CKAProfessional LevelLinux Foundation / CNCF

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

The industry benchmark for Kubernetes operators and DevOps cluster architects. Tests live terminal ability to install, configure, upgrade, troubleshoot, secure, and maintain multi-node production clusters.

Recommended Prerequisites: Proficiency with Linux CLI commands, container concepts, basic networking, and YAML syntax.

Exam Duration

2 Hours (120 Mins)

Passing Score

66%

Registration Cost

$395 USD

Exam Format

100% Performance-based hands-on terminal exam

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Complete Exam Blueprint & Tested Competencies

Total 100% Weight

1. Troubleshooting

Weight: 30%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Troubleshoot cluster worker and master nodes (kubelet systemd status, journalctl, containerd logs)
Debug crashing application pods (CrashLoopBackOff, ImagePullBackOff, OOMKilled)
Investigate cluster component failure (kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, kube-scheduler, kube-proxy)
Diagnose network connectivity, coreDNS resolution issues, and flannel/calico CNI routing

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Check systemctl status kubelet and journalctl -u kubelet -f to diagnose service startup failures
✓Inspect container logs with kubectl logs --previous and describe pod events
✓Fix misconfigured static pod manifests in /etc/kubernetes/manifests/

2. Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration

Weight: 25%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Manage role-based access control (RBAC): Roles, RoleBindings, ClusterRoles, and ClusterRoleBindings
Bootstrap a production cluster using kubeadm init and kubeadm join
Perform live cluster version upgrades on control plane and worker nodes via kubeadm and apt
Implement etcd v3 snapshot backup and disaster recovery restore

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Execute ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save /var/lib/backup/etcd.db with proper client certificates
✓Safely drain nodes with kubectl drain --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data before maintenance
✓Upgrade kubeadm, kubelet, and kubectl sequentially without taking down live workloads

3. Services & Networking

Weight: 20%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Configure and diagnose ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer services
Define Ingress resources with host rules, path prefixes, and backend service targets
Deploy and enforce NetworkPolicies (ingress/egress rules, namespace selectors, pod selectors)
Configure CoreDNS custom stubs and verify DNS lookup behavior via nslookup/dig

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Create network policies isolating backend database pods from untrusted frontends
✓Verify DNS resolution using ephemeral debug pods: kubectl run dns-test --image=busybox:1.28 --rm -it -- nslookup ...
✓Expose internal deployments via NodePort ranges (30000-32767)

4. Workloads & Scheduling

Weight: 15%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Manage Deployments, Rolling Updates, and fast Rollbacks
Configure pod resource requests and limits to ensure fair sharing and QoS classes
Implement node selectors, node affinity, taints, and tolerations
Configure multi-container pods, initContainers, and sidecar logging patterns

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Generate YAML quickly with imperative flags: kubectl create deployment web --image=nginx --replicas=3 --dry-run=client -o yaml
✓Taint nodes with key=value:NoSchedule and apply matching tolerations in pod specs
✓Configure initContainers to wait for database availability before booting web services

5. Storage

Weight: 10%

Key Exam Topics Tested:

Configure PersistentVolumes (PV) and PersistentVolumeClaims (PVC)
Configure StorageClasses with dynamic volume provisioning
Mount volumes into pods and verify data persistence across pod restarts
Understand volume access modes (ReadWriteOnce, ReadOnlyMany, ReadWriteMany)

Practical Competencies & Skills Required:

✓Write PV and PVC specs with matching storage capacities, access modes, and storageClassName
✓Mount PVCs as volumeMounts inside pod container definitions

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Recommended Prerequisites: Proficiency with Linux CLI commands, container concepts, basic networking, and YAML syntax.