Background

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer - CKAD is an exam developed by The Linux Foundation f.t Cloud Native Computing Foundation to certify your knowledge of Kubernetes (k8s) as a developer.

What I like about this exam is that it is a performance-based exam, means no multiple choise questions. Just you, a Linux command line (with Vim and kubectl installed) and a single tab for kubernetes.io. You make it or break it.

You have to complete 19 questions in 2 hours. Each question has a weighted score, the passing threshold is 66%. Questions will look like:

Create a cron job with image busybox that runs on a schedule of "*/1 * * * *" and writes 'date; echo Hello from the Kubernetes cluster' to standard output

Preparation

Tips

  • It is all about how fluently you can use kubectl. Make sure you practice all the exercises at least 3 times.
  • It is average 6 mins you have for each question, but believe me, time flies really fast in the real test. If you approach a question and somehow it failed to run, you try again, still fail => give up, move on to next question. You will not have enought time for a second troubleshooting.
  • Use the build-int note to note down questions and its percentage if you want to skip the question for later.
  • Try to use kubectl command as much as possible instead of using yaml config file. At least, don't write YAML files from scratch, use kubectl to generate then edit:
    kubectl run ... -o yaml --dry-run > file.yaml
  • Define and use alias
    alias k=kubectl
  • Vim mastery will save you some time.
  • You are allowed to use k8s documentation => bookmark important pages for quick access.