Overview

The New Relic Certified APM Practitioner – Associate (APA) certification is designed for professionals who want to demonstrate their knowledge of New Relic’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) platform. This certification validates candidates’ understanding of APM fundamentals, user interface navigation, performance analysis insights, troubleshooting techniques, and methods for improving application performance2.

This comprehensive 3-day training program will prepare participants for the APA certification exam by covering all required topics and providing hands-on experience with New Relic APM. The program is structured to build knowledge progressively, from foundational concepts to advanced troubleshooting techniques.

Topics & Agenda for 3 Days Training

Day 1: APM Fundamentals and Instrumentation

Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:30 PM)

• Introduction to Application Performance Monitoring
  • The importance of APM in modern software environments
  • Key benefits of implementing APM solutions
  • Overview of New Relic’s observability platform
• APM Core Concepts
  • Understanding application performance metrics
  • Transaction traces and their significance
  • Error tracking and analysis
  • Apdex scores and user satisfaction measurement
• Lunch Break (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM)

Afternoon Session (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM)

• Instrumenting Applications with New Relic APM
  • Agent installation and configuration for different technologies
  • Setting up application names and environments
  • Configuration settings and customization options
  • Implementing effective tagging strategies
• Hands-on Lab: Installing and Configuring New Relic APM Agents
  • Practical exercises for different application types
  • Verifying successful instrumentation
  • Troubleshooting common installation issues

Day 2: Data Visualization and Analysis

Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:30 PM)

• New Relic APM User Interface
  • Navigating the APM dashboard
  • Understanding key metrics and visualizations
  • Using filters and time pickers effectively
• Data Visualization Techniques
  • Transaction overview and breakdown
  • Database query analysis
  • External services monitoring
  • Throughput, response time, and error rate analysis
• Lunch Break (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM)

Afternoon Session (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM)

• Advanced Data Analysis
  • Using NRQL for custom queries
  • Creating custom dashboards
  • Implementing charts and visualizations
  • Analyzing trends and patterns
• Hands-on Lab: Building Custom Dashboards and Alerts
  • Creating performance dashboards
  • Setting up meaningful visualizations
  • Implementing baseline comparisons

Day 3: Troubleshooting and Performance Optimization

Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:30 PM)

• Performance Troubleshooting Techniques
  • Identifying bottlenecks and performance issues
  • Root cause analysis methodologies
  • Transaction trace analysis
  • Error analytics and debugging
• Integrated Monitoring
  • Correlating APM with infrastructure metrics
  • Log management and analysis
  • Distributed tracing across services
• Lunch Break (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM)

Afternoon Session (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM)

• Alerting and Notification Strategies
  • Setting up effective alert policies
  • Creating meaningful alert conditions
  • Managing notification channels
  • Implementing alert workflows
• Exam Preparation
  • Review of key concepts
  • Practice questions and scenarios
  • Exam tips and strategies
• Hands-on Lab: End-to-End Troubleshooting Scenario
  • Identifying and resolving complex performance issues
  • Implementing performance improvements
  • Documenting findings and recommendations

Audience

This training program is designed for:

• Software developers who need to understand application performance
• DevOps engineers responsible for application monitoring
• SRE professionals focused on reliability and performance
• IT operations staff managing application infrastructure
• Quality assurance engineers concerned with performance testing
• Technical managers overseeing application performance

The ideal candidate has at least 6 months of experience in performance analysis using New Relic and a broad knowledge of New Relic APM2. Participants should have basic understanding of web applications, programming concepts, and IT infrastructure.

Trainer

Rajesh Kumar

Rajesh Kumar is a Principal DevOps Architect & Manager with over 15 years of extensive experience working with more than 8 software MNCs for software development, maintenance, and production environments. He has been involved in continuous improvement and automating entire life cycles using the latest DevOps tools and techniques from design and architecture through implementation, deployment, and successful operations14.

Rajesh has significant expertise in performance monitoring tools including New Relic APM, Datadog APM, Splunk APM, and Elastic APM14. His experience spans across various organizations including ServiceNow, JDA Software, Intuit, Adobe Systems, IBM, and others where he has implemented robust monitoring and alerting systems for pre-production CI servers as well as production servers14.

As a trainer and consultant, Rajesh has mentored and coached more than 10,000 engineers in implementing CI/CD, DevOps, Cloud, SRE, and Containers, helping organizations find the best tools for their SDLC and production needs14. His practical experience with New Relic in production environments makes him an ideal instructor for this certification training.

For more information about Rajesh Kumar, visit: https://www.rajeshkumar.xyz/