squerez / ckad-exercises

Tips and exercises for preparing to CKAD exam.

ckad-exercises

Tips and exercises for preparing to CKAD exam.

Exam details

The CKAD exam is an online proctored exam that consists of completing a set of problems using the command line. The exam has a duration of 2 hours to complete 15-20 questions, so at worst you only have 6 minutes per question.

Being as fast as possible is the key to pass this exam, so as a general tip, practice a LOT of the command line and use as much as possible abbreviations and aliases to commands.

In the next section, I will do my best to compile important exam information.
I recommend that you read the up-to-date official exam documentation for completeness and correctness.

What resources are allowed during the exam

You can use the browser within the VM to access the documentation from:

• https://kubernetes.io/docs/
• https://kubernetes.io/blog/
• https://helm.sh/docs

Subdomains and language translations of those websites are also allowed.

Technical instructions for the exam

Adapted from the documentation:

• Root privileges can be obtained by running 'sudo −i'.
• You must NOT reboot the base node (hostname node-1). Rebooting the base node will NOT restart your exam environment.
• Do not stop or tamper with the certerminal process as this will END YOUR EXAM SESSION.
• Do not block incoming ports 8080/tcp, 4505/tcp and 4506/tcp. This includes firewall rules that are found within the distribution's default firewall configuration files as well as interactive firewall commands.
• Use Ctrl+Alt+W instead of Ctrl+W (this is a shortcut that closes current tab on Google Chrome).
• To copy & paste within the Linux Terminal you need to use LINUX shortcuts:
  • copy --> Ctrl+Shift+C
  • paste --> Ctrl+Shift+V
  • OR use the Right Click Context Menu and select Copy or Paste
• INSERT key is prohibited, use i for insert mode in VIM and ESC to get out of insert mode

Exam environment

Adapted from the documentation:

• Each task on this exam must be completed on a designated cluster/configuration context.
• An infobox at the start of each task provides you with the cluster name/context information.
• Nodes making up each cluster can be reached via ssh, using a command such as the following: ssh
• You must return to base node (hostname node-1) after completing each task.
• Nested-ssh is not supported.
• Root privileges can be obtained on any node with 'sudo -i'
• You can also use sudo to execute commands with elevated permissions
• You can use kubectl and the appropriate context to work on any cluster from the base node. When connected to a cluster member via ssh, you will only be able to work on that particular cluster via kubectl.
• For convenience, all environments have 'kubectl' with 'k' alias and bash autocompletion, 'jq', 'tmux', 'curl', 'wget' and 'man' tools pre-installed and configured
• Instructions for connecting to cluster nodes are provided in appropriate tasks
• If you need to destroy/recreate a resource to perform a certain task, it is your responsibility to back up the resource definition appropriately prior to destroying the resource.-
• The CKAD environment is currently running Kubernetes v1.28 and etcd v3.5

The environment will look like the following image:

Exam topics

The exam tests for the following domains and competencies:

• Application Design and Build (20%)
  • Define, build and modify container images
  • Understand Jobs and CronJobs
  • Understand multi-container pod design patterns (sidecar, init etc)
  • Utilize persistent and ephemeral volumes
• Application Deployment (20%)
  • Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (blue/green, canary)
  • Understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates
  • Use the Helm package manage to deploy existing packages
• Application Observability and Maintenance (15%)
  • Understand API deprecations
  • Implement probes and health checks
  • Use built-in CLI tools to monitor kubernetes applications
  • Utilize container logs
  • Debugging in Kubernetes
• Application Environment, Configuration and Security (25%)
  • Discover and use resources that extend Kubernetes (CRD, Operators)
  • Understand authentication, authorization and admission control
  • Understand request, limits, quotas
  • Understand ConfigMaps
  • Define resource requirements
  • Create and consume secrets
  • Understand ServiceAccounts
  • Understand Application Security (SecurityContexts, Capabilities)
• Services and Networking (20%)
  • Demonstrate basic understanding of NetworkPolicies
  • Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
  • Use Ingress rules to expose applications

Contributions

I have relied heavily on already created exercises and added a few exercises on my own. Please give these amazing repositories a star and suport them:

• https://github.com/ibrahimatay/CKAD-Exercises
• https://github.com/dgkanatsios/CKAD-exercises/tree/main