How to pass the ACP-120 Jira Administration for Cloud Exam

If you want a credential that proves you can configure and manage Jira Cloud with confidence, ACP-120 is a strong choice. A steady plan that blends hands-on admin work, focused study, and realistic practice questions will make exam day feel familiar and calm.

What does ACP-120 cover?

ACP-120 validates that you can translate business requirements into Jira Cloud configurations and that you understand features unique to the cloud platform. The exam expects fluency with workflows, automation, security, permissions, fields and screens, notifications, and system settings in the user interface. It also checks that you understand how administrative choices affect security, scalability, and day-to-day manageability. Finally, it looks for the ability to use Atlassian resources and the community to implement best practices.

Exam Snapshot

• Audience: Jira administrators working with Jira Software Cloud
• Questions: up to 75
• Time: 180 minutes
• Passing score: 63%
• Price: 249 USD
• Delivery: Proctored online or in person
• Validity: 24 months

Jira ACP-120 exam topics

• Access, permissions, and security: 25% to 30%
• General project configuration: 10% to 15%
• Issue types, fields, and screens: 15% to 20%
• Workflows and automation: 15% to 20%
• Notifications: 5% to 10%
• Advanced user features: 10% to 15%
• System administration: 5% to 10%

Step 1: Read the Objectives and Map Your Plan

Begin by turning the domain list into a checklist. For access and security, plan to master global permissions, project permissions, issue security schemes, application access, and authentication settings. For general project configuration, get clear on team-managed and company-managed projects and how templates affect schemes. For issue types and fields, practice field configurations, screen schemes, and screen mapping for create, edit, and view. For workflows and automation, review statuses, transitions, validators, conditions, post functions, rule scope, and smart values. For notifications, confirm events, schemes, recipients, and watchers. For advanced user features, revisit boards, backlogs, versions, components, and bulk changes. For system administration, review product settings, billing visibility, user provisioning basics, audit logs, and troubleshooting steps.

Step 2: Do Practice Questions Before Deep Study

Start with a small set of practice questions so you can see how the exam phrases scenarios and where you hesitate. Early exposure will show if your weak spots are in permissions and access, workflow behavior, or field and screen mapping. Keep a brief miss log and tag each miss by domain so your next study block is targeted.

Step 3: Take a Structured Course and Pair It With Docs

Pick a course that walks the domains in order and pairs lessons with short demos. After each lesson, read the related Atlassian documentation to confirm details like scheme precedence, permission implications, and workflow function behavior. Keep sessions short and frequent so you build recall through repetition.

Step 4: Build a Hands-On Jira Cloud Sandbox

Create a personal Jira Cloud site or use a safe sandbox in your organization. Build one company-managed project and one team-managed project so you can feel the differences in schemes and controls. Practice adding a new issue type and wiring it to fields and screens so it appears where expected. Create a workflow that uses a validator and a post function and confirm that transitions behave as designed. Configure a permission scheme that relies on project roles, then swap role membership to see how access changes without editing the scheme. Set up a notification scheme that reduces noise while keeping key events visible. Write a few automation rules that set fields, transition issues, or create subtasks, and then review the audit log to understand failures. Create versions and components, run a small sprint, and test a board filter change so you can predict how user views will change. Finish by reviewing audit logs and product settings so you know where to look when something breaks.

Step 5: Use Full-Length Mocks and Review Every Answer

Schedule a few sessions for full practice exams. After each one, write down why the correct answer works and why the alternatives do not. Sort mistakes by root cause such as wrong scheme layer, misunderstanding of workflow behavior, or misuse of automation scope. Revisit those topics in your sandbox and repeat a smaller set of questions the next day to confirm the fix.

Exam Day Strategy

Read each scenario slowly and state the real requirement in your own words before you look at the options. Match each option to the correct place in Jira. If an answer requires editing a global permission when a project permission would solve it, set it aside. Prefer simple and auditable changes. Remove any choice that duplicates configuration or increases long term maintenance. Keep a steady pace and mark questions that are taking too long. Finish a first pass, then return to the marked items with a clear head. Answer everything before time expires.

Quick Review Topics

Confirm that you can explain global versus project permissions and how project roles simplify access changes. Review how to connect issue types to field configurations and to screen schemes so fields appear correctly on create, edit, and view. Rehearse workflow edits that add a status, wire a transition, and apply a validator or post function. Review automation rule scope, actors, and smart values. Check that you can tune a notification scheme so the right recipients get the right events. Refresh where to find audit logs, user management views, and key product settings. Practice predicting how a board filter change or an estimation setting will change what a team sees.

If you keep your labs small, review notes with intent, and cycle through practice questions until patterns feel natural, your configuration choices will come quickly and your troubleshooting steps will feel automatic by the time you sit the ACP-120 exam.