New CKA/CKAD v1.19.0 Exam Notes
It was a long back goal for me to have a Kubernetes Certification and I achieved the same in late November, 2020 by passing CKA and then following week in early December, 2020 by passing CKAD. The following blog will answer the queries that I have been receiving till date about CKA/CKAD and its preparation.
Before starting to prepare for any certification, what is required is to read out the curriculum and the exam instructions. The environment setup and exam user interface for CKA and CKAD includes 6 clusters for CKA and 4 clusters for CKAD respectively for each which are to be completed in 2 hours. Passing score is 66% for CKA and 67% for CKAD.
Before starting the Exam
You can login to the portal 15 minutes prior to the scheduled exam time. I would suggest be there 20 minutes before, click on Take Exam link from the exam portal, meanwhile you can open the kubernetes documentation and read, it will help in memorizing and will kick in while you are reading exam questions. Kubectl Conventions should also be read.
After starting the Exam
The first tab that needs to be opened is kubectl cheatsheet. Check for notepad provided in the exam and enable kubectl autocompletion. If required you can enable handy kubectl aliases as well. An alias I would recommend is alias kgc='kubectl config get-contexts' . Each time you switch to next question always run kgc to confirm you are on the right cluster. The command to switch between clusters is already provided in the exam.
Bookmarks to do in Kubernetes documentation
CKA
Kubectl Cheatsheet
Pv and Pvc with pod (pv+pvc+pod)
Cluster Upgrade
Ingress for a pod (ingress+pod)
Ingress for deployment (ingress+nginx)
Access type Network policy with deployment (declare network policy)
Full Network Policy
ServiceAccount for a pod (serviceaccount+pod)
ClusterRole/Role, ClusterRoleBinding/RoleBinding (use kubectl imperative commands)
Custom Columns
CKAD
Apart from the cheatsheet in CKAD, the exam is all about configmaps, logging and secrets. Always create configmaps and secrets using kubectl create configmap/secret configmap/secret-name --from-literal=key=value
configmap+pod (Example 1, 2, 3, 4)
Full configmap tutorial example (configmap+redis)
Secret with volume mounting (secret+volume mounting+pod)
Jobs (1 2 3) and CronJobs
Effective Searching
How do you save your time without scrolling all the documentation till below? For example you got to secrets page in kubernetes documentation and now you need to scroll through 1000 lines to search for exact manifest for a pod. One way to do that is to bookmark all the links above and name it and use it in exam.
The other way is to search for terms, kind: Pod, kind: Deployment , mountPath: , volumes: , kind: Secret , kind: Configmap etc. There are other terms as well depends on you what you can recall at the moment and what clicks after reading the question.
Effective Preparation
For me I took both the exams within 2 weeks time. I didn’t see any course videos all I did was half of the labs for CKA and CKAD both as I didn’t had much time in hand, therefore my score was 81/89 in CKA/CKAD respectively. Do all the labs at KodeKloud provided as a freeware with Mumshad Mannambeth’s Udemy CKA/CKAD course.
In case you are like me and each time you want a sample of kubectl command with all the allowed arguments, open the following kubectl cheatsheet, its a macro version.
I repeat only the labs are more than enough to pass in the exam with flying colors only if you have a regressive hands-on experience in linux, containers and orchestration else even after watching the course the result may not be fruitful.
Furthermore, if you still need to prepare on networkpolicy and jsonpath, you can go ahead with the following github tutorials, personally I didn’t do them.
Lab practice on Network Policy
More questions on CKAD and CKA lab practice on minikube cluster.
Linux Background requirement is to have the knowledge of head or tail, sed or awk linux commands for synthesizing and formatting the output of kubectl commands and then dumping that output into a file. General discussion on kubectl tips/tricks.
I have summarized few tips and learnings, making sure to not overstep the line between ‘being helpful’ and ‘sharing too much’. As with everything, the exam itself, its format and content are continuously evolving. Next on my list is CKS.
Thanks for reading and Good Luck with Practice-Practice-Practice.
For further queries you can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Update — 15 December 2021
Finally I have cracked CKS on December 2 ’21. Please refer the preparation guide.
