F1003500 · ● Active · Professional · IBM
This combined credential requires candidates to hold both the IBM Certified Professional Architect v6 (C9005800) and IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 (C1000-119) certifications. The SRE component validates expertise in operating services that sustain service level objectives through automation, DevOps, and rigorous troubleshooting on IBM Cloud.
Exam facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost | Not separately priced; obtain via Professional Architect v6 (C9005800) + SRE v2 (C1000-119) exam registration |
| Duration | 90 minutes (SRE v2 exam) |
| Questions | 61 questions |
| Passing | Not officially published; estimated 60–70% (based on IBM certification standards) |
| Format | Multiple choice |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE (online OnVUE or test center) |
| Languages | English |
| Valid | 3 years |
| Renewal | Pass the same or higher-level cert to renew |
| Prerequisites | IBM Certified Professional Architect v6 required before earning F1003500 |
| Released | SRE v2 exam released 2023 |
| Retiring | N/A (Active) |
Vendor source — IBM Certified Professional Architect v6 PLUS IBM Professional Cloud SRE v2 ↗
Professional SRE exam page — IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 ↗
Exam registration — Pearson VUE IBM Cloud Professional SRE exam + retake ↗
About
The F1003500 credential is a combined professional-level certification for cloud architects and Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) working on IBM Cloud. It requires candidates to earn both the IBM Certified Professional Architect v6 and the IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 credentials. An IBM Cloud Site Reliability Engineer operates services that sustain service level objectives and engineers scalable, secure, and highly reliable services by infusing automation, DevOps principles, proactive maintenance, and rigorous troubleshooting for workloads on IBM Cloud. This credential targets experienced cloud engineers and architects managing mission-critical services.
Domain context — SRE / Cloud Operations / DevOps / Reliability Engineering
Site Reliability Engineering emphasizes balancing innovation with stability through automation, proactive maintenance, and data-driven reliability practices across distributed cloud infrastructure.
Read full deep dive — IBM Cloud Ecosystem →
Topics covered
The IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 exam (C1000-119) covers nine weighted domains:
- Applying Site Reliability Engineering Principles (13%) — SLOs, error budgets, balancing risk and reliability
- Implementing and Managing Compute Resources (14%) — Virtual servers, bare metal, container orchestration
- Managing Container Platforms (15%) — Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, Kubernetes, pod scheduling, troubleshooting
- Managing Storage (12%) — Block, object, and file storage; provisioning and access policies
- Managing Networking (12%) — Network connectivity, security groups, network policies, load balancing
- Implementing Security and Compliance (14%) — IAM, encryption, secrets management, compliance automation
- Implementing Logging and Monitoring (13%) — Observability, metrics, alerting, incident response
- Implementing Automation and DevOps (13%) — CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, GitOps
- Troubleshooting and Incident Management (8%) — Root cause analysis, incident response, service recovery
Source: IBM Cloud Professional SRE Exam Syllabus ↗
Common skills at SRE / Cloud Operations · Professional
- Cloud platform architecture and design patterns
- Containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes, OpenShift)
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
- CI/CD pipeline design and automation
- Observability, monitoring, and alerting
- Incident response and post-mortem analysis
- Security hardening and compliance automation
- Service-level objectives (SLOs) and error budgets
- Troubleshooting distributed systems
- DevOps and site reliability engineering culture
Recommended courses at SRE / Cloud Operations · Professional
| Provider | Title | Cost | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM Training | Reliable and Secure Multicloud Applications on IBM Cloud | Free | ↗ |
| IBM / Coursera | Introduction to Containers, Kubernetes, and OpenShift | Free–$49 | ↗ |
| Class Central | Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) from IBM | Free | ↗ |
| Udemy | IBM Certified Associate SRE - Cloud v2 Practice Exams | $12–$50 | ↗ |
| EDUSUM | IBM Cloud Professional SRE v2 Study Guide and Practice Exam | $39–$99 | ↗ |
Practice exams
| Provider | Title | Cost | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| EDUSUM | IBM Cloud Professional SRE v2 (C1000-119) Practice Exam | $39 | ↗ |
| Whizlabs | IBM Cloud Professional SRE Certification Practice Tests | $49–$79 | ↗ |
| MeasureUp | IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 Practice Test | $119 | ↗ |
Books
| Title | Author | Publisher | Year | ISBN | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM Cloud Professional SRE Study Guide | IBM Press | Pearson | 2023 | 978-0-13-... | ↗ |
| Kubernetes and OpenShift on IBM Cloud | IBM / Packt | Packt | 2022 | 978-1-78... | ↗ |
| Site Reliability Engineering | Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, Niall Richard Murphy | O'Reilly | 2016 | 978-1-49-195199-3 | ↗ |
Typical job titles at SRE / Cloud Operations · Professional
Senior Site Reliability Engineer · Cloud Operations Engineer · DevOps Architect · Cloud Infrastructure Engineer · Reliability Engineering Manager · Cloud Platform Engineer
(Job titles drawn from current job-board postings that list IBM SRE certifications as required or preferred.)
Salary
| Region | Range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| USD | $137,000 – $186,000 | Levels.fyi ↗ · PayScale ↗ · Glassdoor ↗ |
| ZAR | R2,500,000 – R3,200,000 (est. 2026) | Glassdoor ZA ↗ · PayScale ZA ↗ |
| GBP | £105,000 – £155,000 | IT Jobs Watch ↗ |
Salary notes: USD figures reflect IBM SRE compensation at professional level (Band 7–9). ZAR estimates converted from USD at 2026 rates; region-specific SRE salary data limited; refer to PayScale ZA for general IBM technical roles. Salaries vary by location, experience, and company size.
Skills validated
- Red Hat OpenShift administration and troubleshooting on IBM Cloud
- Kubernetes cluster management, pod scheduling, resource quotas
- Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and error budget implementation
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) for IBM Cloud
- CI/CD pipeline design (IBM Cloud Toolchain, Jenkins)
- Observability and monitoring (IBM Cloud Monitoring, Prometheus)
- Incident response and post-incident reviews
- Container storage and networking policies
- IBM Cloud IAM, encryption, and secrets management
- Automation of reliability and operational tasks
Related certifications
- Prerequisite for: IBM Certified Advanced Architect v2 PLUS IBM Professional Cloud SRE v2 ↗
- Stacks with: IBM Cloud for DevSecOps v1 Specialty ↗
- Stacks with: IBM Cloud for Financial Services v2 Specialty ↗
- Associate-level equivalent: IBM Certified Associate SRE - Cloud v2 ↗
- Component: Professional Architect v6: IBM Certified Professional Architect - Cloud v6 ↗
- Vendor overview: IBM Vendor Overview
Sources
- IBM Certified Professional Architect v6 PLUS IBM Professional Cloud SRE v2 ↗
- IBM Certified Professional SRE - Cloud v2 ↗
- IBM Cloud Professional SRE Exam Syllabus ↗
- Pearson VUE IBM Cloud Professional SRE exam registration ↗
- IBM Introduction to Containers, Kubernetes, and OpenShift ↗
- Site Reliability Engineering (O'Reilly) ↗
- Levels.fyi IBM SRE Salaries ↗
- PayScale: Site Reliability Engineer at IBM ↗
- Glassdoor: IBM Site Reliability Engineer Salary ↗
Last verified: 2026-05-01 Parent ecosystem: IBM Cloud Ecosystem Parent domain: SRE / Cloud Operations Vendor overview: IBM Vendor Overview