Kubernetes CKA (Administrator) Exam Survival Guide

Window: Global | Hands-on lab | 2 hrs

Must-do topics

• Core: Pods/Deployments/DaemonSets/Jobs/CronJobs, Services/Ingress
• Scheduling: taints/tolerations/affinity, drain/cordon
• Storage: PV/PVC/SC, StatefulSets
• Security basics: RBAC, ServiceAccounts, Secrets/ConfigMaps
• Cluster ops: upgrades, backups, etcd, kubeadm, logs/events

Top traps (avoid)

• Wrong context or missing -n
• YAML/indent errors; not saving manifests
• Forgetting readiness/liveness probes → failed rollouts

Time split

• ~6–8 min/task; verify immediately; move on

Last-48h checklist

• Imperative→YAML; k aliases; common templates
• etcd snapshot/restore; draining nodes; rolling updates

Quick facts

• kubectl explain helps schema; Service types (ClusterIP/NodePort/LB)
• Probes control rollout health; kubectl rollout undo for quick rollback

Speed tactics

• Create minimal YAML; expand only as needed
• Always check kubectl get all -n <ns> post-change

Day-of mini-plan

• Warm-up: 2 deployments + 1 PV/PVC + 1 RBAC