Application Design and Build - 20%
- Define, build and modify container images
- Choose and use the right workload resource (Deployment, DaemonSet, CronJob, etc.)
- Understand multi-container Pod design patterns (e.g. sidecar, init and others)
- Utilize persistent and ephemeral volumes
Application Deployment - 20%
- Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary)
- Understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates
- Use the Helm package manager to deploy existing packages
- Kustomize
Application Observability and Maintenance - 15%
- Understand API deprecations
- Implement probes and health checks
- Use built-in CLI tools to monitor Kubernetes applications
- Utilize container logs
- Debugging in Kubernetes
Application Environment, Configuration and Security - 25%
- Discover and use resources that extend Kubernetes (CRD, Operators)
- Understand authentication, authorization and admission control
- Understand requests, limits, quotas
- Understand ConfigMaps
- Define resource requirements
- Create & consume Secrets
- Understand ServiceAccounts
- Understand Application Security (SecurityContexts, Capabilities, etc.)
Services and Networking - 20%
- Demonstrate basic understanding of NetworkPolicies
- Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
- Use Ingress rules to expose applications
The CKAD Certification focuses on the skills required to be a successful Kubernetes Application Developer in industry today. The exam assumes working knowledge of container runtimes and microservice architecture.
The successful candidate will be comfortable: – working with (OCI-compliant) container images – applying Cloud Native application concepts and architectures – working with and validating Kubernetes resource definitions
Exam Details & Resources This exam is an online, proctored, performance-based test that consists of a set of performance-based tasks (problems) to be solved in a command line. Candidates have 2 hours to complete the tasks. Candidates who register for the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam will have 2 attempts (per exam registration) to an exam simulator, provided by Killer.sh.
The exam is based on Kubernetes v1.29. The CKAD exam environment will be aligned with the most recent K8s minor version within approximately 4 to 8 weeks of the K8s release date