Course Overview

Content Delivery Networks power the modern internet. Every time you stream a video, load a website, or download an app, CDNs are working behind the scenes to make it fast and reliable. Yet despite their critical importance, CDN expertise remains one of the most valuable but underserved skills in tech.

This course exists to bridge that gap. Whether you're debugging cache headers at 2am, architecting a global delivery strategy, or evaluating CDN vendors for your organization—this course will give you the knowledge and confidence to excel.

This course is created by Thijs de Zoete, a CDN architect and entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience building and optimizing content delivery systems at scale.

Thijs started his CDN journey implementing Multi-CDN solutions for Spil Games, then founded Warpcache—the world's first turn-key Multi-CDN solution. Warpcache pioneered RUM-based (Real User Monitoring) performance optimization, intelligently routing users to the fastest CDN in real-time.

Beyond building CDN technology, Thijs co-founded the CDN Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to professionalizing and organizing the CDN industry. He has also contributed to the European Broadcasting Union's official publication on "Procurement of Interoperable Content Delivery Networks" (EBU R159)—the same procurement frameworks taught in this course.

Everything in this course comes from real-world experience shipping production systems that serve millions of users worldwide.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Explain how CDNs work at every layer—from DNS resolution to edge caching to origin shields
• Configure caching headers like Cache-Control, ETag, and Vary with precision and confidence
• Debug cache issues using response headers and understand why content is or isn't caching
• Set up Nginx and Varnish as caching proxies with production-ready configurations
• Design multi-tier caching architectures for high-traffic applications
• Evaluate CDN vendors based on your specific technical and business requirements
• Optimize for different content types—static assets, APIs, video streaming, and dynamic content
• Implement security features including SSL/TLS, WAF, and DDoS protection

The course is organized into 8 modules with 46 lessons, designed to take you from fundamentals to advanced topics:

Each module builds on the previous one, but you can jump to specific topics if you're already familiar with the basics. Modules include quizzes to test your understanding and hands-on labs where you'll configure real caching systems.

This course is designed for technical professionals. You should have:

• Basic HTTP knowledge—understanding of requests, responses, and status codes
• Command line familiarity—comfortable running terminal commands
• Web development exposure—general understanding of how websites work

No prior CDN experience is required—that's what you're here to learn!

To earn your CDN Certified credential:

1. Complete all modules—work through each lesson and hands-on lab
2. Pass module quizzes—score 80% or higher on each module quiz
3. Pass the final exam—demonstrate comprehensive CDN knowledge
4. Receive your certificate—a verifiable credential you can share with employers