CBA Practice Exam — Free Sample Questions

Internal developer portals with Backstage. Free practice questions sampled from our full 120-question bank, with detailed explanations for every option.

Format
multi-choice
Duration
90 min
Pass mark
75%
Study time
1–6 wks
Mocks here
2

What the CBA exam tests

The Certified Backstage Associate exam is structured around 4 weighted domains. Each domain link below opens a focused practice page with sample questions from that area.

Sample questions across every domain

One representative question per domain, drawn from the 120-question pool. Click "Reveal answer" to see the correct option plus explanations for every distractor.

Backstage Catalog

Q1. What does spec.owner mean on a Backstage catalog entity?

Reveal answer and explanations
  1. A It defines the entity API version used by the catalog parser

    Incorrect. API version is declared separately in apiVersion.

  2. B It determines where the descriptor file sits on disk

    Incorrect. File location is tracked by catalog locations, not spec.owner.

  3. C It grants database permissions to the owning team automatically

    Incorrect. The owner field is not a database authorization control.

  4. D The responsible user or group and ownership relations

    Correct. spec.owner declares accountability and is processed into ownership relationships in the catalog.

Customizing Backstage

Q2. A production Backstage deployment has different auth, integration, database, and plugin settings per environment. What does app-config.yaml control?

Reveal answer and explanations
  1. A React component rendering logic compiled into the frontend bundle

    Incorrect. Component rendering logic lives in application and plugin code.

  2. B TypeScript compiler settings for each workspace package

    Incorrect. TypeScript compiler settings are defined in tsconfig files.

  3. C Runtime feature, auth, database, and integration config

    Correct. Backstage configuration files supply runtime settings for installed features, auth providers, integrations, and services.

  4. D Database schema definitions generated by plugin migrations

    Incorrect. Plugin database schemas are managed by backend code and migrations, not by app-config.yaml.

Backstage Development Workflow

Q3. A release pipeline needs deployable Backstage artifacts rather than a local dev server. What does yarn build do in a Backstage monorepo?

Reveal answer and explanations
  1. A Compiles and bundles Backstage packages for production use

    Correct. Build commands compile and bundle Backstage packages into production-ready artifacts.

  2. B Applies Kubernetes manifests to the target cluster

    Incorrect. Kubernetes deployment is a separate pipeline step.

  3. C Installs workspace dependencies from the lockfile

    Incorrect. Dependency installation is handled by yarn install.

  4. D Starts the local development app with live reload

    Incorrect. Development servers are started by yarn start, not by the production build command.

Backstage Infrastructure

Q4. Backstage relies on PostgreSQL for persistent production storage. Which operational concern is critical before engineering teams rely on the service?

Reveal answer and explanations
  1. A Disabling database authentication so plugins can connect more easily

    Incorrect. Disabling authentication is unsafe for production data stores.

  2. B Using default credentials from an example container image

    Incorrect. Default credentials are not acceptable for production systems.

  3. C Running PostgreSQL only on a developer laptop

    Incorrect. A developer laptop is not a production database platform.

  4. D Backups, capacity, protected credentials, and secure connections

    Correct. Production databases need backup/restore planning, capacity, protected credentials, and secure connectivity.

Start the full CBA mock exam (free)90-min timer · 60 questions · free with account

How long should you study for CBA?

Roughly 1–6 weeks of focused study, but it depends heavily on what you already know. Engineers with hands-on production Kubernetes (or Cilium / Argo / OTel / etc. for project-specific certs) can compress this to a week or two of mocks; people coming in cold should expect the upper end. The exam is multi-choice and recall-heavy — practice exams matter more than reading documentation cover to cover. Aim for 85%+ on full timed mocks before booking the real exam.

Why this practice library

This library was built by a Platform Engineer chasing Golden Kubestronaut who got frustrated by the lack of decent practice material for the associate-tier CNCF exams. Question banks track curriculum updates from CNCF and Linux Foundation.

Official CBA reference: cncf.io/training/certification/cba.