Most courses teach you to
pass the exam.

What you'll learn

1. 0
   Foundation Free 30 min

   Foundation: Why Telemetry Fails Without Standards

   Before OTel existed, every vendor had its own SDK, its own protocol, its own data model. Understand what problem OTel actually solves — and why the architecture is the way it is.

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2. 0
   Foundation Free 25 min

   Observability 101: Signals, Layers, and Why Context Wins

   What traces, metrics, and logs actually are, what questions each signal answers, how telemetry flows from code to backend, and why the three signals are worth more together than apart.

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3. 0
   Reference Free 20 min

   InsureWatch — Application Guide

   Architecture, service map, and instrumentation overview for the InsureWatch lab application. Read this before starting any lab.

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4. 1
   Module Free 60 min

   Module 1: Signals — The Unified Data Model

   Traces, metrics, and logs look like three different things. They share a common context schema that makes them one correlated stream — if you set it up right. Here is what each signal actually is.

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5. 2
   Module 60 min

   Module 2: Context Propagation

   Context propagation is automatic — until it isn't. Understand the W3C TraceContext standard, where propagation breaks across service boundaries, and how to fix it.

6. 2
   Lab 45 min

   Lab 1: Find the Broken Trace

   InsureWatch is running but traces are fragmented. Context propagation is misconfigured in claims-service. Find the mismatch, understand why it breaks the trace, and fix it.

7. 3
   Module 90 min

   Module 3: Instrumentation — SDK, API, Auto vs Manual

   Auto-instrumentation covers known libraries. Your business logic is invisible to it. Learn the API/SDK split, provider initialization, and how to manually instrument what the agent can't see.

8. 3
   Lab 60 min

   Lab 2: Instrument the Black Box

   claims-service is healthy but completely invisible. No spans, no log correlation, no database visibility. Re-add auto-instrumentation, then write manual spans with meaningful attributes.

9. 4
   Module 45 min

   Module 4: Semantic Conventions

   Semantic conventions are not optional naming suggestions. Break them and every downstream tool that expects standard attribute names breaks silently. They are a portability contract.

10. 5
    Module 90 min

    Module 5: The Collector — Architecture and Pipelines

    Without a Collector, the backend URL lives in every service config. You cannot sample, transform, or switch backends without redeploying everything. Here is how the Collector actually works.

11. 5
    Lab 45 min

    Lab 3: Wire the Collector Pipeline

    An OTel Collector sits between InsureWatch and Grafana, but its pipeline is empty. Complete the config — receivers, processors, exporters — and get telemetry flowing again.

12. 6
    Lab 90 min

    Lab 4: Restore Full Observability

    Three instrumentation problems are active simultaneously: a broken Collector pipeline, a propagator mismatch, and missing instrumentation. Diagnose and fix all three to restore complete end-to-end visibility.

Simple, one-time pricing

No subscription. Lifetime access. PPP discounts applied automatically.

otel.guru is not affiliated with Grafana Labs, Uptrace, or any backend vendor in these labs.
PPP discounts applied automatically at checkout. Prices shown in USD.