How to prepare for CKA and CKAD exam ?

Recently I got an opportunity to appear for Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exams, I passed both of them in first attempt with 94% and 85% respectively. Since I got lots of queries on linkedin and twitter for these 2 exams, I thought I should write an article where i can share my experience with people appearing for these 2 certification exams.

These two exams are hands-on performance-based, CKA minimum passing score is 74% and CKAD minimum passing score is 66%. CKA and CKAD exams are conducted by CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation).

My background on Kubernetes

For various customers I have been working on Kubernetes for more then 2.5 years now. I have good exposure to all areas of Kubernetes like installation, configuration, security, scalability, devops and microservices migration on Kubernetes. I have co-authored book on IBM Cloud Private which is based on Kubernetes, One publication was for Administrators and other was for Developers.

For Developer

IBM Cloud Private Application Developer's Guide | IBM Redbooks

For Administrator

IBM Cloud Private System Administrator's Guide | IBM Redbooks

Preparation

While you are preparing for the CKA/CKAD exam, please refer to curriculum for same.

Curriculum for CKA

Curriculum for CKAD

If you have no work experience with production Kubernetes then I would recommend to go through basics of Kubernetes first. I would recommend to start with Kubernetes in Action by Marko Luksa.

Building Kubernetes cluster

After you are done with basics of kubernetes you should try to create kubernetes cluster using Kelsey Hightower git repo

Try to create cluster on your own at-least 3–4 times, this way you will understand how each components work with each other.

Knowing each object of Kubernetes

Try to understand each object of kubernetes and use it in lab for example: networkpolicy, first try to understand what is network policy, in what all scenario it can be used, then try to solve scenarios for that object, you can google and you would find lots of scenarios for each object. Additionally you can follow below repo to practice each object, this is for CKAD but it helps in CKA as well.

dgkanatsios/CKAD-exercises

Materials I referred for preparing the exam

1. Kubernetes in Action by Marko Luksa
2. Kubernetes Up and Running by Kelsey Hightower, Brendan Burns, Joe Beda
3. Udemy Courses by Mumshad Mannambeth on Kubernetes
4. Kelsey Hightower git repo

But remember no matter how much you prepare for CKA and CKAD, you are going to get questions which are tricky and tough to solve. You need to have patience.

Tips for Exam hours

1. Always use kubectl explain command for each k8s object if you have confusion for that object parameters in yaml file.
2. Always try to create yaml for each object using kubectl run … — dry-run -o yaml > object.yaml
3. While trying to create any k8s object Try to do minimal use of kubernetes.io as it takes time, instead use kubectl explain … — recursive
4. You will get a context change command at the beginning of every question to change the kubectl context as each question may refer a different cluster than your previous question. So always as a practice change the context before attempting a new question.
5. You may have to ssh some node in cluster, When you do that, you almost certainly have to do a sudo su to get superuser access. After that when you exit, make sure you type exit twice, as the first exit may get you out of the su mode and the second exit will be the one that actually get you out of the node. It’s easy to miss an exit command, so make sure you do that after attempting a question.
6. There will be embedded notepad on the exam system, you can write which question you want to revisit later.
7. Strategy I followed during both the exams, if i feel any question is tricky or tough i leave it to attempt at end. With this plan during CKA exam in 1.5 hr i had attempted 20 questions, i had only 4 questions to complete in last 1.5 hrs.
8. Always remember you dont have to get 100% to pass the exam, try to attempt as much as you can, cross verify to make sure all questions attempted are correct. In CKA I had attempted 96% , got 94% and in CKAD I attempted 88% and received 85%. I had time during both exam to attempt all questions but i used that time to cross verify each attempted question.

Help

If you need any help on Kubernetes or on any of these 2 exams you can reach out to me on my linkedin or twitter.

My Certificates