Outcome
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to assemble the evidence a certification requires, explain which two facts are checked and why, and keep a record that survives you deleting the sandbox.
| Tier | Operator |
| JTBD | ”Finish the practical requirement, and know it is finished.” |
| Personas | Platform Engineer · Developer · SRE |
| Prerequisites | M1.8.L1 through L4 |
| Time | 9 minutes |
| Bloom verb | Assemble (Create), Explain (Understand), Keep (Apply) |
1. Concept
Every certification in this University asks for two practical facts on top of the lessons and the exam:
1. YOU DEPLOYED SOMETHING ON ZOPCLOUD2. YOU DID REAL WORK THROUGH MCPNot because deploying is the hard part, but because a cost-discipline certificate held by somebody who has never shipped anything is a quiz result. The requirement applies to all three tiers: Operator, Engineer and Architect.
What counts
A DEPLOYMENT COUNTS IF it was created after you started the course OR it is a service still running now, whenever it was created
MCP USAGE COUNTS IF at least one tool call succeeded against your organisationBoth are deliberately generous. The requirement is evidence that you have done the thing once, not a scored exercise.
A cloud account is required
There is no alternative path and no sandbox substitute. A cloud account is required to complete this course and to sit any certification, because both facts above are read from real infrastructure in an organisation you belong to.
If you are studying without an employer’s account, the practical requirement is the point at which you need your own, on any of the three supported providers.
2. Demo
WHAT A FINISHED CAPSTONE LOOKS LIKE
service URL https://hello-api-dev-<suffix>.zop.app organisation acme-platform project / env university-capstone / dev deploy shipped 12 Sep, rolled back and forward once through MCP deployed hello-api-2, set an override, read the schedule history schedule nightly, 19:00 stop, 08:00 start, fired 6 nightsNothing there is a screenshot. Every line is a fact the platform already holds about your organisation.
3. Hands-on (6 min)
1. Write down the four identifiers below. They are what the requirement is read from.2. Confirm your service either still runs, or was created during this course.3. Confirm at least one write you made through the assistant is in the audit trail, with your name on it.4. If you are about to delete the sandbox, do step 3 first.Do it through MCP. The same task you just did in the console, asked in one sentence.
BEFORE Everything from L1 through L4, in one organisation.ASK "List my services and their last deploy, and show what I have done through the assistant this week."CHECK both answers name you. An action with no actor against it is the finding, not the noise.Tools behind it: list_services (read, Ship), list_deploys (read, Ship), list_audit_logs (read, Govern), get_my_permissions (read, Introspect). The full catalogue is at zop.dev/learn/mcp-tools.
4. Knowledge check
Q1
Which of these satisfies the deployment half of the requirement?
A. A service you deployed last year and deleted in March
B. A service you deployed last year that is still running now
C. A project you created but never deployed into
D. A service somebody else on your team deployed
Show answer
Correct: B. The rule admits either a deploy created after you started the course, or a service still running now whenever it was created. A is neither: it predates the course and no longer runs. C has no deploy at all, and D is somebody else’s evidence.
Q2
You have read data through the assistant all week but never changed anything. Does that satisfy the MCP half?
A. No, a write is required
B. Yes, one successful tool call is the bar
C. Only if it was a tier 2 call
D. Only on the Engineer tier
Show answer
Correct: B. One successful call counts, and reads are calls. The requirement is evidence that you have connected and used the surface once, not proof that you changed production with it. Write tiers govern what you may change, not what counts as usage.
Q3
You are studying on your own and have no cloud account. What does the course expect?
A. Use a shared classroom account
B. Skip the capstone and sit the exam
C. Get an account, because a cloud account is required to complete the course and sit any certification
D. Complete it with a simulated estate
Show answer
Correct: C. There is no alternative path. Both practical facts are read from real infrastructure in an organisation you belong to, so a simulation would certify something that did not happen. This is the one hard prerequisite in the curriculum.
5. Apply
Keep this block somewhere you can find it. It is the whole evidence set, and it costs nothing to record now and a rebuild to reconstruct later.
EVIDENCE CHECKLIST
ORGANISATION the org the work happened in SERVICE URL the deployed service, or its name if it is gone DEPLOY when it shipped, and whether it still runs MCP one action you took through the assistant, and when SCHEDULE the schedule you attached, and its first firingThen delete the sandbox if you want to. The record above outlives it, and the platform’s own audit trail outlives it too.
Related lessons
Glossary terms touched
MCP audit log · Deployment · Schedule · PAT