Terms of Service

You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your country) to use the Service. If you use sprkd on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.

You are responsible for the activity under your account and for keeping your credentials secure. Notify us promptly at support@sprkd.io if you suspect unauthorized use. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

• The Service offers a free tier and paid plans (currently Standard, Professional, and Team). Paid plans are billed in advance on a recurring basis (monthly or annually) through our payment processor.
• Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled. You can cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you retain paid access until then.
• Team plans are billed per active seat. Prices may change; we will give notice of changes before they take effect on your next renewal.
• 7-day money-back guarantee. If you request a refund within 7 days of a payment, we will refund that payment, less a deduction for AI coach usageduring that period, calculated at $0.10 per coach message you sent (this covers the AI processing costs we incur on your behalf). The deduction will not exceed the amount you paid, and usage made with your own API key (BYOK)is not deducted. Refunds are issued to your original payment method.
• After the 7-day window, payments are non-refundable except where required by law. Canceling stops future renewals but does not refund the current period. If you believe you were billed in error, contact us and we will review it in good faith.

The Service includes an AI-powered coach and simulated terminal/lab environments. These are generated by large language models and are provided for learning and practice only. They can be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, and they do not represent real infrastructure or live systems. Do not rely on the coach for production decisions, and always verify important commands or configurations independently. The coach does not provide professional, legal, financial, or security advice.

sprkd is an independent study and practice tool. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any certification body or vendor, including without limitation the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, the Linux Foundation, Amazon Web Services, HashiCorp, Microsoft, or Google. All product names, certifications, logos, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are referenced for identification and educational purposes only.

We do not guarantee that using sprkd will result in passing any exam, obtaining any certification, or achieving any particular outcome. Exam content, formats, and objectives are controlled by the certifying bodies and may change at any time.

You may optionally provide your own third-party AI provider API key to power the coach. If you do:

• You authorize us to use that key solely to make requests to that provider on your behalf in order to deliver the coaching features you request.
• You are solely responsible for all usage, fees, and charges your provider bills to that key, and for complying with that provider’s own terms of service.
• We store the key encrypted and you can remove it at any time from your account settings. We are not liable for charges incurred on your provider account.

You agree not to:

• circumvent, disable, or interfere with security or proctoring features, or misrepresent assessment results;
• scrape, copy, resell, or redistribute our questions, course content, or videos;
• reverse engineer, overload, or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure;
• use the Service for unlawful purposes or to violate the rights of others;
• use any security-related content against systems you are not authorized to test.

The Service and its content—including assessments, question banks, courses, videos, and software—are owned by sprkd or its licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal or internal business use. You retain ownership of the content you submit (such as your messages to the coach); you grant us a license to process it to operate and improve the Service.

The Service relies on third-party providers (for example, AI model providers, payment processing, and hosting). Your use may be subject to their terms, and we are not responsible for their acts or omissions.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, sprkd WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $100.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless sprkd from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your misuse of the Service or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms or if we discontinue the Service.

We may update these Terms or the Service from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date above, and where appropriate we will provide additional notice. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the exclusive venue for any disputes will be the state or federal courts located in Utah.

Questions about these Terms? Email support@sprkd.io.