Exclusively on O’Reilly: Get more hands-on training and test your CKA exam readiness by working through the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam Prep Labs playlist. This collection of 30 interactive labs provides hands-on training that enhances the exam prep provided by this study guide.
The ability to administer and monitor a Kubernetes cluster is in high demand today. To meet this need, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation developed a certification exam to establish an administrator’s credibility and value in the job market to confidently work in a Kubernetes environment.
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification exam is different from the typical multiple-choice format of other professional certifications. Instead, the CKA is a performance-based exam that requires deep knowledge of the tasks under immense time pressure.
This study guide walks you through all the topics covered to fully prepare you for the exam. Author Benjamin Muschko also shares his personal experience with preparing for all aspects of the exam.
- Learn when and how to apply Kubernetes concepts to administer and troubleshoot a production-grade cluster
- Understand the objectives, abilities, and tips and tricks needed to pass the CKA exam
- Explore the ins and outs of the kubectl command-line tool
- Demonstrate competency to perform the responsibilities of a Kubernetes administrator
- Solve real-world Kubernetes problems in a hands-on command-line environment
- Effectively navigate and solve questions during the CKA exam
Who This Book Is For
The primary target group for this book is administrators who want to prepare for the CKA exam. The “exam details and resources” content covers all aspects of the exam curriculum, though basic knowledge of the Kubernetes architecture and its concepts is expected. If you are completely new to Kubernetes, I recommend reading Kubernetes Up & Running by Brendan Burns, Joe Beda, Kelsey Hightower, and Lachlan Evenson (O’Reilly)
What You Will Learn
The content of the book condenses the most important aspects relevant to the CKA exam. Cloud-provider-specific Kubernetes implementations like AKS or GKE do not need to be considered. Given the plethora of configuration options available in Kubernetes, it’s almost impossible to cover all use cases and scenarios without duplicating the official documentation. Test takers are encouraged to reference the Kubernetes documentation as the go-to compendium for broader exposure.
The outline of the book follows the CKA curriculum to a T. While there might be a more natural, didactical structure for learning Kubernetes in general, the curriculum outline will help test takers prepare for the exam by focusing on specific topics. As a result, you will find yourself cross-referencing other chapters of the book depending on your existing knowledge level.
Be aware that this book covers only the concepts relevant to the CKA exam. Certain primitives that you may expect to be covered by the certification curriculum—for example, the API primitive Ingress—are not discussed. Refer to the Kubernetes documentation or other books if you want to dive deeper.
Practical experience with Kubernetes is key to passing the exam. Each chapter contains a section named “Sample Exercises” with practice questions. Solutions to those questions can be found in the Appendix.