/cka-preparation-guide

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Preparation Guide

Check Kubernetes documentation links

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) - V1.27

The objective of this repository is help you for taking the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam using online resources, especially using resources from Kubernetes Official Documentation.

The references were selected for the Exam Curriculum 1.27, and there are exclusive information for API objects and annotations. For more information, please see CNCF Curriculum.

Please, feel free to place a pull request whether something is not up-to-date, should be added or contains wrong information/reference.

There are other Kubernetes certification exam preparation guides available:

Exam

The exam is kind of "put your hands on", where you have some problems to fix within 120 minutes.

My tip: Spend your time wisely. Use the Notebook feature (provided in exam's UI) to keep track of your progress, where you might take notes of each question, put some annotations in order to help you. Additionally, don't get stuck, move to the next problem, and take it back when you finish all the other problems.

Exam Cost: $395 and includes one free retake.

It's important to mention that you have access to Kubernetes Official Documentation during the exam. So get yourself familiar with Kubernetes online documentation, and know where to find all specific topics listed below. It might be helpful for you during the exam.

For information about the exam, please refer Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Program.

CKA Curriculum

Exam objectives that outline of the knowledge, skills and abilities that a Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) can be expected to demonstrate.

Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration (25%)

Helpful commands:

# Display addresses of the master and services
kubectl cluster-info

# Dump current cluster state to stdout
kubectl cluster-info dump

# List the nodes
kubectl get nodes

# Show metrics for a given node
kubectl top node my-node

# List all pods in all namespaces, with more details
kubectl get pods -o wide --all-namespaces

# List all services in all namespaces, with more details
kubectl get svc  -o wide --all-namespaces

Workloads & Scheduling (15%)

Services & Networking (20%)

Storage (10%)

Troubleshooting (30%)

CKA Preparation Courses

kubectl Ninja

Tip: Use kubectl Cheatsheet during the exam. You don't need to decorate everything.

Useful commands or parameters during the exam:

# Use "kubectl describe" for related events and troubleshooting
kubectl describe pods <podid>

# Use "kubectl explain" to check the structure of a resource object.
kubectl explain deployment --recursive

## Add "-o wide" in order to use wide output, which gives you more details.
kubectl get pods -o wide

## Check always all namespaces by including "--all-namespaces"
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

Generate a manifest template from imperative spec using the output option "-o yaml" and the parameter "--dry-run=client":

# create a service
kubectl create service clusterip my-service --tcp=8080 --dry-run=client -o yaml

# create a deployment
kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml

# create a pod
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --restart=Never --dry-run=client -o yaml

Create resources using kubectl + stdin instead of creating them from manifest files. It helps a lot and saves time. You can use the output of the command above and modify as required:

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
...
EOF

It saves lots of time, believe me.

Kubectl Autocomplete

source <(kubectl completion bash)

Practice

Practice a lot with Kubernetes:

CKA Tips

Some links that contain tips that might help you from different perspectives of the CKA exam.