F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 • F5-CA, BIG-IP C E R T I F I C A T I O N G U I D E F5CAB3 Certification Guide: BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Configuration Syllabus, sample questions and a study plan for the configuration half of F5 Certified Administrator Both exam topics broken out to all thirteen published objectives, the exam fact sheet, where this paper sits among the five F5 CAB exams that replaced 101 and 201, what F5 skills are paying in a small but better-paid market, a five-step route from lab to exam day, and ten sample questions with a full answer key. 30 QUESTIONS 30 MINUTES 245 PASS SCORE $50 EXAM FEE 13 OBJECTIVES Prepared by CertFun • www.certfun.com www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 1 CERTIFICATION GUIDE Contents Click any line to jump straight to that section. The same seven entries appear in your PDF reader’s bookmark pane. SECTION 01 Exam Overview 2 SECTION 02 Where F5CAB3 Sits in the F5-CA Track 3 SECTION 03 The Two Exam Topics, Objective by Objective 3 SECTION 04 What the Credential Is Worth 4 SECTION 05 Getting Certified, Step by Step 5 SECTION 06 F5CAB3 Sample Questions 6 SECTION 07 Where to Go Next 8 www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 2 SECTION 01 Exam Overview The F5CAB3 BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Configuration exam is the hands-on half of the BIG-IP data plane. Its sibling F5CAB2 asks what a configuration will do to a packet; F5CAB3 asks you to build and change that configuration - attach the right persistence, SSL and protocol profiles to a virtual server, read what an iApp or an iRule has put there, and give a pool the right monitor, load balancing method and service port. Thirty multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes, USD 50 online. Everything below comes from the F5CAB3 exam syllabus, the F5 Certified Administrator blueprint and the official F5 exam page. Certification F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) Exam code F5CAB3 Exam name BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Configuration Level Administrator, BIG-IP Question type Multiple choice Number of questions 30 Seat time 30 minutes Passing score 245 (scaled; CertFun lists the range as 245 of 350) Exam fee USD 50 online proctored; USD 65 at a test centre Delivery Online proctored via Certiverse, or a Pearson VUE test centre Language English Position in the track One of five F5 CAB exams; they may be taken in any order Blueprint version F5-CAB.0425 - two topics, thirteen objectives, all Understand/Apply Two rows deserve a second look. The official page prints the passing score as 245 and points to F5’s scaled-scoring note rather than a percentage; CertFun shows the same figure against a 350-point range. Treat it as a fixed bar on a scaled range, not as a count of correct answers. And the fee has two prices : USD 50 if you sit it online through Certiverse with a camera, USD 65 if you book a Pearson VUE test centre. The question count and seat time come from F5’s launch announcement and the CertFun syllabus; the official page itself lists only the 30-minute time limit. www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 3 SECTION 02 Where F5CAB3 Sits in the F5-CA Track If the route you remember is 101 Application Delivery Fundamentals followed by 201 TMOS Administration, it is closed to new candidates. F5 announced on DevCentral on 23 April 2025 that all five replacement papers, F5CAB1 to F5CAB5, were live, that the 101 exam would not be available to take or retake after 30 April 2025, and that 201 would stay open only to people who had already passed 101, for two years from that pass. You hold F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP once all five CAB exams are passed - in any order. The five exams, and what each one covers F5CAB1 - Install, initial configuration and upgrade: securing, licensing, images, modules. F5CAB2 - Data plane concepts: interfaces and VLANs, traffic behaviour, VS types, HA. F5CAB3 - Data plane configuration: this exam. Virtual server and pool management. F5CAB4 - Control plane administration: HA state, logs, UCS, users, config sync, upgrades. F5CAB5 - Support and troubleshooting: resource use, performance, why traffic is not flowing. That split tells you how to read this paper. F5CAB3 is the narrowest of the five - two topics and thirteen objectives against ten topics for F5CAB4 - and every one of its objectives starts with apply , determine , identify , report or show . The blueprint grades both topics at the Understand/Apply level, which in practice means scenario questions: here is a virtual server or a pool, here is what the business needs, which profile, monitor or method do you set? The concepts behind those objects are F5CAB2’s business; here you are expected to know where the setting lives and what value to put in it. All five sit together on the CertFun F5 certification list if you want the whole track laid out. F5 describes the minimally qualified candidate in a single sentence: someone with a basic understanding of how to install, configure and upgrade BIG-IP, who can apply the procedural concepts required to modify and manage virtual servers and pools without assistance. The exams are explicitly not version-specific - they test F5 technology rather than the screens of one release. SECTION 03 The Two Exam Topics, Objective by Objective F5 does not publish a percentage weighting for the topics on the F5 CAB exams, so the chart below counts published objectives instead. With only two topics it is a rough guide at best: the pool topic lists one objective more, but the sample questions split almost evenly, and a single objective such as "apply appropriate persistence profile" can carry several questions on its own. Virtual servers 6 objectives Pools 7 objectives Objective counts from the F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP Certification Blueprint (F5-CAB.0425), as repeated on the CertFun F5CAB3 syllabus. F5 publishes no percentage weightings for this exam; the bars are a proxy for emphasis, not official weights. www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 4 F5CAB3.01 Apply procedural concepts required to modify and manage virtual servers 6 objectives • Apply appropriate persistence profile • Apply appropriate HTTPS encryption profile • Apply appropriate protocol specific profile • Identify iApp configured objects • Report use of iRules • Show default pool configuration F5CAB3.02 Apply procedural concepts required to modify and manage pools 7 objectives • Determine configured health monitor • Determine the load balancing method for a pool • Determine the active nodes in a priority group configuration • Determine pool member service port configuration • Apply appropriate health monitor • Apply load balancing method for a pool • Apply pool member service port configuration Read the pool topic as two halves of the same list. The four determine objectives ask you to read an existing pool - which monitor it carries, which load balancing method, which members are in the active priority group, which service port each member answers on. The three apply objectives ask you to set the same three things. So every pool setting is examinable in both directions, and the quickest revision is to open a pool in the Configuration Utility and name every field before you touch it. On the virtual server side, the three profile objectives are where the marks sit: persistence (source address, cookie), HTTPS encryption (a Client SSL profile and its cipher string), and protocol-specific profiles such as HTTP, HTTP Compression and OneConnect. The other three are about reading what is already there - the objects an iApp created, whether an iRule is attached, and which pool is the default. None of them asks you to write an iRule; they ask you to notice one. SECTION 04 What the Credential Is Worth F5-CA, BIG-IP is the administrator-level credential for the appliance that still fronts a large share of enterprise application traffic - load balancing, SSL termination and health monitoring, with the WAF and access modules layered on top. F5CAB3 covers the part of that job a new administrator is handed first: a change request to add a pool member, swap a monitor, tighten a cipher string or move a virtual server to cookie persistence. Those are routine tickets, and they are also the ones that take a site down when done wrong. The demand picture deserves an honest reading. UK job-ad tracking from IT Jobs Watch, for the six months to 20 October 2026, shows F5 named in 93 permanent postings - up from 85 in the same www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 5 window a year earlier but well below the 194 of two years ago - while the median salary attached to those postings rose 7.69% year on year to GBP 70,000, from 36 quoted salaries. A small market that pays more each year is the signature of a skill consolidating into fewer, more senior hands, and it argues for holding a current credential rather than a lapsed one. Where this certification actually helps It is the current, unambiguous proof of BIG-IP skill now that 101 and 201 have gone. Modular exams let you show progress to an employer after one 30-minute sitting. F5CAB3 maps to the daily change tickets: profiles, monitors, methods, ports. It is groundwork for the specialist tracks - LTM, DNS, ASM and APM all assume this. Set expectations honestly, though. F5CAB3 on its own is one fifth of a credential; until all five are passed you hold exam results, not a certification. The salary figures above belong to people who also have the hands-on years behind them. Where a pass pays quickest is the internal move - the network or systems engineer who already lives near the BIG-IP and wants the platform work formally assigned to them. SECTION 05 Getting Certified, Step by Step 1 Decide where F5CAB3 falls in your order The five exams are not sequential. Already changing pools and profiles at work? Start here. 2 Get a BIG-IP you are allowed to break A lab or trial Virtual Edition with a few web servers behind it is enough for this paper. 3 Build the thirteen objectives, literally One virtual server, one pool: attach every profile type, every monitor, every method once. 4 Read before you write For each pool, say aloud its monitor, method, priority group and port before you open it. 5 Book one exam, not five Thirty minutes, remote via Certiverse or a Pearson VUE centre; pass it, then plan the next. Step three is the one that separates a pass from a near miss. This blueprint is written in the language of doing - "apply appropriate health monitor", "show default pool configuration" - and the only way to make those answers automatic is to have clicked through each of them on a live unit. F5’s own exam page lists the Administering BIG-IP course and the BIG-IP Administrator Accelerator as its preparation routes. When you want to test whether it has landed, CertFun’s F5CAB3 practice exam is built to the same syllabus, and candidates working through the F5-CA blueprint are comparing notes in the DevCentral technical forum. www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 6 SECTION 06 F5CAB3 Sample Questions These ten come from CertFun’s F5CAB3 sample questions page, shown here in shuffled order, and every one is single-answer - which matches the real format. Five sit on the virtual server topic and five on pools, and most hand you a requirement and ask which setting meets it, which is exactly how the objectives are worded. Answers follow the set. Q1. A pool has four members of equal capacity, and the administrator wants each of them to take an equal share of new connections in a simple, predictable rotation. Which load balancing method fits this requirement? a) Fastest (Member) b) Round Robin c) Observed (Node) d) Ratio (Member) Q2. An administrator must apply a profile that reduces the size of HTTP responses to save bandwidth for remote users. Which profile type is required? a) HTTP Profile b) Web Acceleration Profile c) OneConnect Profile d) HTTP Compression Profile Q3. Which indicator in the Configuration Utility shows that a pool member has been marked offline by a failed health monitor? a) Blue Square b) Red Diamond c) Yellow Triangle d) Green Circle Q4. Traffic must be steered away from a pool member whose responses are slowing under heavy disk activity. Which load balancing method reacts to that condition most directly? a) Round Robin b) Fastest (Node) c) Least Connections (Member) d) Ratio (Member) www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 7 Q5. An administrator is reviewing how the system records the servers that sit behind a pool. What distinguishes a node from a pool member? a) A node is a Layer 7 object; a pool member is a Layer 3 object. b) There is no difference; the terms are interchangeable in TMOS. c) A node is an IP address; a pool member adds a service port. d) A node is a physical server; a pool member is a virtual server. Q6. When the pool member handling a connection fails, the BIG-IP should choose another member and send the client's request there. Which Action On Service Down setting produces this behavior? a) Reject b) None c) Reselect d) Drop Q7. A pool uses Ratio (Member) load balancing. Member A is configured with a ratio of 3 and member B with a ratio of 1. Of 400 connections arriving at the pool, how many are expected to reach member A? a) 400 b) 100 c) 300 d) 200 Q8. A Client SSL profile must stop a virtual server from negotiating the legacy SSL versions and the earliest TLS version with clients. Which cipher string value expresses that requirement? a) DEFAULT:!SSLv2:!SSLv3:!TLSv1 b) DEFAULT:!RC4:!MD5:!EXPORT c) DEFAULT d) ALL Q9. A pool has two health monitors assigned and its Availability Requirement is set to require at least one of them. When is a member marked down? a) When either of the monitors fails b) When the ICMP monitor fails c) When the health monitor assigned first to the pool fails d) Only when both of the assigned monitors fail www.certfun.com F5, Inc. • F5CAB3 F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) 8 Q10. A health monitor is assigned to a pool, and a different monitor is assigned directly to one of that pool's members. How does the system treat the two assignments for that member? a) The member-level assignment overrides the pool-wide one. b) The pool level monitor is ignored if any node level monitor exists. c) Both monitors run independently and both must pass. d) A pool member supports only one assigned monitor at a time. Answer key Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 b d b b c c c a d a SECTION 07 Where to Go Next Because this exam family is young, check the source before you trust any study material you find: anything written for 101 or 201 was aimed at a different blueprint, and plenty of it is still circulating with the old exam codes on the cover. The official F5 exam page carries the current fee, delivery options and passing score, and links the blueprint PDF, so it is the page to open the day you book. If you have not yet sat F5CAB2, take it next - it is the same data plane seen from the concepts side, and the two revise well as a pair. If you have, F5CAB4 moves you to the control plane. Quick reference Official exam page, fee, blueprint and scheduling - education.f5.com Syllabus, sample questions and practice test - certfun.com/f5 The other four F5 CAB exams - certfun.com/f5 Candidates comparing preparation notes - DevCentral technical forum Good luck. Thirty minutes is barely long enough to be nervous in, and that is rather the point: this paper is not asking whether you could work out which profile or monitor a pool needs, but whether you have set them often enough to already know. Before you book — the guide in one card Questions 30 multiple choice Seat time 30 minutes Passing score 245 (scaled) Exam fee USD 50 online, USD 65 centre Delivery Certiverse or Pearson VUE Language English Exams needed Five: F5CAB1 to F5CAB5 Order Any - not sequential Objectives Virtual servers 6, pools 7 Blueprint F5-CAB.0425 Sibling exam F5CAB2, the concepts half Recertify F5CABR