Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation

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Course overview

Build your understanding of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) with this two-day Foundation course. Learn the core vocabulary, principles and practices behind SRE and prepare for the PeopleCert SRE Foundation certification exam, with practical examples that show how SRE is applied in organisations.

Understand SRE in practice

Across two days, you’ll examine SRE principles, service level measures, toil, observability, automation and approaches to failure. You’ll see how these practices work together, giving you knowledge you can use when contributing to reliability initiatives or working alongside SRE teams.

Learning objectives

Describe the origins, principles and purpose of Site Reliability Engineering
Explain how SRE relates to DevOps and other frameworks and practices
Explain how SLOs, SLIs and error budgets support reliability
Identify the impact of toil and ways to reduce repetitive operational work
Recognise how monitoring and observability indicate service health
Explore automation, AIOps and generative AI in SRE
Explain the role of platform engineering and Value Stream Management
Understand anti-fragility, failure testing and learning from failure

What you'll learn

The course takes you through the practices and measures used in SRE, from setting service expectations to monitoring performance and reducing toil. You’ll examine how teams use automation, observability and learning from failure as part of a structured approach to reliability.

Set service level objectives and error budgets

Learn how Service Level Objectives (SLOs), Service Level Indicators (SLIs) and error budgets provide measurable ways to manage reliability. You’ll examine how SLOs reflect user expectations, how SLIs provide evidence of service performance and how error budget policies can inform decisions about reliability and change.

Reduce toil and improve observability

Examine the effect of toil on productivity and practical approaches to reducing repetitive operational work. You’ll also explore monitoring, Service Level Indicators and observability, including how they help teams understand service health and establish measurable objectives for reliability.

Learn from failure and automate SRE work

Explore anti-fragility, failure testing, fire drills and Chaos Engineering, alongside approaches such as sustainable incident response and blameless post-mortems. You’ll also examine SRE automation, AIOps, generative AI, platform engineering and Value Stream Management, building awareness of how these approaches are used within modern SRE.

What’s included?

Accredited Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation training
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation exam
Digital delegate materials
Optional extras include Take2 exam insurance

Key facts

Certification

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation

Who it’s for

Designed for professionals working in or alongside SRE, DevOps, IT operations, software engineering and security, as well as managers and stakeholders involved in improving service reliability.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Exam information

Open book, multiple choice, 60 minutes, 40 questions, 65% pass mark

Optional extras

Take² exam insurance.

Pre-course

There is no pre-course work for this training.

FAQs

Find answers about the SRE Foundation course, including who it’s for, what experience you need, the concepts covered and how the certification can support your understanding of Site Reliability Engineering.

What is the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation course?

SRE Foundation is a two-day course covering the core vocabulary, principles and practices of Site Reliability Engineering. It covers SLOs, SLIs, error budgets, toil, observability, automation, learning from failure and the organisational impact of adopting SRE, and prepares you for the SRE Foundation certification exam.

Do I need experience in Site Reliability Engineering before taking the course?

There are no formal prerequisites. However, PeopleCert recommends an understanding of common DevOps terminology and concepts, together with related work experience, before taking the course.

How is the SRE Foundation exam structured?

The exam is open book and contains 40 multiple-choice questions. You have 60 minutes to complete it and need 26 correct answers, or 65%, to pass. The exam is delivered online, and the official training materials can be used during the exam.

Can this Foundation course help me move into an SRE role?

The course gives you foundational knowledge of SRE concepts and practices, so it can be relevant if you’re considering an SRE role or already work in DevOps, IT operations, software engineering or another role that works closely with reliability teams.

What our customers say

“Was an exceptional service, responded promptly to my needs and got me on a course within a week.”

Philip Snarey, ILX learner

“Good, experienced teacher, well balanced and clear course.”

Jacky Droushoudt, ILX learner

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