Okta Certified Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam Study Guide
To learn how to prepare for your Okta Certification Exam, watch our video here.
Introduction
Congratulations! You are one step closer toward earning your Okta Certified Professional certification! This exam study guide is designed to help you prepare for the Okta Certified Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam for OIE (Okta Identity Engine). It contains a detailed list of the topics covered on this Professional Exam, as well as a list of preparation resources. Passing this exam or the Okta Certified Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam (for Okta Classic) is a requirement for becoming an Okta Certified Professional. It is also a prerequisite for those seeking the Okta Administrator, Consultant, or Technical Architect certifications.
How to use this study guide
At minimum, we highly recommend that you thoroughly review each topic listed within the Exam Subject Area section of this study guide. Make sure you understand each topic. If you are not familiar with a topic, research it by using one of the corresponding preparation resources or search the Okta Help Center or Okta Product Documentation Library. Many topics are best learned through hands-on experience with the Okta service.
What does it mean to be an Okta Certified Professional?
Okta Certified Professionals possess foundational knowledge in the area of secure identity management. They have hands-on experience completing day-to-day operational tasks to support users of the Okta service. Okta Certified Professionals have familiarity with Okta technologies and processes related to simple directory integration, Single Sign-On (SSO) federation, and application provisioning aspects of User Lifecycle Management.
Who should take the Okta Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam for OIE?
Candidates for the Okta Certified Professional certification should take either the Okta Certified Professional Hands-on Configuration Exam for OIE or the Okta Certified Professional Hands-on Configuration Exam, which is based on the Okta Classic engine. These candidates should meet the following minimum requirements:
- One-year experience in a technical role working in security and/or identity management
- Three to six months of on-the-job experience working with the Okta service
- Successful completion of the Okta Essentials Curriculum or equivalent training
Although roles within different organizations may vary, candidates for the Okta Certified Professional certification are generally involved with defining secure identity strategies or assisting with daily operation and support of Okta instances. Candidates for this certification may be Okta Administrators, implementation consultants, identity leaders, project managers, business app owners, or help desk administrators. Candidates should base their decision on which Okta Professional exam to select based on their experience with the Okta service on the Okta Identity Engine and the Okta Classic platforms.
About the Okta Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam for OIE
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Number and types of questions |
This exam has two parts.
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Time allotted |
Part I: 30 minutes Part II: 120 minutes Each part is timed separately. Any time left over from one Part cannot be applied to the other Part. Because this is a 150-minute exam, test takers should come fully prepared to sit through the entire exam. There is no break allowed during this exam. |
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Exam Fee |
USD 250 (USD 100 for each subsequent retake) |
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Prerequisites |
During the exam, one or more configuration tasks will require the use of a personal email account. If you are taking the exam on a device that is locked down, you may have to use a work email address. Use of your personal or work email is limited to the configuration tasks that require it. There are no training course prerequisites for this exam. Recommended training and preparation resources are provided in subsequent sections of this document. |
Exam Scheduling
Okta certification exams are administered and proctored by Examity®, a secure online proctoring service. Okta has partnered with Examity to protect the integrity of our certification exams. Online proctoring means that you can take Okta exams from almost any location at a time that is convenient for you, without requiring that you travel to a test center. Your Okta certification exam must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance of the time you plan to sit for the test in order to avoid the additional fee associated with on-demand testing. You can schedule your exam through the Okta Certification Credential Manager.
Understanding the types of items included on this exam
Part I of this exam includes Discrete Option Multiple-Choice (DOMC) items. Part II contains performance-based, hands-on use cases.
Understanding the DOMC item type
Part I of this exam consists of 15 DOMC items. DOMC is a powerful measurement tool that produces reliable test scores. It does so by removing several “contaminants” that affect test outcomes but are unrelated to the knowledge and skills being tested. The DOMC item type levels the playing field, and more fairly measures your skills by improving:
- Readability. Because you are required to read less text, the exam tends to take less time and places fewer demands on the slower reader or the non-native English speaker.
- Fairness. When savvy test takers are unsure of an answer, they look for clues by comparing options or gleaning information from other items on an exam. DOMC removes this test-taking advantage and serves as a powerful method to assess your actual knowledge.
- Security. Instead of displaying all options at the same time, options are randomly presented one at a time. For each option presented, you must make a YES or NO decision to indicate whether you think the option is correct. Answer options are presented in random order, and in most instances, you are NOT presented with all the available options associated with a DOMC item. Item exposure is limited by presenting only a subset of the available options to you. Limiting item exposure helps ensure the integrity of the exam.
Scoring of the DOMC Items
You can be assured that the DOMC item type is scored fairly and with precision.
- If you are presented with a correct option and respond YES, then that response is scored as “correct". A DOMC item can be programmed to require one or more correct responses in order to be complete and to be considered answered correctly. Typically, however, only one correct response is required.
- If you are presented with a correct option and respond NO, then that item is scored as “incorrect”.
- If you are presented with an incorrect option and respond YES, then that item is scored as “incorrect”.
- If you are presented with an incorrect option, and respond NO (technically a correct response), the item is not scored until additional options are presented and responded to.
Note: Even after you respond correctly or incorrectly to an item, additional correct or incorrect options might be presented but your responses to those options will not be scored at all. This is done to prevent you from guessing the correctness or incorrectness of a response.
The DOMC item format might require that you make some adjustments to your usual test-taking approaches. The reward of such effort is the confidence that those test takers who become certified are truly competent in the areas tested on the exam and will represent excellence in the field.
To learn more about DOMC items, visit https://domc.caveon.com/home. In addition, the Okta Professional Hands-On Configuration Practice Exam for OIE will help you become accustomed to the new test format. We highly recommend that you become familiar with the format of this item type before taking any Okta certification exams.
Understanding the performance-based use cases on this exam
This exam contains a case study, which provides an overview of the work a test taker will be asked to complete during the exam, the credentials needed to access the Okta orgs that are assigned at the beginning of the exam, and four use cases. The case study, org credentials, and four use cases are accessible through tabs on the exam screen. Each use case consists of configuration tasks that test takers are asked to complete in their assigned Okta Preview Orgs. This exam allows test takers to demonstrate their skill with the Okta service in a natural way that mimics how administrators use Okta on the job.
We recommend that test takers complete the use cases and tasks in order because completing some tasks depend on the successful completion of previous tasks.
Scoring of Performance-Based Use Cases
Uses cases are graded upon the submission of the exam or after the allotted time for Part II expires. A scoring rubric is used to grade this exam. The grading process is automated using scripts to query the logs of the Okta tenants, as well as APIs to validate specific configurations. As it is a program policy, we provide a final Pass or Fail decision only. We do not provide grades, nor do we make public the minimum amount of points an exam taker needs to pass our exams.
Submitting the Exam
At the bottom of the page is a blue button labeled "Submit Exam". After you have completed all of the use cases and you are ready to submit your exam, click the Submit Exam button. When you do, you will be presented with a confirmation popup. Clicking the YES, SUBMIT NOW button will end your exam and submit it for grading.
After your exam is submitted and scored, a performance report will be displayed on the screen. The report includes a provisional exam result and information about your performance by exam section in Part I and Use Case in Part II.
All exams go through an audit process that can take up to 3 business days. The final exam result can be communicated before the 3 business day period, but in some cases, it may take the full 3 business days.
Preparing for the Okta Certified Professional Hands-on Configuration Exam
A combination of Okta instructor-led training courses, self-paced learning, self-study, and on-the-job experience will prepare you to take this exam. In addition to this study guide, each certification exam has an associated standard practice exam and premier practice exam (available at cost). These resources and Okta-authorized training courses are the only approved resources for Okta exam preparation.
Exam dumps and other resources are prohibited from our list of approved resources. Using these resources to prepare for your exam can lead to invalidation of your exam scores, revoking your certification, and testing bans from our program. If you are ever in doubt about approved materials for Okta exam preparation, you can reach out to our team at certification@okta.com.
Training
Okta Education Services offers a range of classes and training materials to help you prepare for this certification exam. Although attending a training class does not guarantee success on an Okta certification exam, we strongly recommend that you take the Okta Essentials Curriculum in preparation for this exam. You can learn more about the Okta Essentials course here:https://www.okta.com/services/training/
Enter “Okta Essentials” in the Search field to narrow your search. In Okta Essentials, participants learn how to:
- Integrate Okta into your organization for easy user access to applications and data.
- Identify the features and functions of Okta to maximize the value of your Okta investment.
- Create and configure user accounts within Okta for data access and administration.
- Integrate external directories to provide secure application access for all employees.
- Create and manage groups for efficient user and application association and provisioning.
- Configure applications for secure employee access to corporate data.
- Configure controls, such as password policies and multi-factor authentication, for increased data security.
- Customize Okta to match your company brand.
- Work through various errors to learn troubleshooting techniques.
- Monitor application usage and analyze authentication errors to quickly resolve employee or access issues.
Visit https://www.okta.com/services/training/ for the complete course catalog.
Other resources
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The Okta Help Center contains a knowledge library of articles and videos, some of which are pertinent to topics covered on this exam.
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The Okta Content Library offers searchable white papers with a rich body of information to explore before your exam.
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Join the Okta Community to review questions, discussions, ideas, and blogs for additional exam preparation.
Professional Exam subject areas
Part I subject areas
The following table lists the topics that are covered in Part I of this exam. These topics are grouped into topic areas, and topic areas roll up into domains/exam sections. Use this list as an outline to guide your study and validate your readiness for Part I of this exam.
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Exam Section |
Percentage of Exam Related to Section |
Identity and Access Management |
20% |
Single Sign-On (SSO) Federation |
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Based on a given use case, demonstrate knowledge of whether SAML, WS-FED, or OIDC should be used |
Preparation resources: |
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Demonstrate knowledge of IdP versus SP initiated flows |
Preparation resources: |
Single Directory Integration |
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Demonstrate knowledge of the Active Directory integration options with Okta |
Preparation resources: |
User Lifecycle Management |
27% |
Okta as a Directory |
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Demonstrate knowledge of the purpose of Universal Directory |
Preparation resources: |
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Demonstrate knowledge of custom attributes, mappings, and data transformation |
Preparation resources: |
Provisioning |
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Demonstrate knowledge of when to use Okta user states and statuses (active, suspended, password reset, etc.) |
Preparation resources: |
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Demonstrate knowledge of how to use app assignments, requests, and automations to provision applications to users |
Preparation resources: |
Security |
27% |
Basic Multifactor Authentication (MFA) |
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Demonstrate knowledge of authenticators, factor types, and method characteristics, enrollment, and reset |
Preparation resources: |
Policies |
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Demonstrate knowledge of Okta policy types and their functions |
Preparation resources: |
Devices, Passwordless Authentication, and Okta FastPass |
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Demonstrate knowledge of passwordless authentication and Okta Fastpass |
Preparation resources: |
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Demonstrate knowledge of Okta Verify |
Preparation resources: |
Administration and Troubleshooting |
27% |
Logging and Reporting |
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Demonstrate understanding of Okta System Log and reports |
Preparation resources: |
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Be able to use the Tasks section of the dashboard to monitor tasks |
Preparation resources: |
Customer Support Practices |
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Demonstrate knowledge of the Help and Support Process (including Trust.okta.com and the Okta help center) |
Preparation resources: |
Part II subject areas
The following table lists the use cases and tasks that are assessed in this exam. Each task in the exam is demonstrated in one of the resources that are provided in the table. Use this list as an outline to guide your study and validate your readiness for the exam.
Use Case |
Percentage of Exam Related to Use Case |
Account Creation |
25% |
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Configuration tasks:
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Preparation resources: |
Application Setup with OIN |
30% |
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Configuration tasks:
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Preparation resources: |
Security Enforcement |
25% |
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Configuration tasks:
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Preparation resources: |
Attribute Mapping and Offboarding |
20% |
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Configuration tasks:
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Preparation resources: |
Okta Certified Professional Practice Exams
Know what to expect on the day of the exam. Take the free Okta Professional Standard Practice Exam for OIE to familiarize yourself with the format of the DOMC item type. Click the button below to check it out.
Okta Professional Standard Practice Exam for OIE
Take the Okta Professional Hands-On Configuration Premier Practice Exam for OIE to evaluate your readiness for the Okta Certified Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam for OIE. This Premier Practice Exam measures many of the same topic areas and configuration tasks that are measured in the Okta Certified Professional Hands-On Configuration Exam for OIE. Click the button below to check it out.
During the exam, one or more configuration tasks will require the use of a personal email account. If you are taking the exam on a device that is locked down, you may have to use a work email address. Use of your personal or work email is limited to the configuration tasks that require it.
Okta Professional Hands-On Configuration Premier Practice Exam for OIE
Subject matter experts for this Exam
Okta certification exams are designed and built by subject matter experts who have extensive real world-experiences implementing and administering the Okta service.
Here is the list of subject matter experts who made significant contributions in designing and building this exam:
Chul Choi
Brandon Hunt
Alka Maurya
