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Free certification · Curriculum 2026.08

pgdba.dev Certified Production Operator

A five-stage, evidence-led curriculum for operating PostgreSQL safely in production. Every module combines plain-language learning, a real disposable PostgreSQL lab, a graded assessment, and career-ready proof.

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Path
15 modules across five stages
Study time
Approximately 12–15 hours
Version scope
PostgreSQL 16–18
Credential
Valid for two years

Career evidence

Show how you operate, not just what you read.

The credential packages assessed skills and a public verification page for use on a CV, portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or job application. It gives an employer evidence to discuss; it does not guarantee a job or employer acceptance.

Who it is for

For the next role and the current on-call shift.

  • People seeking their first PostgreSQL, database, platform, DevOps, or SRE role.
  • Developers and system administrators moving toward database operations.
  • Junior database administrators building credible production skills.
  • Working operators who want structured proof or a version-aware refresher.

Assessment standard

Two final components. Two independent passes.

All 15 module certificates unlock the finals. Performance in one final cannot compensate for a failure in the other.

Final 01

90-minute applied incident capstone

Diagnose, recover, change, and hand over a server-controlled production scenario while passing every critical safety gate.

Final 02

Open-book reasoning exam

Pass at 80% by interpreting evidence, ordering actions, and explaining operational trade-offs across the curriculum.

The assessment is identity-linked, independent and non-proctored. Postgres Fieldcraft is not accredited or officially endorsed by the PostgreSQL project.

Course map

Five progressive stages.

Start with the system model, then build toward safe production decisions under pressure.

  1. Stage 01

    PostgreSQL foundations

    Understand the service model, preserve data integrity, and establish secure access.

    1. Available

      Architecture and system model

      Explain how PostgreSQL processes, memory, data directories, clusters, databases, schemas, catalogs, and WAL interact.

      Applied lab
      Identify important instance components and explain how a committed change reaches durable storage.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Architecture and System Model
    2. Locked by prerequisite

      Safe SQL and data integrity

      Use suitable data types, constraints, DDL, DML, transactions, rollback, and safe query practices.

      Applied lab
      Repair seeded inconsistency and prove both the repaired rows and constraint behaviour meet the requirement.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      Safe SQL and Data Integrity
    3. Locked by prerequisite

      Roles, privileges, and access security

      Apply ownership, role membership, least privilege, authentication concepts, pg_hba.conf, and access auditing.

      Applied lab
      Demonstrate that an application role has only required access and that an operator retains audited recovery access.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Roles and Access Security
  2. Stage 02

    Query performance and concurrency

    Use workload evidence to improve access paths, plans, and blocking behaviour safely.

    1. Locked by prerequisite

      Index design and access paths

      Choose B-tree and specialist indexes using selectivity, workload, multicolumn order, expressions, storage cost, and write overhead.

      Applied lab
      Recommend an index that improves the supplied workload while explaining its write and storage cost.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Index Design
    2. Locked by prerequisite

      Query plans and performance diagnosis

      Interpret EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN ANALYZE, estimates, scans, joins, sorts, statistics, and common plan failures.

      Applied lab
      Compare a baseline and revised plan, identify the expensive operation, and show the returned result remains correct.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      Query Plan and Performance Diagnosis
    3. Locked by prerequisite

      Transactions, locks, and deadlocks

      Reason about isolation, blocking, lock modes, long transactions, deadlocks, and safe intervention.

      Applied lab
      Identify the root blocking transaction, its owner and impact, then use the least disruptive safe intervention.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Concurrency and Locking
  3. Stage 03

    Routine production operations

    Manage connections, maintenance, and capacity through evidence-backed operational practice.

    1. Locked by prerequisite

      Connections, configuration, and memory

      Manage connection lifecycles, pooling, configuration scopes, memory settings, reloads, restarts, and resource trade-offs.

      Applied lab
      Resolve connection exhaustion without masking a leak or setting a memory budget the host cannot sustain.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Configuration and Connections
    2. Locked by prerequisite

      MVCC, vacuum, autovacuum, and bloat

      Explain tuple visibility, dead tuples, freezing, transaction ID risk, vacuum tuning, and bloat diagnosis.

      Applied lab
      Explain a table's growth with visibility and maintenance evidence, then restore an appropriate vacuum response.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL MVCC and Vacuum Operations
    3. Locked by prerequisite

      Monitoring, capacity, and operational health

      Establish workload baselines, interpret catalog and monitoring signals, recognise saturation, forecast capacity, and design actionable alerts.

      Applied lab
      Produce a health report that distinguishes observed saturation, forecast risk, and a prioritised operational response.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Monitoring and Capacity
  4. Stage 04

    Backup and recovery

    Protect recoverability through WAL, validated backups, and rehearsed recovery.

    1. Locked by prerequisite

      WAL, checkpoints, and storage behaviour

      Reason about WAL generation, checkpoints, durability, write pressure, disk layout, and safe storage decisions.

      Applied lab
      Attribute storage pressure to its source and propose a safe response that protects durability and recovery options.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL WAL and Storage Operations
    2. Locked by prerequisite

      Backup strategy and validation

      Select logical or physical backup approaches, define retention, connect RPO/RTO to implementation, and collect evidence of recoverability.

      Applied lab
      Correct a backup policy against stated RPO and RTO, then show evidence that the chosen artefact is usable.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Backup Strategy and Validation
    3. Locked by prerequisite

      Restore and point-in-time recovery

      Execute restore workflows, choose recovery targets and timelines, verify recovered state, and plan rehearsals.

      Applied lab
      Recover a disposable cluster to a defensible target immediately before a known harmful data event and verify the state.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Restore and Point-in-Time Recovery
  5. Stage 05

    Production readiness

    Make safe replication, incident, and change decisions under real operational constraints.

    1. Locked by prerequisite

      Replication, lag, and failover readiness

      Diagnose streaming replication and slot behaviour, evaluate synchronous trade-offs, interpret lag, promote safely, and avoid split brain.

      Applied lab
      Locate the replication pipeline boundary causing lag and make a defensible failover recommendation.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Replication and Failover Readiness
    2. Locked by prerequisite

      Incident diagnosis and response

      Triage impact, preserve evidence, interpret competing signals, mitigate proportionately, escalate clearly, and support post-incident learning.

      Applied lab
      Produce a concise impact assessment, evidence trail, proportionate mitigation, and handover for a multi-symptom incident.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Incident Diagnosis and Response
    3. Locked by prerequisite

      Safe changes, upgrades, and handover

      Plan maintenance, define rollback criteria, evaluate extension compatibility, execute upgrades or migrations, validate outcomes, and maintain runbooks.

      Applied lab
      Prepare a change record with compatibility checks, objective rollback criteria, verified outcome, and useful handover.
      Assessment
      80% knowledge threshold · Critical safety gates
      Module certificate
      PostgreSQL Safe Change and Upgrade Operations

Employer-facing proof

A verification record with meaningful context.