Why CKA Certification ?
Are you interested in taking the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Certification? Google introduced Kubernetes in 2014, a project aimed at redefining the way that people managed their application deployment. Kubernetes is an open-source project used for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It’s widely used by tech giants like Google, Facebook and Alibaba. The certifications offered by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation have made Kubernetes a recognized skill on resumes around the world.
Most people never look into finding out what the exam objectives are. They don’t even read the official course description. Most just sign up and take it without any idea of what they will be graded on. After studying for my own certification I found this was the wrong way to do it. I decided to compile a list of all the information provided by Google to help others study for their exam, and this is what I came up with.
You should consider taking the Certified Kubernetes Certification exam. I am going to explain how to enroll for the exam, how to prepare and I am also going to give you some tips on how to get ready for the exam.
Exam details : Certified Kubernetes Administrator
CKA is a 100% hands-on exam. It consists of 15-17 practical questions that you need to solve through a command line. Each question has a different weightage. The exam goes on for about 2 hours and you need to score at least a 66% score to pass the exam.
Here is the exam curriculum. You can follow this Github link for regular updates. It is updated from time to time for the newer versions and weightage of the Topics.
How to enroll for the Exam?
- Navigate to the official Linux Foundation website – https://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification/certified-kubernetes-administrator-cka/ and click on Enroll
2. Click on Enroll Today and Login with your Linux Foundation ID if you have already or Login with other options like Github, Google, LinkedIn etc.
3. Enter the Payment details and you will receive a confirmation email about the Exam registration.
4. You can appear for the exam within 12 months of registration.
How to Prepare for the Exam
- Well not necessary, but its good to enroll for a course, there are plenty on the web, my personal favourite one is this. This course by Mumshad has a very good coverage on the certification content and also has practice tests that are really good.
- While you study for the exam, make sure you refer the docs from below links only i.e the official documentation as you not be having access to other websites during the exam.
3. Kubectl Cheat Sheet is your ultimate saviour while you are appearing for the exam. Make sure you try out all the commands at least once appearing on this page.
4. Also refer this Exam Technical Instructions and Environment details that will give you the required instructions you need and the environment details beforehand when you appear it.
5. Practice, practice and practice until when you feel confident. You can also practice here – killer.sh. It gives an exam like environment to test out your skills before you actually appear for the exam. The questions here are more difficult than the exam itself, so practising it multiple times will give you enough confidence that you need to appear for the exam.
Final Tips and Tricks for the exam
- Get familiar with kubectl auto completion, believe me it really helps during the exam. The auto-completion will help you finish the exam sooner compared to if you hand type it all.
- Read carefully each question and make sure you change the context as per the questions. There are around six clusters and you should be in the correct context or each question.
- Practice searching & navigating through the official documentation. Bookmark the important ones that you feel you will definitely need to refer.
- Set the below alias, this is help you to export the yaml files faster, as every second count here 🙂
alias k=kubectl
export do="--dry-run=client -o yaml"Finally, I wish you all the best for your preparation for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam. There is also a good news – You have a free retake! So don’t get disheartened if you couldn’t make it on the first go. Do you have any inputs to add to this list. Let me know in the comments below.
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