%

Apache Kafka Cluster Configuration

Broker, producer, and consumer configuration; replication factor; leader election; cleanup policies; retention tuning; compression; segment sizing

~15%

Apache Kafka Fundamentals

Brokers, topics, partitions, producers, consumers; consumer groups; KRaft vs ZooKeeper; ISR and replication; offsets

~15%

Apache Kafka Security

SSL/TLS in-transit encryption; SASL authentication (PLAIN, SCRAM, GSSAPI, OAUTHBEARER); ACLs with kafka-acls.sh; Confluent RBAC

~15%

Troubleshooting

Consumer lag, broker failures, network issues, error codes, debugging producer/consumer issues, log analysis

~12%

Deployment Architecture

Multi-AZ clusters, rack awareness, Tiered Storage, MirrorMaker 2, Cluster Linking, Kubernetes deployment, scaling

~10%

Observability

JMX metrics (UnderReplicatedPartitions, OfflinePartitionsCount), Confluent Control Center, Cruise Control, Prometheus/Grafana

How to Pass the CCAAK Exam

What You Need to Know

Passing score: Scaled (not publicly disclosed)
Exam length: 60 questions
Time limit: 90 minutes
Exam fee: $150 USD

Keys to Passing

Complete 500+ practice questions
Score 80%+ consistently before scheduling
Focus on highest-weighted sections
Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

CCAAK Study Tips from Top Performers

1Focus on Apache Kafka Cluster Configuration (~22%) — know broker, producer, and consumer settings deeply

2Understand KRaft mode thoroughly: controller quorum, __cluster_metadata topic, Raft consensus

3Practice kafka-topics.sh, kafka-configs.sh, kafka-consumer-groups.sh, kafka-acls.sh CLI tools

4Know the ISR semantics: min.insync.replicas, acks=all, unclean.leader.election.enable

5Memorize key JMX metrics: UnderReplicatedPartitions, OfflinePartitionsCount, ActiveControllerCount

6Study Kafka Connect: distributed mode, SMTs, dead-letter queues, converters (Avro/JSON)

7Understand security mechanisms: SASL/SCRAM, mTLS, ACLs on resources (Topic, Group, Cluster)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the CCAAK exam?

The Confluent Certified Administrator for Apache Kafka (CCAAK) is a certification by Confluent that validates the skills to configure, deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and support Apache Kafka clusters. It targets platform engineers, DevOps, and Kafka administrators.

How many questions are on the CCAAK exam?

The CCAAK exam has approximately 60 questions delivered in multiple-choice, matching, and list-ordering formats, completed in 90 minutes. Candidates have 12 months from purchase to take the exam via PSI online proctoring.

Are there prerequisites for the CCAAK exam?

There are no formal prerequisites, but Confluent recommends hands-on experience operating Kafka clusters in production, familiarity with broker/producer/consumer configuration, KRaft or ZooKeeper mode, SASL/SSL security, and Kafka CLI tools (kafka-topics.sh, kafka-configs.sh, kafka-consumer-groups.sh, kafka-acls.sh).

What is the largest domain on the CCAAK exam?

Apache Kafka Cluster Configuration is the largest domain at approximately 22%. It covers broker/producer/consumer configuration, replication factor, leader election, retention (log.retention.ms, log.segment.bytes), cleanup policy (delete, compact), compression, and workload tuning.

How should I prepare for the CCAAK exam?

Plan 40-60 hours of study over 4-8 weeks. Practice setting up a Kafka cluster in KRaft mode, configuring SASL/SSL, creating topics with ACLs, and using Kafka Connect. Read Confluent's official docs on broker configs, security, and monitoring. Complete 100+ practice questions and aim for 80%+ before scheduling.

What jobs can I get with CCAAK certification?

The CCAAK certification supports roles including Kafka Platform Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) for event streaming, DevOps Engineer, Kafka Administrator, and Cloud Platform Engineer. It demonstrates hands-on Kafka cluster-operation capability valued in data-intensive organizations.