How To Pass The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) Exam

The Kubernetes & Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) is a relatively new certification from CNCF and having just passed the exam, I thought I would share some notes to help you do the same!

About The Exam

You have 90 minutes to complete 60 multiple-choice questions and need a minimum score of 75% to pass. It is an online proctored exam by PSI and there are some strict requirements for your home set-up that I talk about more below.

At the time of writing, the exam costs $249 but you can purchase a training course & exam bundle for $299 that, according to the description on the official exam page should give you everything you need to pass. However, I found that there are some gaps in this that you should be aware of.

As the exam was launched in late 2021, there are relatively few resources out there and I haven’t been able to find any mock exam questions on well-known sources like skillcertpro.com.

My Thoughts On The Exam

Of course, most of the test is around Kubernetes functionality, resources, containers, runtimes, networking etc. You need to know this inside out and having good practical experience with Kubernetes will help, but isn’t essential.

I was surprised at the number of questions in the exam that weren’t covered in the bundled training package or the exam agenda, some of which felt a little bit like “gotcha” questions, such as:

• What does CI/CD stand for?
• What does CONTINUOUS mean in CI/CD?
• What does CNCF stand for?
• Questions around CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), such as their responsibilities within the community and in the projects
• Questions around the CNCF community in general.

My Recommended Training Path

1. Get some hands-on experience working with Kubernetes to really understand what they mean when they mention all of those magic words like pods, deployments, services, replica sets…
   A really good (and free) course I found very useful is made by our friend Nelson at amigoscode.com and can be found here. By the end of this course, you will be able to deploy a full-stack application onto Minikube and feel comfortable about all of the terms that you need to know.
2. Now that you have gotten your hands dirty with some Kubernetes deployments you can go through the LFS250 course and actually make sense of what they are saying there.
3. Also, there is this course on edX which seems to explain a few things better. While going through this course, I felt like I started to better understand and put together information from the official course.
4. Pay attention to things that you don’t necessarily think would be very important or relevant for the exam, such as information about CNCF, Cloud Native role descriptions (such as SRE), various terms and abbreviations (such as CI/CD).
5. Before you sit your exam, try to find some mock questions. Hopefully, by the time you do yours, there will be some available online. The resource I’ve used before is skillcertpro.com. In my opinion, doing mock exam questions is the best way you can prepare for an exam.

PSI Remote Proctoring

PSI have some strict requirements for sitting a remote exam that I thought would be worth sharing. These include:

• camera and microphone needed
• only 1 screen is allowed
• a system check has to be performed
• the room has to be free of other computers/devices or learning materials
• only the laptop is allowed on the desk
• nobody can ever enter the room during the exam
• no noise is allowed in the room
• no headphones or hats allowed

And the list goes on… Please read the instructions they provide very carefully!

So you get the room and desk ready, you start the exam, and that will open a PSI secure separate browser where the following will happen:

• you need to take a photo of your ID
• scan the room 360
• scan the room floor to ceiling
• scan your desk and underneath the desk
• show your phone put it out of reach
• take a selfie

After these steps everything will be checked by the proctor, and when they are finally happy your test will be released.

During the exam, there are some rather strict rules you need to follow that could get you kicked out. So please do not push your luck in any way. Some of the main rules worth remembering:

• you are not allowed to speak to anyone (not even to yourself)
• no mouthing allowed
• not allowed to cover your mouth
• don’t look anywhere else but the screen for too long
• don’t leave the desk

After finishing the test, it takes 24hr for the result to be released, so sit tight and believe in yourself! You’ve got this!

Good luck!

Cosmin Vlad is a Consultant at Dae.mn