This guide on CKA Exam preparation provides all the essential resources required to pass the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, along with useful tips.
The CKA certification, offered by the Linux Foundation, is considered one of the most valuable Kubernetes certifications and is highly regarded in the DevOps field. This certification is designed for engineers who are interested in establishing and maintaining Kubernetes clusters.
With the increasing popularity of Kubernetes, which is one of the fastest-growing open-source projects, the demand for DevOps Engineers with expertise in Kubernetes cluster administration is also on the rise.
As a result, obtaining Devops Bootcamp discount significantly enhances your opportunities for career growth, particularly in the wide range of companies and organizations that rely on Kubernetes.
Register for the CKA exam [Save 30% Today]
To commence your journey towards becoming a Certified Kubernetes Administrator, the first step is to register for the CKA exam via the Linux Foundation portal. This section provides various resources and links that can assist you in preparing for the exam more effectively.
Prior certification is not a prerequisite for appearing in the CKA exam, as a thorough understanding of Kubernetes’ internal workings and extensive practice is all that is required to pass the exam. The most effective method to prepare is to grasp the underlying concepts and engage in practical exercises.
The following setups enable you to access a Kubernetes cluster, allowing you to practice all the necessary skills. The exam assesses your ability to solve issues in a live cluster environment.
Use Kubeadm to Install a Basic Cluster
During the CKA exam, candidates must create a cluster using the kubeadm tool while utilizing the official documentation as a reference. This section emphasizes the importance of comprehending the fundamental components of Kubernetes, such as etcd, Kube API servers, SSL certificate management, and others.
While the CKA exam does not include questions related to high availability (HA), it is advantageous to have knowledge of HA architecture. One of the Kubernetes administrator’s responsibilities is to maintain the cluster’s high availability by performing maintenance tasks on the cluster and managing worker nodes.
Although most clusters are currently built on AWS, Azure, or GCP, where cloud providers assume responsibility for cluster availability, understanding the HA Kubernetes cluster’s underlying logic is essential.
During the exam, upgrading a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm will be among the tasks assigned to candidates. As a continuously evolving tool, Kubernetes periodically introduces new versions with enhancements and features, necessitating the administrator’s responsibility to handle version upgrades.
Workloads & Scheduling [ 15% ]
Kubernetes Deployment guarantees a minimum number of application replicas running continuously. If a replica fails, the Kubernetes API ensures that a new one is created promptly.
Imperative commands are used to create Kubernetes objects via a CLI, eliminating the need to write the entire YAML. Familiarity with imperative commands can save time during the exam and is highly recommended.
If a Deployment is unstable, such as due to a crash loopback error, it may be necessary to roll it back.
Best DevOps certification & Kubernetes ConfigMaps are beneficial for storing non-critical data in key-value pair format and injecting env vars into pods.
There are various ways to scale applications in Kubernetes, such as by using deployment objects and increasing the number of replicas of the application. Horizontal Pod Autoscalers (HPAs) may also be employed to increase the number of replicas based on application metrics.
This section focuses primarily on concepts, emphasizing that deployments or stateful sets should be utilized for self-healing applications so that Kubernetes can recreate pods instantly whenever they fail.
Deployments also enable tracking of all changes made and facilitate easy rollback to previous states.
