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Red Hat EX380 Cheat Sheet: Automation, Integration, and OpenShift

April 24, 2026

Red Hat EX380 cheat sheet for automation, integration, OpenShift, traps, and final review.

On this page

Use this cheat sheet for Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Automation and Integration (EX380) after you know the basics but before you start a timed practice block. The goal is not to memorize a vendor catalog; the goal is to classify the scenario and reject attractive wrong answers quickly.

For performance-based exams, treat this as a command-and-task triage sheet. It helps decide what to do first, but it does not replace live lab repetition.

EX380 answer sequence

Use this when the stem mixes OpenShift automation, integration, workflows, or platform evidence.

    flowchart TD
	  S["Scenario"] --> O["Identify the OpenShift lane"]
	  O --> B["Check build, route, or deployment behavior"]
	  B --> A["Check automation, operators, or pipelines"]
	  A --> V["Verify rollout, logs, and recovery evidence"]

First-pass question triage

  1. Name the tested lane before reading the answer choices.
  2. Underline the constraint: security, cost, reliability, latency, governance, implementation effort, or evidence.
  3. Reject answers that solve a neighboring problem but not the stated requirement.
  4. Prefer the smallest correct control, service, workflow, or command that satisfies the constraint.
  5. Look for proof: logs, tests, metrics, policy evidence, deployment status, evaluation results, or user-visible recovery.

What to know cold

Lane Decision rule Reject when
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.

Common traps and better instincts

Trap Better instinct
Kubernetes-only answer Check for OpenShift objects such as routes, projects, builds, image streams, and SCCs.
No hands-on practice Red Hat exams are performance-based; practice in an actual environment.
Wrong project context Confirm oc project, namespace, and permissions before changing resources.
No verification Use rollout status, route testing, logs, and events after each fix.

Final 15-minute review

If the stem says Start with
least privilege, private access, compliance, or audit identity scope, data boundary, policy enforcement, logging, and ownership
least operational effort managed service, native integration, simple workflow, and fewer moving parts
high availability, recovery, or outage failure domain, recovery objective, health check, rollback, and validation
performance, scale, or cost bottleneck evidence, traffic pattern, sizing, caching, batching, and quotas
troubleshoot, diagnose, or investigate symptom, recent change, logs, metrics, status, dependency, and smallest safe test

Practice fit

Use IT Mastery for objective recognition and scenario drills, then validate speed in the real performance environment.

Open the exact IT Mastery route here: EX380 on MasteryExamPrep.

Decision order

Red Hat OpenShift pages are readiness aids, not full simulations. Practice every objective in the live product or lab.

Revised on Sunday, May 10, 2026
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