CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) is a performance-based Linux Foundation / CNCF exam. You solve live cluster tasks in a remote terminal — not multiple-choice trivia.
Start practicing: Free CKA practice questions → for concept drills, then spend most of your time in a real cluster.
Exam overview
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Credential | Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) |
| Format | Performance-based (15–20 tasks) |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Passing score | 66% |
| Cost | ~$395 USD (includes one retake on many purchases) |
| Prerequisites | None; kubectl fluency is mandatory |
| Validity | 2 years |
| Allowed | Kubernetes docs during the exam (learn to search them fast) |
Official: CNCF CKA.
Domains (current CKA curriculum)
Weights shift when CNCF refreshes the exam. Train all of these until you can do them without notes:
- Cluster architecture, installation, and configuration — kubeadm, etcd snapshot/restore, RBAC, TLS trust at an admin level.
- Workloads and scheduling — Deployments, Jobs, CronJobs, ConfigMaps, Secrets, resource requests/limits, affinity, taints/tolerations.
- Services and networking — ClusterIP / NodePort / LoadBalancer, NetworkPolicies, CoreDNS, CNI recognition, Ingress.
- Storage — PersistentVolumes, PVCs, StorageClasses, access modes.
- Troubleshooting — the largest slice. Control plane vs kubelet vs container runtime vs application vs network.
,kubectl logs
,describe
, node conditions.events
If you can only practice one thing, practice troubleshooting broken pods and nodes under time pressure.
6-week lab plan
| Week | Labs (repeat until timed) |
|---|---|
| 1 | kubeadm cluster, namespaces, RBAC, contexts |
| 2 | Deployments, rollouts, ConfigMaps, Secrets, probes |
| 3 | Services, NetworkPolicies, Ingress |
| 4 | PV/PVC, StorageClass, drain/cordon |
| 5 | etcd backup, upgrade, node join, broken static pods |
| 6 | Full 2-hour mock (killer.sh or equivalent) + CertStud concept drills |
Use kind, k3d, or kubeadm VMs. Watching videos without a cluster does not pass CKA.
CKA vs CKAD vs CKS
| Cert | Focus |
|---|---|
| CKA | Operate the cluster |
| CKAD | Build apps on the cluster |
| CKS | Harden the cluster (take CKA first) |
CKA is the default if you are a platform or SRE. CKAD is the default if you are an application developer who ships to Kubernetes but does not run control planes.
Resources on CertStud
Also required: Kubernetes official docs + a timed simulator. Multiple-choice alone will not pass.
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