Testing candidates with a general Unix background and at least six months of work experience as a BSD systems administrator, or who wish to obtain employment as a BSD systems administrator, will benefit most from this certification.

The successful BSDA candidate is able to complete common administrative and troubleshooting tasks and has a good understanding of general BSD Unix and networking principles. In addition, the successful candidate demonstrates basic skills with these BSD operating systems: Dragonfly BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. This does not mean that the candidate needs to learn the complete details of four operating systems. It does mean that the candidate is aware of the basic utilities common to these operating systems, and where specified in the exam objectives, of features unique to some of the BSD operating systems.