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Certification Exam

Pega Lead System Architecture Exam

60 Questions

2 hrs

Passing Score: 65%

 Applies to: Pega Platform '25

The Certified Pega Lead System Architect certification program is intended for Certified Pega Senior System Architects with at least 36 months of field experience. The Pega Architecture exam is the first exam in the Certified Pega Lead System Architect certification process.

The Pega Lead System Architecture version 25 exam focuses on the design and architecture of Pega applications.  This exam includes questions covering all Pega platform capabilities and best practices to be followed in implementing the Pega platform features. 

The Certified Pega Lead System Architect certification requires passing the Pega Lead System Architecture Exam followed by the application Design and Application Build exam.

Exam Code: PEGACPLSA25V1

Language: English

Retirement Date: N/A

Advanced
English

Prerequisites

Certified Pega Senior System Architect Lead System Architect

Exam topics (% of exam)

Infrastructure and Architecture (30%)
Understand enterprise architecture principles and how to design Pega solutions for large, complex organizations.
Apply centered enterprise architecture alignment to ensure scalability, resilience, and business agility.
Recognize architectural considerations when positioning Pega within an enterprise IT landscape.
Understand Pega deployment architecture as a clustered, distributed system.
Identify roles and responsibilities of Pega nodes, tiers, and node types in an enterprise deployment.
Explain high availability, resiliency, and failover concepts within Pega Platform deployments.
Align application architecture with enterprise standards, constraints, and governance models.
Evaluate architectural trade‑offs to ensure performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Position applications correctly within an enterprise ecosystem.
Understand Pega GenAI™ architecture as a governed, provider‑agnostic control plane.
Recognize how generative AI integrates securely into enterprise workflows.
Apply architectural considerations for responsible AI adoption in Pega solutions.
Identify when and how to externalize services to support modular, scalable enterprise architectures.
Recognize patterns for decoupling Pega applications using services and APIs.
Understand architectural benefits of service externalization in enterprise environments.
Understand event‑driven architecture concepts using Kafka with Pega.
Recognize design considerations for asynchronous case creation.
Apply best practices for integrating Pega with streaming and messaging platforms.
Understand enterprise security concepts applicable to Pega Platform.
Recognize security audits, policies, and architectural security controls.
Identify architectural responsibilities related to secure deployments and governance.
Understand system administration fundamentals in an enterprise context.
Recognize tools for monitoring, performance analysis, and system resilience.
Identify operational considerations impacting infrastructure architecture decisions.
Planning and Design (30%)
Understand planning and design principles required to build Pega applications that deliver business value quickly and are built for change.
Understand application stack design and its impact on scalability and governance.
Recognize best practices for organizing applications, rulesets, and layer responsibilities.
Apply application structuring principles to support enterprise reuse and parallel development.
Understand case hierarchy design principles, including parent–child and subcase relationships.
Recognize when to introduce subcases versus independent case types.
Apply hierarchy design decisions to support work distribution, scalability, and reporting.
Understand specialization strategies used to support evolving business requirements.
Recognize design options for case, process, and rule specialization.
Apply situational layering and specialization approaches to minimize rule duplication and rework.
Understand data modeling principles used in enterprise Pega applications.
Recognize design considerations for data persistence, reference data, and reporting needs.
Apply data-instance‑first design patterns where appropriate to support extensibility and reporting.
Understand API design principles for exposing and consuming services in Pega.
Recognize when to use REST‑based integrations versus alternative integration approaches.
Apply integration design considerations to support decoupling, scalability, and external system interaction.
Understand authentication and authorization design considerations in application planning.
Recognize the role of OpenID Connect (OIDC) and identity providers in enterprise designs.
Apply security design decisions that align with enterprise access control and governance requirements.
Understand application monitoring requirements in an enterprise environment.
Recognize the role of Pega Predictive Diagnostic Cloud (PDC) in operational planning.
Identify design considerations that support operational visibility, stability, and supportability.
Implementation and Deployment (30%)
Understand implementation and deployment considerations required to deliver Pega solutions that are production‑ready and built for change.
Understand background processing design principles used to meet service‑level and operational requirements.
Recognize use cases for asynchronous and background execution in Pega.
Apply best practices for reliable, scalable background processing using standard platform capabilities.
Understand the role of the standard queue processor in enterprise implementations.
Recognize when to reuse out‑of‑the‑box asynchronous processing patterns.
Apply queue‑based processing approaches to ensure resilience, throughput, and decoupling.
Understand work assignment models and their role in case execution.
Recognize routing considerations for users, teams, and work queues.
Apply assignment strategies to support operational efficiency and role‑based work management.
Understand implementation considerations for web embed interfaces in enterprise applications.
Recognize when to use landing pages to support user productivity and visibility.
Apply UI implementation decisions that align with omnichannel and role‑based user experience needs.
Understand deployment design principles that support stability, scalability, and compliance.
Recognize the role of release management and deployment responsibilities in LSA‑led projects.
Apply deployment strategies that support multi‑team development, controlled releases, and rollback readiness.
Understand the purpose of a CI/CD release pipeline in Pega implementations.
Recognize key stages and controls required to move changes safely from development to production.
Apply DevOps considerations to ensure predictable, repeatable, and low‑risk deployments.
Understand secure‑by‑design principles applied during implementation and deployment.
Recognize governance responsibilities related to production readiness and compliance.
Identify LSA responsibilities for ensuring secure, auditable, and supportable deployments.
Understand operational considerations that affect post‑deployment stability and supportability.
Recognize indicators of production readiness beyond functional correctness.
Identify implementation decisions that minimize operational risk and post‑go‑live issues.
Constellation Adoption (10%)
Understand the Constellation architecture and its role as Pega’s modern UI and design system.
Understand the core principles of Constellation, including separation of workflow and presentation.
Understand the relationship between the Case Type Data Model, Field Types, and Constellation UI.
Recognize best practices for authoring UI through Views instead of sections and flow actions.
Understand principles for composing Views in Constellation applications.
Recognize when to design simple, partial, and complex Views.
Understand the role of Primary Fields, Case tabs, and related metadata.
Recognize available approaches and tools for troubleshooting Constellation UI behavior.
Understand coexistence models for Traditional UI and Constellation.
Identify architectural and design considerations when transitioning to or incrementally adopting Constellation.

Before you begin…

The Pega Lead System Architecture Exam exam is proctored by Pearson VUE.
Users must create a Pearson VUE account if you do not already have one and register for the exam through the Pearson VUE site.
There are two exam delivery options:

  • Take an exam at a test center, or
  • Take an exam via Online Proctored delivery
    (e.g., in a quiet, uninterrupted room in your home or office, proctored via webcam).

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