Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
Demonstrate competence in Kubernetes cluster administration, control plane architecture, kubeadm installations, multi-node networking with CNI, storage orchestration with PV/PVC, etcd backup/restore, version upgrades, and comprehensive cluster troubleshooting.
Official Exam Specification & Quick Facts
Question Difficulty Breakdown
Recommended Study Guides & Exam Preparation Blueprints
Reinforce your knowledge with domain breakdowns, trap question analyses, and architectural cheat sheets:
Exam Guidelines & Simulation Rules
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The CKA program was created by the Linux Foundation and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) to validate that administrators have the skills, knowledge, and competency to install, configure, manage, and troubleshoot production Kubernetes clusters.
The CKA exam is a 2-hour, performance-based, hands-on command-line exam where candidates solve real-world tasks across multiple live Kubernetes clusters using the Linux terminal.
The passing scaled score is 66%. Registration includes one free retake within 12 months if the initial attempt is unsuccessful.
Domains include: (1) Storage (10%), (2) Troubleshooting (30%), (3) Workloads & Scheduling (15%), (4) Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration (25%), and (5) Services & Networking (20%).
Administrators use etcdctl snapshot save with client certificates, CA certificate, and private key to create a snapshot of the etcd key-value datastore, and etcdctl snapshot restore to restore state to a new data directory.
First drain the control plane node, upgrade kubeadm via apt/yum, run kubeadm upgrade plan and apply, upgrade kubelet and kubectl, uncordon the node, and repeat the worker node upgrade sequence.
Static pods are managed directly by the local kubelet daemon on a specific node without the API server or scheduler, watched via manifests stored in /etc/kubernetes/manifests (e.g., kube-apiserver, etcd).
A PV is a cluster-wide storage resource provisioned by an administrator or StorageClass. A PVC is a request for storage by a developer/pod that binds to a matching PV based on access modes and capacity.
A CNI plugin (e.g., Flannel, Calico, Cilium) configures pod network interfaces, assigns IP addresses, and enables pod-to-pod and pod-to-service communication across nodes.
NetworkPolicies are declarative firewall rules enforced by CNI plugins. By default, pods accept traffic from any source unless selected by a NetworkPolicy with ingress/egress rules.
Check node resource pressure via kubectl describe node, inspect kubelet service status with systemctl status kubelet, view journalctl -u kubelet logs, and verify container runtime (containerd/CRI) health.
Candidates are permitted access to one browser tab with official Kubernetes documentation (kubernetes.io/docs, github.com/kubernetes) and official CNCF blog resources.