Prepare for the CKA

The exam

Performance-based: you solve tasks on live clusters from a terminal, against the clock.

What this path covers

Covers the theory behind every exam domain, plus hands-on labs on a live practice cluster: workloads, scheduling, Helm and Kustomize, Services, Ingress and the Gateway API, network policy, storage, RBAC and troubleshooting. Node-level tasks (kubeadm upgrades, etcd backups) are covered as theory for now.

49 hands-on labs and 22 questions

Finish every step to earn a BrokenCluster completion certificate you can add to LinkedIn.

1. 1.Terminal fluency first

   0/6

   The exam is a timed terminal session. Be quick with these.

   • Find Every Config That Uses a Settingeasy
   • Find Files by Name, Size and Ageeasy
   • Edit a Config File in Place with sedeasy
   • Query JSON from the Command Line with jqmedium
   • Who Is Listening on That Port?medium
   • Stop a Process That Ignores SIGTERMeasy

2. 2.Workloads and scheduling

   0/14
   • What Is a Pod?easy
   • Deployments and ReplicaSetseasy
   • Deploy and Expose an Appeasy
   • Roll Back to a Named Revisioneasy
   • When to Use a DaemonSeteasy
   • Run an Agent on Every Nodemedium
   • Requests and Limitsmedium
   • Fix Pods Stuck in Pendingeasy
   • Taints and Tolerationshard
   • Run a Workload on a Dedicated Nodemedium
   • Pods That Come Backeasy
   • Pending on Purpose, Pending by Mistakemedium
   • Add a Log Sidecar to a Running Appmedium
   • Run a Batch Job in Paralleleasy

3. 3.Helm and Kustomize

   0/10

   The exam expects you to install and manage cluster components with Helm and Kustomize.

   • Rolling Back a Helm Releaseeasy
   • Install a Helm Chart with Custom Valueseasy
   • Upgrade a Helm Release Without Losing Its Settingsmedium
   • Roll Back a Broken Helm Upgrademedium
   • Install the Newest Chart Versioneasy
   • Remove Releases of a Deprecated Charteasy
   • Render a Chart Without Its CRDsmedium
   • Unstick a Helm Releasehard
   • Kustomize Overlaysmedium
   • Build a Production Overlay with Kustomizemedium

4. 4.Services and networking

   0/13
   • Service Typeseasy
   • A Service with No Endpointsmedium
   • Fix a Service With No Endpointseasy
   • Route a Host and Two Pathsmedium
   • NetworkPolicy Defaultshard
   • Lock Down Database Trafficmedium
   • Choose the Least Permissive NetworkPolicymedium
   • Zero-Trust Networking with Default Denyhard
   • Gateway API Roleseasy
   • Route Traffic with the Gateway APImedium
   • Migrate an Ingress to the Gateway APIhard
   • Let One Namespace Inmedium
   • Serve an App over HTTPS with Ingressmedium

5. 5.Storage

   0/5
   • PersistentVolumeClaimsmedium
   • Bind a Claim to a Static Volumemedium
   • StorageClass Reclaim Policymedium
   • A Claim Stuck in Pendingmedium
   • Keep a Volume's Data When Its Claim Goeshard

6. 6.Cluster maintenance

   0/3
   • kubeadm Upgrade Ordermedium
   • Restoring an etcd Snapshothard
   • Sorting with kubectleasy

7. 7.Security and troubleshooting

   0/12
   • Role vs ClusterRolemedium
   • Give a ServiceAccount Read-Only Accessmedium
   • Build a Cluster-Wide Read-Only Rolehard
   • Add a Quota Without Breaking Workloadsmedium
   • Namespaceseasy
   • CrashLoopBackOffmedium
   • Fix a Deployment Stuck Pulling Its Imageeasy
   • Node Stuck NotReadymedium
   • Liveness vs Readinessmedium
   • A Role for Rolling Out Appsmedium
   • Sign a Certificate for a New Userhard
   • A Deployment That Creates No Podsmedium

8. 8.Troubleshoot services and networking

   0/7

   Troubleshooting is 30% of the exam. Follow a request from DNS to Service to Pod and find where it stops.

   • Only This App Can't Resolve Serviceseasy
   • The Policy That Lets Nothing Inmedium
   • Names Stopped Resolvingmedium
   • Unreachable from Outsidemedium
   • A Service for a Database Outside the Clustermedium
   • The Ingress Returns 404 and 503medium
   • The Route That Never Attachedhard

9. 9.Troubleshoot nodes and the control plane

   0/1

   Pods that never start, nodes that go NotReady, and control-plane components that stop working. You fix these over ssh, on the nodes.

   • Stuck in Pendingmedium

BrokenCluster is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by The Linux Foundation and CNCF. Certified Kubernetes Administrator is a trademark of its owner and is named here only to describe what this path helps you prepare for. Passing our path is not the official exam.