What does a DevOps-engineer need to know for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam

Certified Kubernetes Administrator is an official certification by Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a non-commercial association that develops standards for modern IT-infrastructures.

What does the exam include

The certification exam consists of a series of practical tasks that should not be too difficult for any Kubernetes administrator with some real work experience – even not that rich.

You can find the general domains with their corresponding weights on the CNCF site:

• Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration - 25%
• Workloads & Scheduling - 15%
• Services & Networking - 20%
• Storage - 10%
• Troubleshooting - 30%

Our engineers signed an NDA that restricts us from telling details about the tasks. But we still can describe how they prepared for the exam. All three of them passed the certification on their first try.  

Minimum requirements

• Basic Linux skills, knowledge of grep, pipes, vim, systemd, journald, cfssl/openssl, apt-get, curl/wget/nslookup.
• At least two months of full-time Kubernetes work experience.

How to prepare for the exam

Our engineers managed to prepare in several weeks, studying for a couple hours daily.

The curriculum on the CNCF site can intimidate by its size. Our engineers recommend to use these sources:

• Carefully read the certification webpage on the CNCF site. It includes everything you need to know about the procedure and terms of certification as well as FAQ and exam tips.

• Read “Kubernetes in Action” by Marko Lusa. This is basically a how-to book with practical recommendations for a novice Kubernetes administrator.
• Sign up for the Udemy course Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with Practice Tests. Its structure follows the exam curriculum.

And a pro-tip from our engineers: don’t try to memorize every technical detail. During the exam you’ll have Kubernetes documentation at hand. The most important is to understand the logic behind an administrator work.

Step-by-step guide

1. Register for the exam, pay the fee, choose the date.
   1. The date of exam may not be earlier than 24 hours and later than 60 days from registration.
   2. You can change the date until the last 24 hours before the exam. 
2. Get your identification ready – anything with your photo, signature and full name.
3. Check your hardware. You can make shure that your computer is compatible here.

For the exam you will need:

1. 1. A plug-in camera with an autofocus feature,
   2. Chrome+exam plugin+bookmarks for the guides on kubernetes.io.

The exam procedure

CNCF allows to pass the exam wherever you feel comfortable if the place is quiet, private and well lit. Your desk should be empty, you can’t eat, drink or chew gum. No people in the room, no posters or writings on the walls.

During the exam you will communicate with your personal proctor who knows nothing about Kubernetes. Their job is to make sure that you don’t cheat. They will ask you to show the room with your camera, to look under your desk – that’s why it should be detachable. If you tend to look away while answering the test, cover your face with a hand, read questions aloud, etc., your proctor will make a reprimand.

The exam takes two hours, you will carry out tasks via Chrome. You will only be allowed to visit https://kubernetes.io/docs/, https://github.com/kubernetes/, https://kubernetes.io/blog/ and corresponding subdomains.

You will know the result in 36 hours after the test. To pass the exam you’ll need to get 66% or more. Sadly, the organisers don’t comment on the results so there’s no way to learn where you’d lost the score.

How much does it cost

The exam fee is $300 which includes one retake. You may also buy official preparation course from Linux Foundation. For $500 you’ll get both the course and access to exam. Our engineers managed without it.

How long is the certification valid

The certification expires in 36 months after the exam. During this period you may retake the exam to renew the certification for the next three years. If you fail to renew the certification before the expiration date, the examination process starts from the beginning.

Why do you need the certification

For a Kubernetes administrator this certification is a means to methodize their practical knowledge, make sure that they feel comfortable with the Kubernetes paradigm. Such an expert will be able to make correct decisions in his day-to-day work.

We as a company use the certification to manage knowledge in an attractive technological domain. It is equally important for us to confirm technological competence of our engineers and to build an internal assembly line to pass these competence from one expert to another. CKA allows us to do just that.

CNCF also allows companies with three Certified Kubernetes administrators to become a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP). We plan to get this status in the near future.