By completing this course, learners will:

• Install and configure OPA in different environments.

• Write policies in Rego for authorization and compliance.

• Enforce policies in Kubernetes clusters with Gatekeeper.

• Apply OPA in APIs, microservices, and service meshes.

• Integrate OPA into CI/CD and infrastructure as code.

• Deploy OPA at scale with observability and best practices.

Course Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction to OPA

• What is OPA?

• Policy-as-code vs traditional policy management

• Installing OPA locally and in Kubernetes

Module 2: Core Architecture

• OPA engine and decision-making flow

• Rego policy language basics

• Input, data, and decision documents

• Policy evaluation lifecycle

Module 3: Writing Policies with Rego

• Rules, queries, and logical operators

• Policy modules and imports

• Unit testing Rego policies

• Common policy examples (RBAC, resource limits)

Module 4: OPA in Kubernetes

• OPA Gatekeeper overview

• ValidatingAdmissionWebhook integration

• Enforcing security/compliance policies in clusters

• Audit and dry-run modes

Module 5: OPA with APIs & Microservices

• Embedding OPA in applications

• External OPA server model

• API authorization with OPA

• OPA with Envoy Proxy for service meshes

Module 6: OPA in CI/CD & IaC

• OPA with Terraform for infrastructure compliance

• Validating CI/CD pipelines with OPA

• Policy enforcement for GitOps workflows

• Real-world DevSecOps use cases

Module 7: Deployment & Scaling

• Running OPA as a sidecar, daemon, or centralized service

• Performance tuning and caching

• Observability: logging, metrics, and tracing

• Scaling OPA in production

Module 8: Real-World Projects

• Kubernetes pod security enforcement with OPA Gatekeeper

• RBAC authorization in a microservice app

• Terraform compliance validation with OPA

• CI/CD pipeline security with OPA

Module 9: Best Practices & Future Trends

• Writing maintainable and efficient Rego policies

• Policy lifecycle management

• OPA vs Kyverno vs other policy engines

• Future of policy-as-code in cloud-native security

Learners will receive a Certificate of Completion from Uplatz, validating their expertise in OPA and policy-as-code. This certification demonstrates readiness for roles in DevSecOps, cloud security, and Kubernetes administration.

OPA skills prepare learners for roles such as:

• DevSecOps Engineer

• Cloud Security Engineer

• Kubernetes Administrator (policy-focused)

• Infrastructure Engineer (IaC compliance)

• API Security Engineer

OPA is widely adopted by enterprises, SaaS providers, and cloud-native organizations to enforce consistent policies across platforms, making it a highly in-demand skill.

1. What is Open Policy Agent (OPA)?
An open-source policy engine that uses Rego to enforce policy-as-code across apps, APIs, and infrastructure.

2. What is Rego in OPA?
A high-level declarative policy language used to define and evaluate policies.

3. How does OPA integrate with Kubernetes?
Through OPA Gatekeeper or admission controllers to enforce policies on resource creation and updates.

4. What’s the difference between OPA and Gatekeeper?
OPA is the policy engine, while Gatekeeper is the Kubernetes integration for applying OPA policies.

5. What is policy-as-code?
The practice of managing and enforcing policies (security, compliance, governance) as version-controlled code.

6. How does OPA work with APIs and microservices?
It can run as a sidecar, library, or external service to evaluate authorization policies.

7. How is OPA used with Terraform?
To validate infrastructure configurations against compliance and security rules before deployment.

8. What are the benefits of OPA?

• Unified policy framework

• Fine-grained control

• Works across many systems (Kubernetes, APIs, IaC)

• Open-source and CNCF-backed

9. What are challenges with OPA?

• Learning curve for Rego language

• Performance tuning for large-scale policies

• Complexity in managing many distributed policies

10. Where is OPA being adopted?
By cloud-native organizations, financial institutions, and enterprises needing consistent policy enforcement across Kubernetes, APIs, and infrastructure.