How to use this handbook
Task-first notes for the CKA. Each page is a job you do on a live cluster, with the commands that get it done fast.
The CKA has no multiple-choice questions. You get a terminal, a set of clusters and about two hours to fix, build and change things. Knowing what a NetworkPolicy is won't score anything; writing one that works, in under five minutes, will. These notes are built around that: what the task is really asking, the fastest command or manifest that does it, and the mistake that costs you the points.
Reading a page
The decision. One line on the admin problem the topic solves.
The picture. A diagram or table of the moving parts: which component owns what, where a request goes, which field changes the behaviour.
Signals and traps. The wording that points to an approach, and the edits that look right but leave the task unfinished.
Scenarios. Short questions that check you know which fix applies. Your answer is checked right away.
Drill. One hands-on task in exam style, with a collapsed solution. Do it on a practice cluster before you open the answer.
The callouts
Exam signal
A constraint or keyword that tells you which approach the task wants.
Trap
A shortcut that looks right but loses the points, and why.
Legacy: use the current API or tool instead
An API, flag or tool that older material still teaches but Kubernetes has deprecated or removed.
The domains
| Domain | Weight | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Cluster architecture, installation and configuration | 25% | RBAC, kubeadm, upgrades, etcd backups, Helm, Kustomize, CRDs |
| 2 · Workloads and scheduling | 15% | Deployments, configuration, autoscaling and where Pods land |
| 3 · Services and networking | 20% | Services, Ingress, Gateway API, network policies and DNS |
| 4 · Storage | 10% | PersistentVolumes, claims and StorageClasses |
| 5 · Troubleshooting | 30% | Broken nodes, control plane components, apps and networking |
Troubleshooting is almost a third of the score, and every other domain feeds it. A Service with no endpoints is a networking task and a troubleshooting task. A Pending Pod could be a scheduling problem or a storage one. Pages link to each other where that happens.
Sections follow the five domains of the official CKA curriculum, and each page lists the competencies it covers. Start with the exam itself.
Independent notes
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation or the Linux Foundation. Kubernetes changes every release, so check the linked Kubernetes documentation for the version your exam uses.