May 26, 2020
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam preparation.
how to become a Certified Kubernetes Administrator
I just finishing the exam of CKA which is one of my targets this year. And I want to share some useful tips that I hope help you to prepare and pass the exam.
Content:
- What is CKA?
- CKA topics.
- Main factors to pass the exam.
- Be ready for all requirements.
- Practice, practice, and practice.
- The time.
- Bookmark all useful links.
- New version differences.
- Practice the Guaranteed questions.
- General tips.
What is CKA?
CKA stands for Certified Kubernetes Administrator. The purpose of the CKA certification is to provide assurance that certification holders have the skills, knowledge, and competency to perform the responsibilities of Kubernetes administrators.
CKA topics:
This CKA exam is cover the following topics:
- Application Lifecycle Management 8%
- Installation, Configuration & Validation 12%
- Core Concepts 19%
- Networking 11%
- Scheduling 5%
- Security 12%
- Cluster Maintenance 11%
- Logging / Monitoring 5%
- Storage 7%
- Troubleshooting 10%
Main factors to pass the exam:
Be ready for all requirements:
- These points are very important because if you fail to start your exam within 15 minutes, it will result in the system marking you as a No-Show and you will not be able to take your exam.
- Regarding the machine that will test on, please check that it has a webcam and microphone which are required by the proctor and check it has reliable internet access and chrome or chromium-browser.
- Regarding the identification requirement, please sure Acceptable forms of photo ID include current, non-expired: passport, government-issued driver’s license/permit, national ID card, state or province-issued ID card, or other forms of government-issued identification. Please also note that the presented international Passport or government-issued form of identification must contain Western (English) characters.
- Check this tool to verify that their hardware meets the minimum requirements.
- Make sure that you are read the handbook, you can check it here HandBook.
Practice, practice, and practice:
The CKA exam is totally hands-on. you are asked to perform 24 tasks using the command line. so you should prepare for the exam by train your hand for practice. my recommendation for practice:
- Check this course https://www.udemy.com/course/certified-kubernetes-administrator-with-practice-tests/learn/lecture/16488034#overview which cover all exam topics and practice test for each part, in addition to mock exams with time to simulate the tasks with time on the real exam.
- Check these repositories for train your hand and more practice https://github.com/roxcarpio/cka-exercises/ && https://github.com/kimdoanh89/CKA-exercises/. please keep in mind the time when solving these exercises.
The time:
From my point of view, time is the most important factor to pass the exam. you should solve 24 tasks in 3 hours, so be careful that any task doesn’t eat the time at the expense of the rest. my recommendation for the time:
- Create an alias to save time for writing the complete command:
alias k="kubectl"
##auto-complate with "k"
source <(kubectl completion bash | sed "s/kubectl/k/g")- Using imperative way over declarative ”definition files” will save more time for indentations and investigate the YAML file. you can use this reference in the exam https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands it will help you to find a suitable command faster.
- if you want to check the documentation about resources like a pod, use
kubectl explain pods- Reuse the right definition files you create. or already running by
kubectl get pod -o yaml > test-pod.yaml- Check the JSON path to fast your hand to pick up the output faster. you can check this link https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/jsonpath/
- You are allowed to open Kubernetes documentation and allowed to Bookmarks important links, so making bookmarks in chromes for the exam topics will be very useful and will save tour time. I will list some bookmarks below which will help you.
- practice the Guaranteed and repeated questions will save time to the rest questions. I will discuss them below.
Bookmark all useful links:
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/cheatsheet/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/init-containers/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/cluster-administration/certificates/#openssl
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/pull-image-private-registry/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/security-context/
- Configure a Pod to Use a ConfigMap — Kubernetes
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/#using-secrets-as-files-from-a-pod
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/ingress/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/network-policies/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#persistentvolumeclaims
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/job/automated-tasks-with-cron-jobs/
New version differences:
In the last month exam’s curriculum is updated to v1.18. you can check the curriculum here. if you not familiar with this version yet, please check the new version differences:
take a look https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/release/notes and check https://medium.com/better-programming/kubernetes-tips-create-pods-with-imperative-commands-in-1-18-62ea6e1ceb32
- just note that the generator flag is deprecated at all and you can create pod via kubectl run and deployment via kubectl create.
- dry-run flag should be — dry-run=(server|client)
Practice the Guaranteed questions:
many people see that the installation and etcd backup part is difficult and take a long time, but I have the opposite of this opinion. I think these two questions should take less than the rest of the questions because it is expected and if you train your hand to complete it correctly before the exam, it should be guaranteed questions.
- installation:
— bookmark these links and make sure that this task can be done in a fast time.
https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes/
- Backup
— bookmark these links and make sure that this task can be done in a fast time.
https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/configure-upgrade-etcd/#built-in-snapshot
don’t worry about the etcd certificate files, it will be mention on the question. and you can get options itself via “- -help”.
General tips:
- The exam will be on 6 clusters: k8s, hk8s, bk8s, wk8s, ek8s, and ik8s.
“Note: you can check more details for them on the HandBook”
make sure on every question that you on the right cluster, for example:
kubectl config set-cluster k8s- If you use an imperative way to create every object check it first by “— dry-run=client -o yaml” then check the output first before create. you can add “ — dry-run=client -o yaml” as a variable because it will be repeated during the exam.
- It is nice to check all tasks here https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/
- Check this link before the exam, it will be useful on troubleshooting part https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/systemd-essentials-working-with-services-units-and-the-journal
