My CKA Exam Experience

In this post, I am sharing my experience of Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, how you should prepare for it and what you could expect in the exam. So let’s get started.

About the exam

I took the exam on January 25th, 2023. It was conducted on Kubernetes v1.26.00. The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam evaluates your knowledge in the following areas:

You can start the pre-exam process 30 minutes before the scheduled exam time. This includes setting up a PSI browser, as this is a proctored exam. The proctor will verify your identity and the environment around you. This process takes up to 10 minutes.

Once verification is complete, the proctor will start the exam and you will have 2 hours to answer all the questions. The questions are designed to resemble real-world scenarios.

It is essential to ensure you have a stable internet connection for your exam. If you lose connectivity, you must go through the verification process again, which can take up valuable exam time. Unfortunately, I experienced this twice during my exam, costing me around 30 minutes. I had to rush to finish the exam.

How to prepare

I purchased Mumshad Mannambeth's course on Udemy. It covers almost all the concepts related to the course. When you buy the course, you get free access to KodeKloud. It's a great learning experience to solve the practice tests available there. Make sure to attempt them until you can answer all the questions correctly and within the time limit. (Note: this is not an advertisement! 😉)

Apart from this, you get 2 free practice tests on https://killer.sh/ which you should attempt once you are sure and confident about the topics. Both the tests contain same 25 questions which you can attempt twice. Once you activate the test, the session is available for 36 hours and you will face some tougher challenges when you take this simulated exam. It is already mentioned on killer that these tests are a bit tougher than the actual CKA exam but this is true to only a certain extent. I recommend attempting these tests with full preparation. If you are able to solve most of the questions, you should be able to complete the CKA exam within the allotted time.

In the CKA exam, I encountered 17 questions (which I can't disclose due to the agreement). Some were short, some were long. It's important to remember that each question has a different weighting, so you can prioritize the ones with higher weighting to increase your chances of passing. You can also leave a question unanswered and come back to it later.

During the exam

You can spend initial time setting up the terminal and editor. I used nano for YAML files, but it doesn't matter; vim is also popular. You can configure your .bashrc file with the following aliases and exports:

export do="--dry-run=client -o yaml"
export now="--grace-period 0 --force"

# if alias is not set
alias k=kubectl
complete -o default -F __start_kubectl k

You can also edit .vimrc or .nanorc files. In my case, I edited the .nanorc file (if it isn't present, create it) with the following:

set tabsize 4
set tabstospaces

Whenever possible, use the imperative approach with kubectl to save time and effort, rather than relying solely on the declarative approach. It is important to become familiar with all the various imperative commands and how to use them effectively. However, if you face an issue that cannot be solved through the imperative approach alone, consider combining both approaches for a more comprehensive solution. This may require some extra effort, but it can be worth it in the end as it can lead to more effective and efficient results.

Reading the documentation is the most underrated skill (Not said by me, but it inspired me). It is essential to go through the official Kubernetes documentation at least once. You may discover features that are not included in the course you purchase. Going through official documentation is always a good practice as it provides in-depth knowledge about the topics and empowers you beyond what any course can offer.

That’s all from the CKA perspective. Happy learning!