How to prepare for the CKA: Certified Kubernetes Administrator

What is Kubernetes??

Kubernetes is a system that manages containers (containerized applications) where a container could be explained as a lightweight virtual machine. To build an application you need to build a bunch of containers and then use Kubernetes to manage those containers.

Why should you learn Kubernetes??

Having knowledge about Kubernetes gives you a more holistic view of the entire software lifecycle. Particularly in larger organizations, development is usually seen as writing, reviewing, and merging code, after which a CI pipeline comes along and “deploys” it.

What is CKA??

The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification is designed to ensure that certification holders have the skills, knowledge, and competency to perform the responsibilities of Kubernetes administrators.?

What do you need to know for the exam??

Domain & Competencies:

Storage 10%

• Understand storage classes, persistent volumes
• Understand volume mode, access modes, and reclaim policies for volumes
• Understand persistent volume claims primitive
• Know how to configure applications with persistent storage

Troubleshooting 30%

• Evaluate cluster and node logging
• Understand how to monitor applications
• Manage container stdout & stderr logs
• Troubleshoot application failure
• Troubleshoot cluster component failure
• Troubleshoot networking

Workloads & Scheduling 15%

• Understand deployments and how to perform rolling updates and rollbacks
• Use ConfigMaps and Secrets to configure applications
• Know how to scale applications
• Understand the primitives used to create robust, self-healing, application deployments
• Understand how resource limits can affect Pod scheduling
• Awareness of manifest management and common templating tools

Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration 25%

• Manage role-based access control (RBAC)
• Use Kubeadm to install a basic cluster
• Manage a highly-available Kubernetes cluster
• Provision of underlying infrastructure to deploy a Kubernetes cluster
• Perform a version upgrade on a Kubernetes cluster using Kubeadm
• Implement etcd backup and restore

Services & Networking 20%

• Understand host networking configuration on the cluster nodes
• Understand connectivity between Pods
• Understand ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer service types and endpoints
• Know how to use Ingress controllers and Ingress resources
• Know how to configure and use CoreDNS
• Choose an appropriate container network interface plugin

How to prepare??

The Kubernetes documents are your best friend, this is allowed to be used during the exam, so getting familiar with navigating around the documents will be beneficial. I recommend either you bookmark the sections you need or use the search and find function to search for keywords.?

Another great resource to use is the kubectl cheatsheet, this page has all the commands you can use, if you can’t remember the commands on top of your head, this is a great way to look for the exact command you need.?

Make sure you prepare in advance before sitting your exam, so get a course to help you with your studies. One course I highly recommend is the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with practice tests by Mumshad Mannambeth on Udemy?or through his platform called ?KodeKloud training. This course goes through everything you need to know for the exam, you get lots of hands-on experience with the amazing labs. A tip I can give to you is once you finished the course content, practice the mock tests frequently so that you can practice your efficiency and speed, as the exam is timed.?

When you purchase your exam, you get 2 free simulators from killer.sh which gives you a feel of the environment of the how the exam would be like. I would recommend that you attempt these simulators a couple of days before your exam, as you only have 36 hours window once you do one simulator before it is shut down, this is due to costs reasons. But you get to see the questions and answers at the end of each session.?

Note: Everyone that I know has said that the killer.sh is harder than the actual exam.

Benefits of obtaining the CKA??

The CKA certification allows certified administrators to quickly establish their credibility and value in the job market and allows companies to more quickly hire high-quality teams to support their growth.