Master the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam with our comprehensive Q&A collection. Review questions by topic, understand explanations, and build confidence for exam day.
Strategies to help you tackle Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam questions effectively
Allocate roughly 1-2 minutes per question. Flag difficult questions and return to them later.
Pay attention to keywords like 'MOST', 'LEAST', 'NOT', and 'EXCEPT' in questions.
Use elimination to narrow down choices. Often 1-2 options can be quickly ruled out.
Focus on understanding why answers are correct, not just memorizing facts.
Practice with real exam-style questions for Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
Creating ansible.cfg in the project directory (current working directory) is the best practice as it takes precedence over system-wide configuration and keeps settings project-specific. Ansible configuration precedence is: ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable, ./ansible.cfg (current directory), ~/.ansible.cfg (home directory), /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg (system-wide). While environment variables work, a project-local ansible.cfg is more maintainable and portable. Passing flags on every command is error-prone and not scalable.
Creating separate inventory directories for each environment is the best practice. This approach provides clear separation, prevents accidental cross-environment execution, and allows environment-specific variables in group_vars and host_vars. Each environment can have its own inventory structure like inventories/dev/, inventories/staging/, inventories/prod/. Using tags or conditionals in playbooks doesn't provide the necessary separation and increases the risk of mistakes. Dynamic inventory scripts querying all environments would not provide proper isolation.
The command module is the default module used by Ansible in ad-hoc commands when no module is explicitly specified. For example, 'ansible all -a "ls /tmp"' uses the command module. The command module executes commands on remote nodes but does not process them through a shell, so shell operators like pipes, redirects, and wildcards are not available. The shell module must be explicitly specified if shell processing is needed. The raw and ping modules serve different purposes and are never default.
The correct configuration requires creating the ansible user, ensuring it has sudo privileges (typically through wheel group membership), and configuring NOPASSWD in sudoers to allow privilege escalation without password prompts. This is typically done with a sudoers entry like 'ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' or '%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL'. Ansible does not need to be installed on managed nodes (only the control node). Using root login directly is a security anti-pattern. The /etc/ansible/hosts file exists only on the control node, not managed nodes.
Using an Ansible playbook with the authorized_key module is the most efficient and scalable approach. You can perform initial connection with password authentication (using --ask-pass), then use the authorized_key module to distribute SSH keys to all 50 nodes simultaneously. This is idempotent and automatable. While ssh-copy-id works, doing it manually 50 times is inefficient and error-prone. Sharing .ssh/authorized_keys via NFS is a security risk and not recommended. The file module alone doesn't properly manage SSH key permissions and user ownership as authorized_key does.
Review Q&A organized by exam domains to focus your study
15% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Understand Core Components of Ansible in DevOps?
Understand Core Components of Ansible serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Understand Core Components of Ansible?
When implementing Understand Core Components of Ansible, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Understand Core Components of Ansible integrate with other Red Hat services?
Understand Core Components of Ansible integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
20% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Configure Ansible Managed Nodes in DevOps?
Configure Ansible Managed Nodes serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Configure Ansible Managed Nodes?
When implementing Configure Ansible Managed Nodes, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Configure Ansible Managed Nodes integrate with other Red Hat services?
Configure Ansible Managed Nodes integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
25% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Write Ansible Playbooks in DevOps?
Write Ansible Playbooks serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Write Ansible Playbooks?
When implementing Write Ansible Playbooks, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Write Ansible Playbooks integrate with other Red Hat services?
Write Ansible Playbooks integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
20% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Work with Ansible Roles in DevOps?
Work with Ansible Roles serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Work with Ansible Roles?
When implementing Work with Ansible Roles, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Work with Ansible Roles integrate with other Red Hat services?
Work with Ansible Roles integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
10% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Use Ansible Vault in DevOps?
Use Ansible Vault serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Use Ansible Vault?
When implementing Use Ansible Vault, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Use Ansible Vault integrate with other Red Hat services?
Use Ansible Vault integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
10% of exam • 3 questions
What is the primary purpose of Work with Ansible Galaxy in DevOps?
Work with Ansible Galaxy serves as a fundamental component in DevOps, providing essential capabilities for managing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat solutions. Understanding this domain is crucial for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
Which best practice should be followed when implementing Work with Ansible Galaxy?
When implementing Work with Ansible Galaxy, follow the principle of least privilege, ensure proper documentation, implement monitoring and logging, and regularly review configurations. These practices help maintain security and operational excellence.
How does Work with Ansible Galaxy integrate with other Red Hat services?
Work with Ansible Galaxy integrates seamlessly with other Red Hat services through APIs, shared authentication, and native connectors. This integration enables comprehensive solutions that leverage multiple services for optimal results.
After reviewing these questions and answers, challenge yourself with our interactive practice exams. Track your progress and identify areas for improvement.
Common questions about the exam format and questions
The Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam typically contains 50-65 questions. The exact number may vary, and not all questions may be scored as some are used for statistical purposes.
The exam includes multiple choice (single answer), multiple response (multiple correct answers), and scenario-based questions. Some questions may include diagrams or code snippets that you need to analyze.
Questions are weighted based on the exam domain weights. Topics with higher percentages have more questions. Focus your study time proportionally on domains with higher weights.
Yes, most certification exams allow you to flag questions for review and return to them before submitting. Use this feature strategically for difficult questions.
Practice questions are designed to match the style, difficulty, and topic coverage of the real exam. While exact questions won't appear, the concepts and question formats will be similar.
Explore more Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) study resources