This plan is built around the DevOps loop: deliver -> observe -> recover -> improve.
How to use this plan well
Each study block should do four things:
- classify the issue as source, build, deploy, IaC, verify, or rollback
- decide which OCI control belongs there
- do a short scenario set
- write down whether the miss was stage choice, release safety, or observability weakness
flowchart LR
Classify["Classify source / build / deploy / verify / rollback"] --> Control["Choose OCI control"]
Control --> Drill["Do short scenario set"]
Drill --> Review["Review why misses happened"]
Review --> Classify
How long should you study?
Typical candidates need 70 to 120 focused hours.
| Your time |
Recommended timeline |
Good fit |
| 18 to 22 hrs/week |
30 days |
intensive path with some delivery experience |
| 10 to 14 hrs/week |
60 days |
balanced path for most candidates |
| 6 to 9 hrs/week |
90 days |
part-time path with slower reinforcement |
30-day intensive plan
| Week |
Focus |
Output |
| 1 |
environments, IAM, secrets, governance, and source-to-build flow |
stage notes and short drills |
| 2 |
CI/CD pipelines, artifacts, gates, and release discipline |
rollout tie-break sheet |
| 3 |
IaC, Resource Manager, Terraform state, and deployment strategies |
weak-lane notes and mixed sets |
| 4 |
observability, incident response, rollback, and final readiness |
mixed sets and compression |
60-day balanced plan
| Phase |
Weeks |
Focus |
| 1 |
1 to 2 |
terminology cleanup and delivery-stage classification |
| 2 |
3 to 4 |
source, build, artifacts, gates, and release safety |
| 3 |
5 to 6 |
IaC, Resource Manager, Terraform state, and environment boundaries |
| 4 |
7 |
monitoring, logging, verification, and rollback triggers |
| 5 |
8 |
weak-lane repair and mixed review |
90-day part-time plan
| Month |
Focus |
Goal |
| 1 |
DevOps vocabulary and delivery-loop basics |
stop losing points to stage confusion |
| 2 |
release strategy, IaC safety, and secrets or least privilege |
build stronger safe-delivery judgment |
| 3 |
observability, recovery, and exam-style tie-breaks |
finish with mixed-set confidence |
If misses cluster here, do this next
| Miss pattern |
Weak lane |
Fix next |
| you choose the wrong rollout pattern |
release strategy |
review canary, blue-green, rolling, and rollback trade-offs |
| you ignore state or environment boundaries |
IaC |
review Resource Manager, Terraform state, and scope separation |
| you ship but do not verify effectively |
observability |
review metrics, logs, alarms, dashboards, and release verification |
| you automate but cannot recover safely |
rollback and ops |
review known-good restore logic and incident response |
What strong prep usually does
- classifies the delivery stage first, then picks the OCI control
- keeps a short confusion list for build vs deploy, rollback vs redeploy, and monitoring vs logging
- writes down why the winning answer is safer or more repeatable instead of just memorizing it
- uses Oracle docs to settle disagreements, then comes back here for compression
Final 72 hours
| Keep doing |
Stop doing |
| rereading the cheat sheet and glossary |
opening unrelated new CI/CD or IaC tools |
| reviewing weak-lane misses |
treating DevOps as only build automation |
| checking official docs for disputed boundaries |
building a large late-stage delivery platform |
| practicing source -> build -> deploy -> verify -> rollback order |
trusting unsupported community summaries over Oracle docs |
Route yourself well
- pipeline, rollback, and IaC traps: Cheat Sheet
- high-confusion DevOps terms: Glossary
- last-week questions: FAQ
- official Oracle and OCI source routing: Resources