Certifications guide

CBA: The Certified Backstage Associate Exam, Domain by Domain

CBA is a 90-minute, multiple-choice exam on Backstage — and it is the odd one out in the CNCF associate family, because more than half of it assumes you write code.

read: 7 min read; read
last updated: September 2026; last updated

Overview

What CBA actually certifies

The Certified Backstage Associate is the Linux Foundation credential for engineers who build and run a Backstage developer portal. It is an online, proctored, multiple-choice exam of 90 minutes, priced at $250 for the exam alone, with one free retake, a 12-month eligibility window and a certification valid for two years. It is rated beginner, and foundational knowledge of IT infrastructure, cloud, DevOps and security is recommended rather than required.

Four domains: Customizing Backstage 32 %, Backstage Development Workflow 24 %, Backstage Infrastructure 22 % and Backstage Catalog 22 %. Note what that adds up to. The top two domains — 56 % of the paper — are about writing and running code: React changes in the app, Material UI components, frontend versus backend plugins, compiling with TypeScript, installing dependencies with npm or Yarn, and building container images with Docker. This is a developer exam wearing an associate label, and it is the one place the CNCF associate family breaks its own pattern.

Gnoseed is not affiliated with CNCF or the Linux Foundation and neither sells nor proctors this exam; it offers free spaced-repetition practice. Verify the figures here against the official exam page before you book — the domains below were read off it in September 2026.

Breakdown

The exam at a glance

One exam, four domains, and a split that decides whether you should be revising or building.

CBA

Certified Backstage Associate

Associate · beginnerMultiple choice · online proctored · 90 min · $250Prereq: None — IT infrastructure, cloud and DevOps knowledge recommended

Customizing Backstage (32 %) is the largest domain: the distinction between frontend and backend plugins, customising plugins, making React code changes in the app, and using Material UI components. Development Workflow (24 %) is building and running a project locally, local development workflows, compiling with TypeScript, installing dependencies with npm or Yarn, and using Docker to build images. Infrastructure (22 %) covers the framework itself, configuration, deploying to production and the client-server architecture. Catalog (22 %) is the conceptual half: what the catalog is for, populating it, annotations, manually registered entity locations, automated ingestion and troubleshooting when entities do not appear.

Choose this if…

You are the person who actually runs your organisation's Backstage instance
You write TypeScript and are comfortable in a React codebase
You are completing the CNCF associate set, where CBA is one of the required exams

Study with Gnoseed

Platform Engineering · 104 cards JavaScript Fundamentals · 23 cards

Be honest about the split

Half of this exam cannot be revised with flashcards

Most certification guides will tell you to study harder. This one starts by telling you where recall stops helping. Customizing Backstage and Development Workflow together are 56 %, and their competencies are things you learn by doing: creating a plugin and seeing where its code lands, watching a TypeScript compile fail, discovering what yarn dev actually starts, building an image and finding out what the app needs at runtime. Reading about that is a poor substitute for an afternoon with a local instance.

The practical prep sequence is therefore hands-on first: create an app with the official scaffolding, run it locally, add a plugin, change something visible in the UI, then deploy it somewhere. Once you have done that, the multiple-choice questions about frontend versus backend plugins stop being trivia and start being memory of something you saw.

Where recall does earn its place is the Catalog domain (22 %) and parts of Infrastructure (22 %) — the entity kinds and what each one models, the descriptor format and its four envelope fields, annotations and their reserved prefix, the difference between manual registration, static locations and automated discovery, and the client-server split. Those are exactly the facts that fade between the day you set the portal up and the day you sit the exam.

What this site covers

Concept coverage, not a Backstage course

The Platform Engineering deck covers Backstage at the level CNPA expects and CBA's Catalog domain rewards: the entity kinds and how Component, API, Resource, System and Domain relate; how a service is described with catalog-info.yaml; what software templates produce; what TechDocs solves; and what Backstage deliberately does not give you. That is genuinely useful for one and a bit of CBA's four domains.

It is not a Backstage development course, and this guide is not going to pretend otherwise. For the plugin, React and TypeScript half, work from the official Backstage documentation and a running instance. If your goal is the broader discipline rather than this specific portal, CNPA is the exam that matches it — and it treats developer portals as one 8 % domain rather than the whole subject.

Logistics

Cost, retakes and whether it is worth it

CBA is $250 for the exam alone at the time of writing, with one retake, a 12-month eligibility window and two years of validity; the subscription bundle costs more. Confirm the current price at the source before booking.

Is it worth it? It is narrow by design — a credential in one product — so its value tracks how central Backstage is to your work. If you own the portal your organisation runs on, it certifies something real and there is almost no competing prep content yet. If you are shopping for a platform engineering credential in general, this is the wrong one, and the associate exam for the discipline is the better buy.

FAQ

Common questions

What are the CBA exam domains and their weights? +

Four domains: Customizing Backstage 32 %, Backstage Development Workflow 24 %, Backstage Infrastructure 22 % and Backstage Catalog 22 %. The Linux Foundation publishes the competencies under each.

Do I need to know TypeScript and React for CBA? +

Effectively yes. The two largest domains together are 56 % of the paper and name React code changes, Material UI components, TypeScript compilation and npm or Yarn dependency management. You can pass questions about the catalog without writing code; you cannot cover the majority of the exam that way.

Is CBA hands-on? +

The exam format is not — it is multiple choice, online proctored, 90 minutes, with no terminal. The content is, which is the awkward part: it asks about things that are much easier to answer if you have actually built and run a Backstage instance.

What is the difference between CBA and CNPA? +

CBA certifies one product: building, extending and running Backstage. CNPA certifies the discipline — platform as a product, golden paths, multi-tenancy, platform APIs and measurement — and gives developer portals just 8 % of its paper. They overlap barely, and neither is a prerequisite for the other.

Are there prerequisites for CBA, and how much does it cost? +

No prerequisites; the page recommends foundational knowledge of IT infrastructure, cloud computing, DevOps and security. The exam alone is $250, includes one retake and a 12-month eligibility window, and the certification is valid for two years.

Can I prepare for CBA with flashcards alone? +

For the Catalog domain and much of Infrastructure, yes — entity kinds, the descriptor format, annotations and ingestion are exactly what spaced repetition is good at. For the 56 % that is plugins, React and local development, no; build a portal instead and use recall for the facts around it.

Learn the half that recall actually helps with

The Platform Engineering deck is free and covers the Backstage catalog, templates and TechDocs concepts CBA tests. Plant your first seed, then go and build the portal.

Start learning free