EX200 is Red Hat's performance-based RHCSA exam, currently based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: you complete real administrative tasks on a live system, with no internet and no personal notes. Prepare by working through the official objective categories on a practice VM, starting with small tasks that finish with a verification command, and read Red Hat's certification program guide before booking so the scheduling, retake and conduct rules hold no surprises.
How the exam works
EX200 is a performance-based exam: you complete real administrative tasks on a live Red Hat Enterprise Linux system rather than answering multiple-choice questions. The current exam is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.
Red Hat describes the exam as testing system administration skills common across a wide range of environments, and passing it earns the Red Hat Certified System Administrator credential. Red Hat also notes that RHCSA is a prerequisite credential for the Red Hat Certified Engineer paths in Enterprise Linux and Ansible.
The exam environment gives you no internet access, and you may not bring notes, books or any other documentation. For most exams, the documentation that ships with the product is available, so practising man-page and /usr/share/doc lookups during your lab sessions is a useful habit.
Grading is based on the final state of the system, and Red Hat states that configurations must persist after reboot without intervention. Results arrive by email within five business days, showing a pass or fail status and a breakdown by objective area.
Official sources: Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam | EX200 (redhat.com) — Exam description, audience, prerequisites, objectives, exam format; Red Hat Certification program guide (Red Hat Learning Subscription documentation) — Sections 3–9: exam options, pricing, format, exam day, results, recertification
Who the exam suits and what Red Hat assumes
Red Hat names experienced RHEL administrators, students who have completed System Administration I and II, and IT professionals on the path to RHCE as its core audience.
Before the exam, Red Hat expects you to have taken RH124 and RH134, or the RHCSA Rapid Track course (RH199) that combines them, or to have comparable work experience as a RHEL system administrator. Course attendance is preparation guidance, not a ticketing requirement: experienced administrators who meet the objectives can sit the exam directly.
Official sources: Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam | EX200 (redhat.com) — Exam description, audience, prerequisites, objectives, exam format
What the objectives cover
The published objectives group the exam's tasks into categories running from command-line basics through storage, networking, users and SELinux security. Red Hat expects candidates to accomplish every task without assistance.
The map below summarizes the EX200 task list. Compare older courses with the current RHEL 10 objectives, particularly the listed Flatpak and systemd timer tasks. Use the full official objectives to check coverage.
- Understand and use essential tools: shell commands, input-output redirection, grep with regular expressions, SSH, tar/gzip/bzip2 archives, file and directory operations, hard and soft links, standard ugo/rwx permissions, and system documentation.
- Manage software: configure RPM and Flatpak repositories and install or remove their packages.
- Create simple shell scripts: conditionals, loops, positional parameters and processing command output.
- Operate running systems: booting into different targets, interrupting the boot process, managing CPU- and memory-intensive processes, tuning profiles, system logs and journals, network services, and secure file transfer.
- Configure local storage: GPT partitions, physical volumes, volume groups, logical volumes, mounting by UUID or label, and adding partitions, logical volumes and swap non-destructively.
- Create and configure file systems: VFAT, ext4 and XFS, NFS mounts, autofs, extending logical volumes, and diagnosing file permission problems.
- Deploy, configure and maintain systems: at, cron and systemd timer units; services and boot targets; time service clients; software installation and updates; and the system bootloader.
- Manage basic networking, users and groups, and security: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, hostname resolution, firewalld, local accounts and password aging, privileged access, SSH key authentication, and SELinux modes, file and process contexts, port labels, and booleans.
Official sources: Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam | EX200 (redhat.com) — Exam description, audience, prerequisites, objectives, exam format; Red Hat Certified System Administrator (redhat.com certification page) — Skills and exams
A first lab for your practice VM
Start with small, complete tasks that end in an observation command. The lab below needs only an unprivileged account on your VM and the standard coreutils tools your RHEL install already has.
This lab checks permission bits on a file you create yourself.
Practice lab
On a disposable RHEL practice VM, use an unprivileged shell account with GNU coreutils installed. Create a private temporary directory, create an empty file inside it, set the file mode to 640, and inspect the mode with stat. The commands must stop if directory creation or entry fails.
Show answer
Run this command chain: labdir=$(mktemp -d) && cd "$labdir" && touch brief.txt && chmod 640 brief.txt && stat -c '%a %A %n' brief.txt. Expected output: 640 -rw-r----- brief.txt
mktemp -d creates a temporary directory with read, write and search permission for your user only and none for group or others, so your scratch workspace is private. chmod 640 sets the mode in octal: the owner gets read and write (6 = 4+2), the group gets read-only (4), and everyone else gets nothing (0), matching GNU coreutils' numeric-mode layout where each of the three octal digits covers owner, group and other, built from read (4), write (2) and execute (1). stat's %a prints the permission bits in octal and %A prints them symbolically, so the output confirms the change both ways. The group read bit does not make this file accessible to ordinary group members: they also need search permission on the containing directory. The private directory created here gives them none. GNU’s mode-structure documentation explains that execute permission on a directory controls access to files inside it.
Official sources: Numeric Modes (GNU Coreutils 9.11) — Section 27.3; mktemp invocation (GNU Coreutils 9.11) — Section 18.4; stat invocation (GNU Coreutils 9.11) — Section 14.3; Mode Structure (GNU Coreutils 9.11) — https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/Mode-Structure.html
Booking, delivery, and exam-day rules
You can take EX200 remotely from a bootable LiveUSB under a proctor, at an authorised testing centre, or in a classroom setting. The standard list price is $500 USD, and regional prices appear in your shopping cart.
For the remote format, you boot your computer from an official Red Hat Remote Exam ISO on a LiveUSB, supervised by a remote proctor over webcam and microphone, and you must complete a mandatory compatibility test before exam day. Testing centres provide dedicated hardware, and classroom exams are run by a Red Hat Certified Examiner at the end of a course.
Retake policy: Red Hat provides one free second attempt for every paid first attempt on the same exam, and you cannot take the same exam twice in one calendar day. A waiting period applies after a second failed attempt, and attempts beyond the free retake need a new paid registration.
On exam day, upload valid government-issued photo ID in advance, connect at least 15 minutes before your start time, and complete the workspace scan your proctor directs. Watches, smart devices, hats and jackets are not permitted; you may take a 10-minute break after each completed hour, but the timer keeps running and phone use is prohibited throughout. Your proctor can help with environment access, never with exam content, and you must not contact anyone outside the session.
Results, renewal, and next steps
Results reach your registered email within five business days. Passing earns a Credly digital badge, the certification stays current for three years, and RHCSA unlocks the Red Hat Certified Engineer paths.
If you pass, Red Hat issues your Credly badge within 48 hours of your result being published, and the credential is publicly verifiable. All Red Hat certifications are current for three years from the date earned; renewal must happen before expiry, because an expired certification cannot be renewed and must be earned again.
Red Hat describes several renewal options in its certification program guide. Check which applies to your credentials before they expire. For onward study, the EX200 page recommends RH294 and the EX294 advanced Ansible administration exam.
Use practice questions to check concepts, then verify your ability to complete the corresponding objectives in a lab. Multiple-choice practice does not reproduce EX200’s practical assessment.
Official sources: Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam | EX200 (redhat.com) — Exam description, audience, prerequisites, objectives, exam format; Red Hat Certification program guide (Red Hat Learning Subscription documentation) — Sections 3–9: exam options, pricing, format, exam day, results, recertification; Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Ansible Exam | EX294 (redhat.com) — Exam description and prerequisites
Official sources
Fact check:
- Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam | EX200 (redhat.com)
- Red Hat Certification program guide (Red Hat Learning Subscription documentation)
- Numeric Modes (GNU Coreutils 9.11)
- mktemp invocation (GNU Coreutils 9.11)
- stat invocation (GNU Coreutils 9.11)
- Red Hat Certified System Administrator (redhat.com certification page)
- Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Ansible Exam | EX294 (redhat.com)
- Mode Structure (GNU Coreutils 9.11)