Red Hat EX188 exam guide covering containers, images, registries, pods, and OpenShift basics.
This Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers guide helps EX188 candidates focus on what the exam tests, where close answers usually split, and which review page to use next.
This route includes performance-based skill expectations. Use the guide for concept readiness and objective triage, but plan hands-on practice in the real toolchain before scheduling.
| Item | Guide value |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Red Hat |
| Exam or credential | Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers |
| Code or shorthand | EX188 |
| Study level | Performance-based containers |
| IT Mastery page | EX188 exam page |
| Guide shape | Start-here page, study plan, cheat sheet, FAQ, resources, and glossary. |
| Lane | What to master | Common weak answer |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift architecture | Understand projects, routes, deployments, image streams, builds, operators, and cluster services. | Treating OpenShift exactly like upstream Kubernetes without platform-specific objects. |
| Workload management | Create, configure, scale, expose, update, and troubleshoot applications. | Editing resources without verifying route, service, selector, image, and rollout behavior. |
| Security and access | Use projects, RBAC, SCCs, service accounts, secrets, and image controls. | Granting broad cluster access or privileged containers to bypass a problem. |
| Operations and troubleshooting | Use oc commands, events, logs, probes, quotas, builds, and deployment status. | Ignoring build logs or events when an app fails to roll out. |
| Automation and integration | Use templates, operators, pipelines, GitOps or automation patterns where the exam requires them. | Manual one-off changes when repeatable automation is the point. |
Red Hat OpenShift pages are readiness aids, not full simulations. Practice every objective in the live product or lab.
Use the current Red Hat exam page for live exam details, including name, status, pricing, duration, delivery method, languages, retirement or beta changes, and domain weights where applicable.