The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) program has been developed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), in collaboration with The Linux Foundation, to help expand the Kubernetes ecosystem through standardized training and certification.

As one of the highest velocity projects in the history of open source, Kubernetes use is exploding. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is committed to growing the community of Kubernetes-knowledgeable application developers, thereby enabling continued growth across the broad set of organizations a using the technology.

Certification is a key step in that process, allowing certified application developers to quickly establish their credibility and value in the job market, and also allowing companies to more quickly hire high-quality teams to support their growth.

About the program

The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer exam certifies that users can design, build, configure, and expose cloud native applications for Kubernetes.

A Certified Kubernetes Application Developer can define application resources and use core primitives to build, monitor, and troubleshoot scalable applications and tools in Kubernetes.

The exam assumes knowledge of, but does not test for, container runtimes and a microservice architecture.

The successful candidate will be comfortable using:

An OCI-Compliant Container Runtime, such as Docker or rkt.

Cloud native application concepts and architectures.

A programming language, such as Python, Node.js, Go, or Java.

The certification program allows users to demonstrate their competence in a hands-on, command-line environment. The purpose of the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) program is to provide assurance that CKADs have the skills, knowledge, and competency to perform the responsibilities of Kubernetes application developers.

CNCF has open sourced the curriculum around which the CKAD exam has been created to guide candidates’ exam preparation and for the benefit of companies offering training.

CNCF offers wholesale pricing on our exams to training companies purchasing in bulk. For more information, please contact trainingpartners@cncf.io.

Exam details

The online, proctored, performance-based test consists of a set of performance-based items (problems) to be solved in a command line and is expected to take approximately two (2) hours to complete.

This exam curriculum includes these general domains and their weights on the exam:

13% – Core Concepts

18% – Configuration

10% – Multi-Container Pods

18% – Observability

20% – Pod Design

13% – Services & Networking

8% – State Persistence

The cost is $300 and includes one free retake. For questions on the exam, please reach out to certificationsupport@cncf.io.

Quarterly exam updates are planned to match Kubernetes releases. Please see the FAQ for the current exam environment version.

Exam resources