Implementing Open Policy Agent for Policy-Driven Control
Ends soon! Keep adding new skills with 10,000+ programs for $239 (usually $399). Save now.
Recommended experience
Recommended experience
What you'll learn
Explain OPA’s purpose and features, show how to install it and write basic Rego policies for decisions.
Develop and validate structured Rego policies, and integrate them into Kubernetes to enforce governance through OPA and Gatekeeper.
Design and assess policy-based security and compliance solutions with cross-platform enforcement and monitoring.
Skills you'll gain
Tools you'll learn
Details to know
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
There are 3 modules in this course
In today’s cloud-native environments, security and compliance can no longer rely on manual oversight—policy must be automated, portable, and enforceable across platforms. Implementing Open Policy Agent (IOA) equips learners with the skills to use OPA as a unified, policy-as-code engine for governance and security. Across three focused modules, you’ll discover OPA’s core capabilities, learn to write and test policies in Rego, and integrate OPA with Kubernetes for real-time admission control. Through case studies, AI-guided discussions, and hands-on labs, you’ll explore practical use cases such as enforcing compliance standards, governing resources, and applying policies consistently across clusters, APIs, and CI/CD pipelines.
This course is designed for DevOps engineers, cloud architects, platform engineers, and security professionals seeking to enforce consistent policy control across Kubernetes, microservices, and cloud environments. It’s also valuable for developers and SREs implementing compliance, access control, or governance automation using OPA. Learners should have basic knowledge of Kubernetes, YAML, and cloud-native architecture. Familiarity with JSON, REST APIs, and DevOps pipelines will help maximize the hands-on experience. No prior knowledge of OPA or Rego is required. By the end of the course, you will be able to design, enforce, and monitor policy-driven controls that strengthen security posture, ensure regulatory compliance, and streamline cloud-native operations.
This module introduces the purpose and power of Open Policy Agent as a universal policy engine for cloud-native systems. Learners will install OPA, run it locally, and write their first simple Rego policies to see how policy-as-code translates into real decisions. By the end, participants will be comfortable navigating the OPA environment and ready for deeper integration.
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 peer review
4 videos•Total 23 minutes
- Introduction to Open Policy Agent for Policy-Driven Control•3 minutes
- What is Open Policy Agent (OPA) and Why It Matters•5 minutes
- Installing and Running OPA•8 minutes
- First Look at Rego: Writing Simple Policies•7 minutes
2 readings•Total 10 minutes
- Welcome to the Course: Course Overview•5 minutes
- Rego 101: Introduction to Rego•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
- Hands-On-Learning: Writing Your First Rego Policy•20 minutes
Here, learners move beyond the basics to structure policies for real-world use, test their correctness, and validate their behavior. Through guided demos, they will practice creating and running tests and see how OPA integrates with Kubernetes via Gatekeeper to enforce governance rules. This module builds confidence in turning conceptual policies into enforceable controls.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
3 videos•Total 15 minutes
- Structuring Policies for Real-World Scenarios•4 minutes
- Testing and Validating OPA Policies•5 minutes
- Integrating OPA into Kubernetes•6 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
- Taming Rego: Enforcing Structure on a Flexible Policy Language•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
- Hands-On-Learning: Enforcing Kubernetes Admission Control with OPA•20 minutes
The final module focuses on applying OPA in production use cases, from enforcing security and compliance frameworks to extending policies across multiple platforms. Learners will also discover how to measure policy performance and track compliance metrics, creating feedback loops for continuous improvement. By the end, they will understand how OPA enables secure, scalable, and adaptable policy-driven control in cloud-native environments.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment2 peer reviews
4 videos•Total 21 minutes
- Security and Compliance Use Cases with OPA•6 minutes
- Enforcing Policies across Platforms•7 minutes
- Measuring Policy Impact and Continuous Improvement•6 minutes
- Implementing OPA for Policy-Driven Control•3 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
- OPA Gatekeeper Explained: Real-World Policy Enforcement for EKS Cluster•5 minutes
1 assignment•Total 20 minutes
- Implementing Open Policy Agent for Policy-Driven Control•20 minutes
2 peer reviews•Total 80 minutes
- Hands-On-Learning: Enforcing Compliance Policies Across Platforms•20 minutes
- Project: Designing and Enforcing End-to-End Policy with OPA•60 minutes
Instructors
Explore more from Computer Security and Networks
Course
- Status: Free Trial
- Status: PreviewS
Scrimba
Course
- Status: Free Trial
Course
Why people choose Coursera for their career
Frequently asked questions
In this course, policy-driven control with OPA means defining governance, security, and compliance rules as code so systems can make consistent allow-or-deny decisions. The focus is on learning how those decisions are written, tested, and applied across cloud-native environments rather than handled by manual review.
You would use OPA-based policy control when the same rules need to be enforced repeatedly across clusters, APIs, or delivery workflows instead of being checked by hand. The course frames it as a way to keep access control, resource governance, and compliance decisions portable and consistent.
It fits into the build-and-test portion of a cloud-native workflow, after teams know what rules they want and before those rules need to be enforced continuously. In the course, learners move from expressing policy logic to validating it and then connecting it to running environments for real-time decisions.
More questions
Financial aid available,
¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.
