How does the 3V0-24.25 VKS exam compare in difficulty and scope to the 3V0-22.25 Operations exam?

[Andrew Nixon]

Hello, I'm currently holding my VCP-VCF certification and planning to pursue a VCAP-level specialization. I'm trying to decide between two paths:

 

3V0-24.25 – Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – vSphere Kubernetes Service

3V0-22.25 – Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 – Operations

 

I understand the Operations exam focuses on areas like performance monitoring, capacity management, troubleshooting, and lifecycle management, while the VKS exam leans more into Kubernetes, Supervisor configuration, TKG cluster management, and cloud-native workloads.

For those who have attempted or passed either (or both) of these exams, I'd love to hear your thoughts on:

 

• Which exam did you find more difficult, and why?
• How deep does the hands-on simulation component go in each exam?
• Is there a significant overlap between the two exam blueprints?
• Which one would you recommend attempting first for someone coming from a traditional vSphere/VCF infrastructure background?
• What study resources made the biggest difference in your preparation?

Any advice from those who have been through the process would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Billy Harris]

The two exams feel very different in how they test you. If you’re coming from a traditional vSphere / VMware Cloud Foundation background, most people find 3V0-22.25 (Operations) more approachable. It’s broad, but it stays in familiar territory: performance issues, capacity, logs, lifecycle, and general day-2 ops. The challenge is knowing what to do rather than just knowing features.

 

3V0-24.25 (VKS) feels harder for most infra folks because it goes deep into Supervisor, namespaces, TKG clusters, and how Kubernetes actually behaves on vSphere. If you don’t work with Kubernetes regularly, the learning curve is real.

 

Neither exam is super labby like the old VCAP Deploy exams. They’re more scenario-based:

• Ops = interpret metrics/logs and pick the best action
  
• VKS = understand config, workflows, and what’s broken in a Kubernetes context

There’s some overlap at the vSphere/VCF level, but studying for one won’t magically prep you for the other.

For someone with a traditional VCF / vSphere infrastructure background: Operations first is usually the smoother path. It builds directly on existing strengths and extends them into advanced operational decision-making. VKS first only makes sense if you’re already working regularly with Kubernetes or Tanzu and want to specialize there. Many people use Operations as a confidence-building VCAP before tackling VKS.

 

For me, biggest help for prep was hands-on time + sticking closely to the blueprint. Docs matter more than people expect. Practice questions were useful mainly for pressure-testing my decision logic on multi-symptom scenarios things like mapping metrics/logs to root cause, understanding which remediation VMware expects first and spotting distractors that are technically correct but operationally wrong. I used CertBoosters for that, alongside labs, to fine-tune how I approached the scenario questions rather than to memorize answers.

 

Neither exam is easy, they’re testing judgment and real-world readiness, not memorization. Choose the one that best aligns with what you do today or want to be doing next. Hope that helps.