The Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam: a story of conquest.

Dedicated to all helmsmen to be …

The Certified Kubernetes Administration (CKA) Exam is of a different cosmos. A cosmos where options A, B, C and D have been vanished to a galaxy far, far away. All that’s left staring at you is a blinking cursor at the command line. Are you ready for this voyage? You got three hours to showcase your majesty and kube dominating prowess.

Now, this CKA voyage is best traveled prepared. In fact, if you’ve come prepared, you shall fear no evil. You know your pods. You’ve got kubernetes blisters from clusters, containers and logs. You’ve stayed up late doing labs. You’ve read the book. You know the material. You’ll be all right!!! Dun dun dunnnn!!! Not so fast. You see, it’s not the content that might do you harm. It’s the clock. During the CKA, your greatest nemesis won’t be a kubectl option flag buried in a man page. No, sir. Your greatest enemy is the clock. Three hours may seem like an eternity when you are an old man trying to send back soup at a deli, but 180 minutes vanish ruthlessly like an old man’s impetus for personal hygiene.

180 minutes go so fast when you find yourself troubleshooting. And no, not troubleshooting the kubernetes cluster — but troubleshooting your own typos and silly mistakes. A little extra space here. A missing letter over there … Oh, the calamity! Word of advice. When pressed for time, slow is faster. Type slowly. And can I just take a minute now and ask: who thought YAML was a good idea? Really people? Heed my advice. Go slowly. And when things break — your first assumption should be: I must have a typo, or, I must be missing a space. Question your typing first. Then doubt your expertise. If you encounter an error at the command line, read it slowly and ensure the error is not because of a typo.

Looking back at my preparation for the exam:

1. Be a master of your domain: You have to practice. Practice. And when you think you are ready, kubectl it one more time. It is OK to take a course online and read about kubernetes or watch a video here and there but that’s not real kubernetes. Even if you work with kubernetes every day, you’re probably not covering all the topics required for the exam. I suggest you go to the k8s.io site and complete many of the Task tutorials there. Additionally, install and configure kubernetes the hard way at least 4 times. Understand what’s happening and find the related pages in k8s.io and know how to get to the topic page during the test.

2. Know your Linux. This has been a bit of a rough area for me. Thankfully my last few projects have been Linux based and have sharpened my bash kung-fu. If you’re new to Linux, then you must learn more Linux before considering the CKA. You have to know basics such as file management, systemd and basic networking. Understand general security concepts (private/public key, SSL/TLS, etc.). Try to get on a project where you can sharpen your Linux skills and study k8s little by little. Nothing beats real world experience.

3. Sidebar anecdote: Well into the exam, my session got disconnected and what probably didn’t last even a minute, felt like an eternity. Do I get up? Is the proctor there? Is the webcam still on? Should I call them? Are they going to call me? Why is it so hot in here? Assuming this is not a serious internet connectivity outage, worry not. If this happens to you, refresh the page and the session should reload. Once the session loads, reach out to the proctor via the chat feature and make sure all is good. The proctor will inform you whether or not you can continue and re-release the exam again. A few quick network latency hiccups happened to me. All was well. Read the candidate handbook.

Resources (Not necessarily endorsements)

· Kubernetes: Up and Running by Brendan Burns, Kelsey Hightower, Joe Beda. I actually went through this book twice reading it and completing the exercises. Again, read it slowly. Understand the topics. I really liked that the book has plenty of hands-on exercises — though the book is deceivingly skinny. I almost returned it and asked for a refund the same day I got it. I’m glad I kept it. It is packed with sweet kubes of CKA goodness. Compare its table of contents to the official curriculum. Study your weak areas.

· Linux Academy — CKA and Kubernetes the Hard Way are two great video curriculums. That said, watching just the videos by themselves won’t prepare you for the exam. Complete all the labs and practice. You need hands-on. And by the way, the best hidden treasure at Linux Academy is their student cloud servers (a.k.a. playground). You can set up a 3-server cluster to practice and learn. Set it up. Break it. Tear it down. Rinse. Repeat. The cloud servers are worth the subscription price. Thank you, Linux Academy!!!

· Katacoda: this is such a blessing. If you’ve never heard of Katacoda, they offer an interactive learning and training platform for various software platforms. The kubernetes scenarios are free and are a must if you’re just getting started with Kubernetes. For the advanced kubernauts, they offer a kubernetes playground console with one master and one node where you can pretty much create and run any scenario from the exam curriculum. Thank you Katacoda!!!

The Sea is Angry my friends and our ship needs a captain.

We all signed an NDA when taking the exam so for obvious reasons I can’t share question details but you have access to the CKA curriculum. You know what will be in the test. Study. And when you think you are ready: find a quiet spot around the house. Close your eyes and ask yourself: What’s that ringing in my ears!!! OK, maybe not that, but seriously consider: how many types of objects can I create right now? What is the difference between a job, a daemonset and a festivus pole? How does storage work? What is the Kubelet? How does service discovery work? What are the different ways to create kubernetes objects? Think of the curriculum.

If you prepare, you will do well. Plus, just in case you need it, if you buy the exam from the cncf.io, you get a free retake. So, there’s no pressure. Sign up for the test. Get a good night sleep. Have a good breakfast. And take the exam! Good luck in your journey and conquest.

Sincerely, your fellow CKA!