Apache Airflow Fundamentals

Who can take it

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Apache Airflow Fundamentals Eligibility

AF3-F

Whether you can sit the Apache Airflow Fundamentals certification exam: prerequisites, who the exam is for, and the skills it assesses.

4 prerequisites
associate level
6 skills

Prerequisites and requirements

Published requirements for this certification.

  • Familiarity with Python programming (functions, decorators, context managers)
  • Basic understanding of cron-based scheduling and Unix cron syntax
  • Experience with at least one database (Postgre preferred)
  • Hands-on exposure to virtual environments or Docker containers

Who this exam is for

This certification is designed for data engineers, DevOps engineers, platform engineers, and data scientists who work with data pipelines in production environments. It is also suitable for system administrators and cloud architects responsible for deploying and maintaining Airflow infrastructure. The ideal candidate has at least 3 months of hands-on experience writing and debugging DAGs, managing Airflow configurations, and using operators to integrate with external systems like databases, cloud storage, and APIs. The exam is particularly relevant for teams using Astronomer as their managed Airflow provider or those considering it as a platform for data orchestration.

Skills assessed

What the exam actually tests, beyond the domain names.

Architect and write production-grade DAGs using the TaskFlow API
Configure and troubleshoot executors (Local, Celery, Kubernetes)
Implement connections, variables, and Secret Backends for secure integration
Monitor pipeline health using Airflow UI and external logging tools
Apply DAG testing strategies including unit tests and backfills
Deploy Airflow on Astronomer's platform using CI/CD pipelines

The domains you will be assessed on

Eligibility is not only about paperwork. These are the areas you have to actually know.

DomainWeightTopic count
Airflow Core Concepts25%4
DAG Authoring and Scheduling25%5
Operators, Hooks, and Connections20%4
Execution and Production Deployment20%4
Security, Governance, and Best Practices10%4

How demanding this exam is

Cognitive load
Medium. The exam requires a balance of conceptual understanding of Airflow architecture and practical task-authoring skills. You need to memorize DAG properties, operator parameters, and scheduling rules, but deeper analysis is required for debugging tasks and choosing the right executor for a given scenario.

Our focus for this certification: For Apache Airflow Fundamentals, Certilum combines theoretical summaries with guided practice questions where you instrument DAGs with custom sensors and xComs. Our practice exams simulate the Astronomer environment, including scenario‑based drills on fixing broken DAGs and optimizing task concurrency.

More about the Apache Airflow Fundamentals exam

Explore the rest of this page series: format, cost, difficulty, requirements and how to prepare.

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the Apache Airflow Fundamentals exam.