A hands-on container exam using Podman: building images, running and managing containers, working with registries, and running containerised services under systemd.
Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers is Red Hat's associate-level containers & kubernetes certification, sat as exam EX188. The exam runs for 2 hours, with a pass mark of 210 / 300. It costs US$400 at the standard rate.
The published exam guide lists 6 sections but does not assign public weightings, so plan to cover each in similar depth rather than betting on one being dominant.
Confirm these details on the official Red Hat page before booking — vendors adjust format and pricing without notice.
Standard rate, before local taxes
The published exam guide for EX188, in the vendor's own order.
01Implement Images using Podman
02Manage Images and Registries
03Run and Configure Containers
04Create Container Images with Containerfiles
05Manage Container Storage and Networking
06Run Multi-container Applications
Comfort with the Linux command line.
Associate level — Role-based credentials for practitioners with hands-on experience.
EX188 is assessed through work performed on live systems rather than a standard multiple-choice paper. Use the weighted domains above as a lab checklist and practise each task in a realistic environment.
The syllabus breakdown above is the most useful study plan available either way: work through the domains in weight order.
The exam is scheduled for 2 hours. Red Hat does not publish a fixed question count for this exam.
210 / 300. Confirm the current figure on the official exam page before booking, as vendors adjust cut scores when an exam form is refreshed.
The standard price is US$400. Local pricing, taxes and any retake policy vary by region, so check the official page for the figure that applies to you.
Comfort with the Linux command line.
The exam guide covers Implement Images using Podman, Manage Images and Registries, Run and Configure Containers, Create Container Images with Containerfiles and Manage Container Storage and Networking, plus 1 further domain. The full weighted breakdown is listed above.