RHCE — Red Hat Certified Engineer (EX294) Exam Guide

The RHCE (now focused on Ansible Automation) validates your ability to automate Red Hat Enterprise Linux tasks using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Exam Overview

Detail	Value
Exam Code	EX294
Format	100% hands-on
Length	3.5 hours
Passing Score	70%+
Price	~$400 USD
Prerequisite	Active RHCSA certification

Domain Breakdown

Domain	Weight
Understand Core Ansible Components	24%
Install and Configure Ansible	18%
Create and Manage Playbooks	28%
Manage Variables, Facts, and Inventories	18%
Use Ansible Roles and Collections	12%

Key Skills

Core Components

• Inventory files (static and dynamic), ansible.cfg configuration
• Ad-hoc commands with ansible CLI
• Modules (command, copy, file, yum/dnf, service, user, template, lineinfile, selinux, firewalld)
• Playbook structure (hosts, tasks, become, vars, handlers)

Playbooks

• Task control: when, loop, block/rescue/always, tags
• Templates with Jinja2 (variables, filters, conditionals, loops)
• Handlers and notification patterns
• Error handling and idempotency

Variables and Facts

• Variable precedence (groups > hosts > play > role > extra_vars)
• Facts gathering and custom facts
• Registered variables and set_fact
• Vault for encrypting sensitive data

Roles and Collections

• Role directory structure (tasks, handlers, templates, files, vars, defaults, meta)
• Ansible Galaxy and collections (ansible-galaxy collection install)
• Role dependencies and conditions

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