Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Practice Test
Build your confidence for Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD). Practice the concepts, understand the answers, and strengthen your knowledge one question at a time.
Try a sample questionExam overview and details
The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification, governed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Linux Foundation, validates the essential skills required to design, build, configure, and expose cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. This performance-based exam rigorously tests a candidate's ability to perform core development tasks in a live command-line environment, focusing on practical, hands-on proficiency rather than theoretical knowledge. Earning the CKAD credential demonstrates to employers a proven capability to deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes, a skill set in critical demand as organizations accelerate their cloud-native adoption. It signifies that a developer can effectively leverage Kubernetes APIs, define application resources using YAML, and configure the key building blocks of Pods, Services, and Deployments to create robust, scalable applications. This certification is a cornerstone for developers seeking to advance in modern DevOps and platform engineering roles, providing a tangible benchmark of expertise in the industry's leading container orchestration platform.
Sample Questions
Choose an answer and explore the explanation to see how practice works.
A container's exit code is 137. What does that imply?
What is a "headless" Service?
You ran `kubectl set image deployment/web nginx=nginx:1.26 --record`. The rollout is failing because nginx:1.26 doesn't exist. Which command pair restores service fastest?
Which Helm command upgrades a release while preserving values from previous installs and falling back to defaults?
Your application deployment is failing intermittently in production. You need to implement proper health checks and logging to diagnose issues. Which of the following approaches will help you observe and maintain application health?
Career Opportunities & Salary
Exam insights and study advice
In today's competitive technology landscape, the CKAD certification serves as a powerful differentiator, providing immediate industry recognition of your hands-on Kubernetes development skills. It directly translates to career advancement by qualifying you for high-demand roles such as Kubernetes Developer, Cloud-Native Engineer, and DevOps Specialist. Employers actively seek CKAD-certified professionals as it reduces onboarding time and risk, proving you possess the practical, exam-validated skills to contribute immediately to application modernization and microservices initiatives. This credential is not just a resume item; it is a validated signal of competency that aligns with real-world job requirements, enhancing your professional credibility and marketability in a cloud-native ecosystem.
Your Path Forward
What this exam covers
Use the published domain weights to plan your study. Practice results do not predict your certification exam score.
01Application Environment, Configuration and Security
Topics
- Discover and use resources that extend Kubernetes (CRD, Operators)
- Understand authentication, authorization and admission control
- Understand requests, limits, quotas
- Understand ConfigMaps
- Define resource requirements
- Create & consume Secrets
- Understand ServiceAccounts
- Understand Application Security (SecurityContexts, Capabilities, etc.)
Learning objectives
- Discover and use resources that extend Kubernetes (CRD, Operators)
- Understand authentication, authorization and admission control
- Understand requests, limits, quotas
- Understand ConfigMaps
- Define resource requirements
- Create & consume Secrets
- Understand ServiceAccounts
- Understand Application Security (SecurityContexts, Capabilities, etc.)
02Application Deployment
Topics
- Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary)
- Understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates
- Use the Helm package manager to deploy existing packages
- Kustomize
Learning objectives
- Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary)
- Understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates
- Use the Helm package manager to deploy existing packages
- Kustomize
03Application Design and Build
Topics
- Define, build and modify container images
- Choose and use the right workload resource (Deployment, DaemonSet, CronJob, etc.)
- Understand multi-container Pod design patterns (e.g. sidecar, init and others)
- Utilize persistent and ephemeral volumes
Learning objectives
- Define, build and modify container images
- Choose and use the right workload resource (Deployment, DaemonSet, CronJob, etc.)
- Understand multi-container Pod design patterns (e.g. sidecar, init and others)
- Utilize persistent and ephemeral volumes
04Services and Networking
Topics
- Demonstrate basic understanding of NetworkPolicies
- Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
- Use Ingress rules to expose applications
Learning objectives
- Demonstrate basic understanding of NetworkPolicies
- Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
- Use Ingress rules to expose applications
05Application Observability and Maintenance
Topics
- Understand API deprecations
- Implement probes and health checks
- Use built-in CLI tools to monitor Kubernetes applications
- Utilize container logs
- Debugging in Kubernetes
Learning objectives
- Understand API deprecations
- Implement probes and health checks
- Use built-in CLI tools to monitor Kubernetes applications
- Utilize container logs
- Debugging in Kubernetes