- What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and Which Credential It Means)
- The 2026 Path at a Glance
- How the EX294 Assessment Behaves
- The 14 Objective Lines, Compressed
- Ansible Facts You Must Know Cold
- The RHCSA Layer Hidden Inside Ansible Tasks
- Logistics, Fees, Retakes and Renewal
- A Short Domain-Ordered Review Plan
- Where the Credential Gets Used
- Frequently Asked Questions
- EX294 is a hands-on Ansible exam: playbooks configure freshly installed systems, and results must survive a reboot untouched.
- Under the May 11, 2026 framework, EX294 alone earns Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Ansible.
- Current RHCSA (EX200) plus EX294 is the path to the RHCE in Ansible credential.
- The published outline lists 14 objective lines with no percentage weights, so never treat study priorities as exam weights.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and Which Credential It Means)
This page reviews the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) in its Ansible form, issued by Red Hat, Inc. and tested through Red Hat exam delivery. The exam is EX294. It is not the separate EX342 Enterprise Linux track, and it has nothing to do with other certifications that happen to share the same acronym. If you are new to the term, our explainers on what RHCE is and what RHCE stands for cover the naming background.
The goal here is a scannable one-page review: what the exam is, what the 14 published objective lines ask of you, what Ansible mechanics you need in your fingers, and what policy details to verify before you book. For a deeper plan, pair it with the RHCE study guide, and when you are ready to test your recall, use the practice tests on the main site.
The 2026 Path at a Glance
Red Hat reorganized how EX294 maps to credentials under its framework dated May 11, 2026. This is the single most important fact to get right, because older articles describe a different arrangement.
| Scenario | Result under the May 11, 2026 framework |
|---|---|
| Pass EX294 alone | Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Ansible |
| Current RHCSA (EX200) plus pass EX294 | Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) in Ansible |
| Pre-framework credential, new exam passed after May 11, 2026 | Updated renewal and mapping rules apply to your active transcript, per the Red Hat FAQ |
How the EX294 Assessment Behaves
EX294 is not multiple choice. It is a performance-based assessment on the Ansible Automation Platform: you write and run playbooks that configure multiple systems, and the results are evaluated against freshly installed systems. That phrasing matters. Your automation has to build the desired state from scratch, not merely tweak machines you have been poking at manually.
Facts to memorize about the format
- Reboot survival: Resulting configurations must persist after a reboot without intervention. Anything you start but do not enable, or set at runtime but do not persist, is a risk.
- Idempotence in spirit: Evaluation is against the end state, so playbooks should converge cleanly and be safe to run again.
- No internet, no personal notes or books: Candidate-supplied materials are prohibited. Red Hat's page qualifies that product documentation is available for most exams, so check your booked session's rules instead of assuming unrestricted documentation.
- Duration: The reviewed current exam page does not specify one. Confirm the timer on your booking rather than importing an older EX294 figure from a blog.
- Scoring detail: Expect total-score reporting; the handbook also describes objective-area feedback. Neither gives task-by-task detail.
We deliberately omit task counts, pass marks and pass-rate statistics because no verified figures are published. If you want to understand why those numbers are murky, see our pieces on the RHCE passing score and the RHCE pass rate.
The 14 Objective Lines, Compressed
Red Hat's outline presents 14 first-level objective entries. Fourteen is the count of lines supplied from the published outline, not an issuer-declared "official domain count," and no percentage weights are published. Here they are, grouped by what you actually do with them. For a longer treatment, see RHCE exam domains: all 14 content areas.
Foundation lines (Domains 1, 2, 3)
You must be able to perform all tasks expected of a Red Hat Certified System Administrator, understand core components of Ansible, and configure Ansible.
- Core components: inventories, modules, variables, facts, plays, playbooks, roles and collections
- Configuration: the Ansible configuration file, inventory location, remote user and privilege defaults
- The RHCSA expectation is real; it is not a courtesy line
Managed-node lines (Domains 4, 5, 6)
Three managed-node tasks appear as peers in the outline: configure Ansible managed nodes, create and distribute SSH keys to managed nodes, and configure privilege escalation on managed nodes.
- Control-node to managed-node connectivity must work before anything else does
- Key distribution and sudo-style escalation are prerequisites to every later playbook
- Treat these as a setup sequence you can complete quickly and without hesitation
Delivery and execution lines (Domains 7, 8)
Deploy files to managed nodes and run playbooks.
- File deployment covers copying, templating, content insertion and attributes such as ownership, mode and SELinux context
- Running playbooks includes ad hoc commands, check mode, syntax checking and reading failure output
Tooling lines (Domains 9, 10)
Perform basic source control operations using Git, and be familiar with Visual Studio Code (VS Code) with a set of tasks performed from within the editor.
- Current objectives include Git, VS Code and Ansible development containers
- Expect to clone, commit, branch and push as ordinary working steps, not exotic ones
- Practice editing and running playbooks from the editor, not only from a bare terminal
Authoring and content lines (Domains 11, 12, 13, 14)
Create Ansible plays and playbooks, use roles and Ansible Content Collections, automate standard RHCSA tasks using Ansible modules, and manage content.
- Plays and playbooks: tasks, handlers, conditionals, loops, blocks, error handling and tags
- Roles and collections: installing, referencing and using them in a play
- RHCSA automation: the sysadmin tasks you already know, expressed through modules
- Manage content: the final published line, covering how you handle and organize automation content
Ansible Facts You Must Know Cold
These are the working mechanics that every objective line leans on. Practice them until you can write them without looking anything up.
Structure and syntax
- A playbook is a YAML list of plays; each play targets hosts and contains tasks, and optionally variables, roles and handlers.
- Indentation errors are the most common self-inflicted failure. Run a syntax check before every execution.
- Prefer fully qualified collection names for modules so your intent is unambiguous.
Variables, facts and templating
- Know variable placement: playbook vars, inventory and group variables, host variables, and registered results.
- Gathered facts feed conditionals and templates; know how to inspect them.
- Jinja2 templates deploy host-specific content; know loops and conditionals inside templates.
Control flow and resilience
- Handlers run when notified by a changed task, which is how you restart a service only when its configuration changed.
- Blocks, rescue and always sections let you handle failures deliberately.
- Register results and branch on them rather than assuming success.
Roles and collections
- Know the standard role directory layout and where defaults, tasks, handlers, templates and files live.
- Know how to install content from a requirements file and then call it from a play.
Key Takeaway
Because evaluation targets fresh systems and a post-reboot state, build every playbook around a simple rule: if a setting should exist after restart, your play must both apply it and persist it.
The RHCSA Layer Hidden Inside Ansible Tasks
Domain 13 asks you to automate standard RHCSA tasks using modules, and Domain 1 expects full sysadmin competence. That means the exam quietly tests whether you understand the underlying Linux concepts, not just module syntax. If you do not know what correct looks like on the command line, you cannot encode it in a play.
Think in categories rather than a memorized list: software repositories and packages, services and boot targets, user and group accounts, storage and filesystems, scheduled jobs, firewall rules, SELinux state and file contexts, and networking basics. For each category, be able to answer two questions: how would I do this manually, and which module expresses it declaratively? Many candidates fail not because Ansible is hard but because the system administration beneath it was shaky. This overlap is also why comparing the two credentials matters when you plan your sequence; start with our RHCE certification overview to see how they relate.
Logistics, Fees, Retakes and Renewal
| Topic | What the sources support |
|---|---|
| Price | Red Hat's program-wide standard exam list price is USD500. The regional booking-cart price controls, so this is not an exam-specific checkout quote. |
| Delivery | Remote, testing-center and classroom delivery, subject to booking availability |
| Remote requirements | LiveUSB, a successful compatibility test, and required identity and hardware checks |
| Retake | Eligible unsuccessful first individual attempts receive one free retake under Red Hat's training policies, subject to purchase or subscription eligibility periods and scheduling restrictions |
| Results timing | The exam page says usually three U.S. business days; the program guide allows five business days |
| Validity | Certifications are current for three years |
| Renewal | Renew before expiry through the original exam or qualifying same-level or higher-level credentials under the current framework |
Recommended preparation
Red Hat recommends RH124 plus RH134, or RH199, or equivalent RHEL administration experience, together with AU294 or equivalent Ansible experience. Course attendance is optional. The live exam page follows the most recent available product version without naming a release number in its main description, so confirm the version for your booking and do not assume any particular RHEL release from older indexed wording.
A Short Domain-Ordered Review Plan
If you have a few weeks, sequence your review by dependency, since later objectives assume earlier ones work. This is a suggested ordering, not an exam weighting.
Connectivity and configuration
- Domains 2 to 6: core components, Ansible configuration, managed nodes, SSH keys, privilege escalation
- Goal: a working control node talking to several managed nodes without friction
Authoring and delivery
- Domains 7, 8, 11: file deployment, running playbooks, plays and playbooks
- Goal: write handlers, loops, conditionals and templates quickly and correctly
Reuse and tooling
- Domains 9, 10, 12: Git, VS Code and development containers, roles and collections
- Goal: work comfortably inside the editor and consume shared content
RHCSA automation and rehearsal
- Domains 1, 13, 14: RHCSA-style tasks through modules, plus content management
- Goal: build full original lab projects from a clean system and reboot-test them
Build your own mock projects and labs; do not hunt for reconstructed exam content, which is both unreliable and inappropriate. Original scenarios you design yourself teach the same skills honestly. The RHCE difficulty guide explains where candidates typically feel the pressure.
Where the Credential Gets Used
EX294-aligned skills appear in roles centered on Linux administration, infrastructure automation, platform operations and DevOps-style engineering, particularly in organizations running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ansible-driven configuration management. Browse the RHCE jobs overview for the kinds of roles that mention it.
On compensation, be cautious. We do not quote salary figures here because no attributable market data is supplied for this article, and a certification does not guarantee earnings or employment. For a sourced discussion, read the RHCE salary guide and the RHCE ROI analysis, then weigh the evidence against your own market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Under the May 11, 2026 framework, passing EX294 alone earns Red Hat Certified Advanced System Administrator in Ansible. Holding a current RHCSA (EX200) plus EX294 is the path to the RHCE in Ansible credential.
The reviewed current exam page does not specify a duration. Check the timer shown for your booked session instead of relying on an older figure from another source.
No. Internet access and candidate-supplied notes or books are prohibited. Product documentation availability applies to most exams, but you should verify the rules of your booked session rather than assume unrestricted access.
Red Hat's program-wide standard list price is USD500, though the regional booking-cart price controls. Eligible unsuccessful first individual attempts receive one free retake under Red Hat's training policies, subject to eligibility periods and scheduling restrictions.
Certifications are current for three years. Renew before expiry through the original exam or qualifying same-level or higher-level credentials under the current framework, and check your active transcript for how the rules apply to older credentials.
Keep this sheet beside your lab notes, verify every policy detail against Red Hat's current pages before booking, and spend your real study hours writing and reboot-testing playbooks rather than rereading summaries.