Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) program by the Linux Foundation provides assurance that CKAs have the skills, abilities, knowledge, and competency to fulfill the duties of Kubernetes administrators. CKA was produced by The Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a frame of their ongoing work to assist develop the Kubernetes ecosystem. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam is an online, proctored, performance-based test that needs solving multiple duties from a command line running Kubernetes. The exam is based on Kubernetes v1.21.
Responsibilities of Certified Kubernetes Administrator
A Certified Kubernetes Administrator has the ability to do the basic installation as well as configuring and maintaining production-grade Kubernetes clusters. They will have an intelligence of key notions such as Kubernetes networking, security, storage, troubleshooting, maintenance, logging and monitoring, application lifecycle, API object primitives, and ascertaining basic use-cases for end users.
Target Audience
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification is designed for Kubernetes administrators, cloud administrators, and other IT professionals who manage Kubernetes instances.
Exam Details: CKA
| Exam Name: | Certified Kubernetes Administrator |
| Mandatory Exam Prerequisites: | N/A |
| Administered By: | Linux Foundation |
| Exam Duration: | 120 minutes |
| Number of Questions: | 260 |
| Passing Marks: | 66% |
| Language: | English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. |
The certification exam is proctored remotely via streaming audio, video, and screen sharing feeds. The screen-sharing feed allows proctors to view candidates’ desktops (including all monitors). The audio, video and screen sharing feeds will be stored for a limited period of time in the event that there is a subsequent need for review. CKA certification is valid for 3 years.
Register the Exam!
Follow these steps to register for the exam –
- Firstly, visit the official website of the Linux Foundation.
- Then, follow the link to the “Training” page.
- Further, search for the CKA exam.
- And finally, select the date, time, and confirm the payment method.
Retake Policy
If a candidate fails the exam on the first attempt, Linux Foundation allows him/her to retake the exam without any extra charge. This happens if the candidate has directly purchased the exam from the Linux Foundation. With the purchase of the exam, every candidate gets one (1) free retake. However, you can retake the exam only within 12 months from the date of the original exam purchased.
Course Outline: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
The Linux Foundation Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam covers the following topics. Take a look!
Storage
- Understanding storage classes, persistent volumes (Kubernetes Documentation- Understanding Storage classes in Kubernetes)
- Also, understanding volume mode, access modes, and reclaim policies for volumes (Kubernetes Documentation- Volume Mode, Access Modes, Reclaim policy of volume, Change the Reclaim Policy of a PersistentVolume)
- Comprehending persistent volume claims primitive (Kubernetes Documentation- Persistent volumes)
- Knowing how to configure applications with persistent storage (Kubernetes Documentation- Persistent storage)
Troubleshooting
- Evaluating cluster and node logging (Kubernetes Documentation- Cluster-level logging with Kubernetes and Logging architecture)
- Understanding how to monitor applications (Kubernetes Documentation- Tools for monitoring resources)
- Managing container stdout & stderr logs
- Troubleshooting application failure (Kubernetes Documentation- Troubleshoot Applications, Application Introspection, and Debugging)
- Troubleshoot cluster component failure (Kubernetes Documentation- Troubleshoot Clusters)
- Also, troubleshooting networking
Workloads & Scheduling
- Understanding deployments and how to perform rolling update and rollbacks (Kubernetes Documentation- Performing a rolling update and Perform a Rollback on a DaemonSet)
- Using ConfigMaps and Secrets to configure applications (Kubernetes Documentation- What are ConfigMaps in Kubernetes?)
- Knowing how to scale applications (Kubernetes Documentation- Scaling your application)
- Experiencing the primitives used to create robustly, self-healing, application deployments
- Understanding how resource limits can affect Pod scheduling (Kubernetes Documentation- How Pods with resource limits are run, Assigning pods to nodes, and Understanding Kubernetes scheduler)
- Awareness of manifest management and common templating tools
Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration
- Manage role-based access control (RBAC) (Kubernetes Documentation- Using RBAC authorization)
- Use Kubeadm to install a basic cluster (Kubernetes Documentation- Creating a cluster with kubeadm, Installing kubeadm toolbox, and Creating Highly Available clusters with kubeadm)
- Manage a highly-available Kubernetes cluster (Kubernetes Documentation- Set up High-Availability Kubernetes Masters and Creating Highly Available clusters with kubeadm)
- Provision underlying infrastructure to deploy a Kubernetes cluster
- Perform a version upgrade on a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm (Kubernetes Documentation- Kubeadm upgrade, Upgrading kubeadm clusters)
- Implement etcd backup and restore (Kubernetes Documentation- Backing up an etcd cluster and Restoring an etcd cluster)
Services & Networking
- Understanding host networking configuration on the cluster nodes (Kubernetes Documentation- Cluster networking in Kubernetes)
- Surmising connectivity between Pods (Kubernetes Documentation- Kubernetes pod networking)
- ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer service types and endpoints
- Knowing how to use Ingress controllers and Ingress resources (Kubernetes Documentation- Ingress controllers in Kubernetes)
- Knowing how to configure and use CoreDNS (Kubernetes Documentation- Using CoreDNS for service discovery)
- Choosing an appropriate container network interface plugin (Kubernetes Documentation- Network plugins in Kubernetes)
Get all your queries resolved. For more details visit Certified Kubernetes Administrator FAQ’s.
Certified Kubernetes Administrator FAQ
Certified Kubernetes Administrator Preparatory Guide
A preparatory guide is needed in order to keep your preparations streamlined and targeted towards the examination. With a preparation guide, it will be simple to assemble Linux Foundation Certified Kubernetes Administrator study material and strategize your moves. Also, to put the energies in the right direction. This will improve your performance and also the possibility of doing great in the exam.
Linux Official Website
First of all, you should visit the official website of Linux because it offers the most reliable information about the exam. Linux provides a study guide for each of its certifications and exams. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator study guide is also present on the Linux website. The study guide provides all the reliable and most relevant information on a particular exam. It also includes the objectives and the basic details about the exam.
Review All the objectives
With complete exam objectives, the candidate’s exam preparation time is better spent because they already know what to study. Significantly, this is the most important step in the preparation guide. So, let’s take a quick look at the Objectives of the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam.
- Storage 10%
- Troubleshooting 30%
- Workloads & Scheduling 15%
- Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration 25%
- Services & Networking 20%
Training Programs
Picking the best resources will help the candidate to understand the course entirely. The resources are one of the crucial factors for the achievement of a candidate. Thus, it is advised to go for trusted resources. Here is a list of official training programs that you can refer to for the most authentic information and have good Linux Foundation Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam preparation.
Introduction to Linux (LFS101x)
Introduction to Kubernetes (LFS158x)
Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies (LFS151x)
Introduction to Cloud Foundry and Cloud Native Software Architecture (LFS132x)
Essentials of Linux System Administration (LFS201)
Join a Study Group
For becoming the Certified Kubernetes Administrator, the candidate needs to get and share knowledge. So, we are suggesting you join some studies where you can discuss the concepts with the people who have the same goal. This will lead the candidate throughout their preparation.
Evaluate yourself with Practice Test
The most important step is to try your hands on the practice test. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator Practice tests are the one which ensures the candidate about their preparation. There are many practice tests available on the internet nowadays, the candidate can choose whichever they want. The practice test is very beneficial in preparing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator. So, Start Preparing Now!
