A skill describes what you can do, not what you have read. The site's framework holds several hundred of them, from “Run commands and read their output in a shell” to “Upgrade a kubeadm cluster by one minor version”. Each has its prerequisites, the lessons that teach it and, when they exist, its quiz, its lab and its proof. This lesson explains how to read a skill page and what each of its statuses means.
A skill is an observable gesture
A skill title starts with an action verb: configure, diagnose, harden, deliver. It says what someone who masters it can do, in a way that can be checked. Skills are grouped into blocks (“Run a Linux server”, “Secure a Kubernetes cluster”) and domains, to be read at a glance.
Prerequisites
A skill can require others: you cannot sandbox a systemd service without knowing how to manage one. These prerequisites are hard: as long as they are not understood or acquired, the skill stays locked in your path. Other links are only order advice, which guides without blocking.
When the tool changes the skill
Some skills are practised with several tools: install Kubernetes with kubeadm or Talos, build a CI on GitHub or GitLab. The tool choice (an axis) changes the lessons offered and sometimes the prerequisites. Depending on the skill, what you acquired with one tool counts for the others or not: its page says which.
Teach, assess, practise, prove
A skill page lists four things, and the site never mixes them up:
- the lessons that teach it, in one or more courses;
- the quiz that assesses it, when there is one;
- the labs that make you practise it;
- the proof: an exam graded on a machine's final state, with no procedure given, when there is one.
A skill without a quiz or a proof says so: not measured does not mean zero.
The statuses you will see
In your path, each skill carries a status. The labels are those on screen:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Acquired | a quiz passed, a placement test passed or a proof lab validated |
| Declared | you said you master it; it counts, without being confirmed |
| To confirm | declared on an older version of the skill, whose contract has changed |
| To consolidate | a failed quiz: to review before moving on |
| Quiz to take | all lessons read, the quiz remains to pass |
| Lab to do | all lessons read, no quiz, a proof lab exists |
| Read, no quiz or lab | fully read, nothing can measure it yet |
| In progress | some lessons read |
| Available | prerequisites met, nothing started |
| Locked | a prerequisite is still missing |
Key takeaways
- A skill is an observable gesture, not a page.
- Its hard prerequisites lock it; order advice only guides.
- Reading, passing a quiz and proving are three different things.
- A skill not measured says so, instead of pretending.