How I passed CKA in 20 Days?

Hello Learner, I'm addressing you as a learner as every human being will be a learner throughout his life — every day, hour, minute, second, we all learn something knowingly or unknowingly.

And as you are reading through this blog, I assume you are preparing for CKA or planning to attempt the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam. I will give this exam the hype it already has as one of the most challenging hands-on exams (PS: for me, this was the 2nd most challenging after the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator — LFCS — and my college exams :) ).

I got you here by saying How I passed CKA in 20 Days. Right, so let's not waste any more time and get straight into how I passed.

Me: Wait. Do you know about the CKA Exam?

Me: If you said No, look at the next section to understand the exam :D

Me: If you said Yes, skip to How I prepared for the exam section.

About the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam (CKA)

CKA was created by The Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a part of their ongoing effort to help develop the Kubernetes ecosystem. The exam is an online, proctored, performance-based test that requires solving multiple tasks from a command line running Kubernetes.

This exam is one of the certifications that will test you hands-on, hence the value of the certification is very high compared to other exams out there which are mostly text-based multiple-choice questions.

Passing this exam means you don't have to prove yourself to anyone. Anyone who has this cert knows the basic concept of Kubernetes, how it works, and how to operate it.

This is what the Linux Foundation says about what it is to have a CKA — "A certified K8s administrator has demonstrated the ability to do the basic installation as well as configuring and managing production-grade Kubernetes clusters. They will have an understanding of key concepts such as Kubernetes networking, storage, security, maintenance, logging and monitoring, application lifecycle, troubleshooting, API object primitives, and the ability to establish basic use-cases for end users."

By now, you understood that CKA certification is different entirely, and to add on to that, this isn't a certification that you can pass by learning/reading the subjects 2 days or 5 days before the exam. Because the format of the exam is to operate in Linux/CLI environments, you need to be familiar with Linux shell commands and the Kubernetes CLI.

Update: Now, Exam Simulator access is provided along with the certification voucher itself. So make sure to utilize it. When I attempted the exam, this was not there — Kubernetes Exam Simulator announcement.

About the Exam

According to the Official Exam Curriculum by CNCF, there are in general five domains:

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

You can find the official curriculum here: github.com/cncf/curriculum

Also, you can find more info about the exam here: CKA and CKAD tips

Important things regarding the exam:

The exam duration is 2 hours, and you will be able to retake the exam once if you are not able to clear it on the first attempt.
The exam cost was $300 when I purchased it, and I got $100 off as I had purchased the voucher during a sale.
You will be allowed to connect an external monitor or a second screen.
You can connect an external keyboard/mouse.
You can take breaks in between with the permission of the proctor, but the timer will run.
There are six clusters provided in the CKA exam environment.
During the exam, you can use Chrome or Chromium browser to open one additional tab to access assets at kubernetes.io/docs, github.com/kubernetes, kubernetes.io/blog, and their subdomains (including all language translations). No other tabs may be opened and no other sites may be navigated to (including discuss.kubernetes.io).

I have added more information about the exam in the next sections.

How I prepared for the exam?

Day 1 to Day 5 — Started Preparation

Like you, I also started by searching in blogs for motivation, information about the exam, the exam environment, sample questions, and inspiration.

When I decided to write the exam, I only had 25 days left for the voucher to expire. So it meant I had to make all attempts at the exam before the 25 days were over.

So, I made up my mind that I would split the modules required to be learned into 15 days, giving 2–3 hours a day at least for each topic, and follow that schedule.

I was already a fan of KodeKloud. I had always liked the way the concepts are explained by Mumshad. I only followed the CKA course offered by him to prepare for the exam: Certified Kubernetes Administrator with Practice Tests.

The highlight of this course is that it also gives you a hands-on learning experience like Spektra Academy / Cloud Labs. The Spektra Academy / Cloud Lab has a revolutionary learning experience that no other learning provider gives. I'm extremely privileged to be working with a company like SpektraSystems which has these products.

In the company I work for, I used to occasionally work on Kubernetes and docker-related items, and this has helped me get through the topics quickly. So if you are just starting with learning Kubernetes, be sure to learn basic Linux administration and Docker as well. All the pre-requisites can be learned from this site: kodekloud.com.

Though I speak a lot about KodeKloud, I'm not in any way related to / speaking on behalf of this company. It is just that I really liked the way they present the concepts, and that's why I am suggesting it to you as well.

I continued to cover all topics as given in the course and do the hands-on practice provided. Along with that, I also had a Kubernetes cluster set up in my Azure subscription to practice.

During hands-on learning, I ensured I was referring to the documentation pages only, and hence got familiar with navigating through the official Kubernetes documentation and cheat sheets. This will make things easier during the exam, as you can keep a browser tab open and navigate to the Kubernetes docs for any reference.

Day 5 – 17

As I started preparation, I felt happy to be learning something challenging.

Unfortunately, my colleague got down with Covid, which meant I had to take up additional responsibilities at work to cover, which meant I had to spend more time than usual.

This meant my preparations would take a hit if I didn't take that extra effort to find the time as planned to prepare and write the exam before the voucher expiry date.

Even though at some point I had thought of purchasing the voucher and preparing again when I get time, I told myself I am a lifelong learner — the learning shouldn't stop — which pushed me to learn it after the strenuous job hours. (I'm being a bit dramatic, ignore me :) )

I continued learning and completed the topics for the exam by the 17th day.

Day 17 – 18

As I completed my first phase of covering the entire topic, I decided to schedule the exam.

Then I started exploring sample questions and practice tests. These are the resources that helped me prepare for the exam:

K8s-training-official
CKA-practice-exercises
And importantly, the practice tests offered by KodeKloud which come along with the course itself.

I saw many blogs suggesting buying the CKA Simulator available on killer.sh to practice in an exam-like environment. I didn't use this, but it is definitely something you can try out if you feel less confident.

Day 19

Attempting the practice tests made me feel I'm not ready for the exam. Since there is a second attempt, I thought: why fear failure? It is a great learning opportunity to understand the types of questions for the exam. Hence, I decided I should attempt it to understand what more I should learn to pass.

Here is a little motivation for you — be confident while attempting the exam for the first time even if you are not really prepared. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FAILURE.

Failure teaches us a lot of things. Just keep in mind that you will get a second chance, and you will learn a lot from the first attempt about the extra things you will need to prepare again, and you will be able to clear it in the second attempt. Also, after the first attempt, you will be clear about how the environment is, the questions, etc., and you won't have the anxiety and will be a lot calmer in the second attempt.

Day 20 — On the Day of the Exam

I sat for the exam in the evening.

Before we can access/launch the exam, we have to show our ID proofs and our desk — ensuring it is cleared of any paper or other electronic items — and the exam monitor, upon successful verification, will allow us to start the exam.

The exam environment had the questions on the left side with the console on the right. You will also get a TextPad along with the environment. I did copy-paste the YAML files if required from the Kubernetes documentation into it. There were around 17 questions in total for me, and for each question, you will see the weightage it carries. I decided to start attempting from the end. There were multiple clusters, and we will be provided with the commands to set the context to the right cluster.

The first question took me almost 30–40 minutes to complete. In the next 40 minutes, I attempted around 6 questions, and another 7 in the next 40 minutes, taking the total attempted to 14. I didn't plan to verify again, but I did all I knew in the best possible way whenever I attempted a question.

For all questions, I used the Kubernetes docs extensively to search and navigate to the related content.

Based on the questions I attempted, I felt I had done enough to pass when I did the calculation. But I kept myself ready for the second attempt if a need arose.

The exam didn't seem too difficult if you have prepared well or had hands-on experience in Linux as well. And also, I felt if I had more practice, I would have been able to complete many tasks in lesser time than I took in actuality. So practice is the key.

Day 21 — Exam Result

The result came exactly after 24 hours of completing the exam, and I saw the status as Passed.

The result was a satisfying one as I had put all my efforts into preparing for this. I finally became a CKA :)

Tips for preparing for the Exam

Be confident while attempting the exam for the first attempt. Just keep in mind that you will get a second chance, and DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FAILURE.
During the exam, you can use Chrome or Chromium browser to open one additional tab to access assets at kubernetes.io/docs, github.com/kubernetes, kubernetes.io/blog, and their subdomains. No other tabs may be opened and no other sites may be navigated to (including discuss.kubernetes.io).
You don't have to use an alias for kubectl. I didn't find any time constraints due to typing kubectl as a whole.
There is a notepad provided as part of the environment; you can use that to keep the YAML files or commands and make the changes easily there so that you can complete things faster.
Another key to the CKA exam is to generate YAML files quickly, as all resources in Kubernetes are derived from them. One option is to simply copy and paste examples from the documentation. While this is a useful option for complex configurations, a quicker method is to use commands on the CLI with the dry-run and YAML output flags. To generate a YAML template, you can run a base command and add the --dry-run=client flag together with -o yaml and > FILENAME.yaml:

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > pod.yaml

Cover the following topics clearly if you are not already good with them hands-on:

Backing up and restoring an etcd database
Cluster upgrading
Drain / Cordon
Network Policies and all other topics provided in the curriculum
Troubleshooting logs

Most of the questions on the CKA exam were straightforward and similar to what you see in the documentation, so I would recommend going through the concepts and tasks sections several times and becoming comfortable executing them quickly.

For the exam, practice is the key. Practice more and you will be able to complete the tasks in lesser time. Attempt the questions you are sure of, do them well in the first attempt, and do not plan to go back and verify again.

Ensure you are setting the context as given. This is very important — it is easier to miss changing the context, and you won't get any marks for performing correctly on a different cluster than expected.

Attempt the questions based on the weightage — to pass, you don't have to attempt all questions. You just need to score above 66%.

All the best to you for your exam, and I hope you gain good knowledge as part of this learning journey.

As learning is a passion for me, each certificate motivates me to go for the next. The exam preparation journey has taught me to be consistent towards learning and reminds me that I am a lifelong learner.