Are you nervous about the CKA? You’re not alone
I’ve always thought of myself as someone who is very good at standardized tests. But when I signed up to take the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), I was nervous.
Partly it was the subject matter that worried me. Yes, I work with Kubernetes daily and provision clusters all the time — but always through Palette, which abstracts away most of the underlying complexity.
But it’s also the hands-on format of the exam that daunted me. Unlike multiple-choice tests, where I could rely on quick elimination and intuition, this test required precision. A single misstep in a command could mean wasting valuable time troubleshooting.
Now that I’ve been through the process (and, most importantly, passed the exam), I can reassure you that the CKA is very manageable — with the right preparation. Much of the CKA’s difficulty comes from unfamiliarity with the exam format rather than the content itself.
So let’s explore how you can prepare effectively, what to focus on, and what strategies you can follow to navigate the exam with confidence. With a structured approach and the right mindset, passing the CKA is well within your reach.
Mastering the fundamentals
It would be fair to assume that the scenario-based format of the CKA means it tests your ability to solve real-world Kubernetes problems — an intimidating thought, especially if you don’t have years of production experience.
In reality, standardized examinations, even hands-on tests like the CKA, assess a fixed scope of knowledge rather than every possible on-the-job scenario. The CKA focuses on core Kubernetes concepts, so you can prepare for it just like any other exam: by mastering the fundamentals.
Start by reviewing domains and competencies on the Linux Foundation’s official CKA page.
Then, choose a comprehensive video course that covers these topics. One popular choice is KodeCloud’s Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with Practice Tests by Mumshad Mannambeth on Udemy. Purchasing this course gives you a discount on the CKA registration that will more than make up for what you pay for the course, as well as labs to help you get hands-on experience. There are also free courses on YouTube if you don’t want to spend any money.
Most courses amount to around 25 hours of content. When I was preparing for the exam, I dedicated about an hour a day and finished within five weeks.
It's perfectly normal if, after completing a unit, you still don't feel completely ready to tackle related problems. The strategies detailed later in this blog will help you overcome these hurdles.
Practice strategies: using AI and real scenarios
One of the most intimidating aspects of the CKA exam is its task-based format. You need to be comfortable solving real problems on a Kubernetes cluster.
But practice questions are hard to come by, and you can’t easily find pre-configured clusters online to work on to test out your knowledge. Your exam registration gives you access to Killer Shell, but that environment is limited to 36 hours and only has a limited set of 30 questions. I recommend you save that for closer to the exam date.
When I was preparing, I realized that working with a Kubernetes cluster is largely about issuing kubectl commands and interpreting responses — which is quite similar to interacting with a Large Language Model (LLM). So why not use AI to simulate a Kubernetes cluster? Time to experiment.
There were some trials and errors, mostly involving the AI being overly forgiving when it comes to command and YAML syntax. For your convenience, here are the instructions I gave AI to have it pretend to be a Kubernetes cluster. You can use any GenAI service of your choice. For example, Spectro Cloud offers Compass, a chatbot specifically designed to answer questions about Kubernetes.
You are administering the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam. When prompted, provide a scenario like the ones I would encounter in the CKA exam, and then wait for me to supply commands and manifests. When you receive my input, provide output exactly as a K8s cluster would. Be strict with indentation and formatting. Do not give me hints about what went wrong.
This approach works surprisingly well. Not only do you get an unlimited number of practice questions in any knowledge domain and any desired level of difficulty on demand, but you can also get immediate feedback from AI about your solution and alternative approaches. You can ask follow-up questions on subjects you’re unsure about and even ask for an overall assessment after doing a number of questions to identify weak areas.
It’s not perfect, and it’s not meant to be a realistic simulation of the exam, but using AI this way allows you to get comfortable with the task-based exam format without the pressure of a timed environment.
Simulating the real exam environment
Start using your Killer Shell sessions a week or two before your exam. While killer.sh recommends that you use it as an actual exam simulation and attempt to solve as many problems as possible in two hours, I do not recommend this at all.
Why? Two reasons: the questions are significantly harder than the actual exam, and the performance of the remote shell itself is noticeably worse. Treating Killer Shell as an actual exam simulation will hit your confidence when after two hours you’ve barely managed to get through half of the questions!
Instead, use the Killer Shell environment to practice with the remote desktop exam environment. Brush up on your vim skills. Develop some muscle memory to switch context for every question. Get used to looking up the documentation on a remote desktop in Linux — if you are a Mac user like me, the search, copy, and paste shortcuts are all different on Linux, which takes some time to get used to. On exam day, you don’t want to get frustrated because the computer won’t do what you want it to do.
While the Killer Shell questions are hard, they are worth solving in preparation for the exam. Every question is likely two steps more complicated than the equivalent exam question. Don’t feel pressured to solve the questions under the two-hour time limit. Take a weekend and use as many of the 36 hours as you need to go through each question. Once you know how to solve each question in Killer Shell, together with the preparation you’d done before, most exam questions will feel like a piece of cake.
Don’t forget to check the detailed grading of your solutions. Looking at the sub-objectives will help you contextualize the kind of tasks you can perform during the exam to earn partial credit even if you can’t solve the scenario in full.
Exam day tactics: how to maximize your performance
Your goal is to pass the exam, and there are a few strategies you can follow that will really help you maximize your score:
- Switch context first. The exam requires you to work across different Kubernetes contexts. Always begin by switching to the provided context. If you don’t, the necessary resources may not be available, and you'll lose valuable time troubleshooting.
- Earn partial credit. Even if you’re unsure about a question, complete the parts you know. For instance, if a question asks for both a deployment and a network policy, focus on creating the deployment correctly. You might still earn partial credit by configuring some components, even if you can’t complete the entire task perfectly.
- Flag and move on. If you get stuck on a question, flag it for review and move on. Time management is key — don’t let one problem derail your progress. Aim to have 45 minutes remaining before the exam ends so you can revisit flagged questions and secure any additional points.
- Know the weights. Most test takers agree that 70% of the questions are straightforward to intermediate, while the remaining 30% are more challenging. Since you only need to score 66% overall to pass, focus on securing full points where you can, knowing that partial credit on the harder questions can still help you reach the passing mark.
Is the CKA right for you?
The CKA exam has its flaws, as my colleague Steven has argued. It’s true that most of us rarely need to bootstrap clusters from scratch or perform an etcd restore anymore, which is emphasized in the exam, nor does the exam cover industry-standard tools like Helm.
Nonetheless, I consider the CKA an exceptionally well-designed exam that ensures a solid understanding of how a Kubernetes cluster works on a low level and the core concepts and resources used in any cluster.
No standardized exam can certify you as a fully-fledged Kubernetes DevOps engineer overnight, but the CKA’s foundational knowledge is universally applicable in the world of Kubernetes, making it easier to learn new features and tackle real-world challenges as they arise.
Case in point: imagine I’m testing a feature and find that a pod was not being scheduled. Before studying for the CKA, I may have had to call in help or report a generic bug right there. Now, I’m quickly able to find that it was because it had an untolerated taint, remove the taint so I could continue my testing of the feature, and report a much more specific bug.
If you’re new to Kubernetes — or even if you’ve been working with it for a while but feel unsure about how its pieces fit together — I highly encourage you to pursue the CKA. It has elevated my understanding of Kubernetes and given me a confidence boost when it comes to documenting features related to Kubernetes.