Feedback | How I passed the CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) Exam | Tips & Tricks

I recently cleared the CKA exam with 94% score on my first attempt. My preparation time for the CKA exam was roughly around 2 months. Hope this article will help you in your CKA journey :)

Learning material I referred:

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with Practice Tests on Udemy:
https://www.udemy.com/course/certified-kubernetes-administrator-with-practice-tests/

CKA Practice test labs by Mumshad Mannambeth on Kodekloud:
https://kodekloud.com/p/certified-kubernetes-administrator-with-practice-tests-labs

Medium blog series from Arun Ramakani:
https://medium.com/faun/certified-kubernetes-administrator-cka-tips-and-tricks-part-1-2e98e9b31de4

The above mentioned material should be more than enough to clear the exam with flying colors :)

Some quick tips from my side:

• I’ll recommend to use multiple screens, one for your exam terminal and the other one for Kubernetes documentation site.
• The CNI plugin is not updated in the latest version of the documentation. Please refer this for the same.
• The online version of the notepad sometimes hangs up, I was not able to copy-paste and edit yaml files seamlessly, it would be great if you practice editing your yaml files in the terminal as well.
• Learn basics of the following linux commands: grep, awk, sort, head etc
• Know Jsonpath & custom-columns very well.
• Always execute use-context config command provided in the question even if you are in the same cluster just to be very sure.
• Don’t stay on any question for more than 10 mins, you can always come back at the end.
• Try to complete your exam within 2.5 hours and keep 30 mins to review.
• Try to complete the Kodekloud Lightening labs, mock exams without referring the docs and try to solve using imperative commands only. After a time the commands will come out naturally :)
• Set alias for kubectl (alias k=kubectl), it is more than enough, you don’t actually need any other aliases.
• Name your yaml files like 1.yaml, 2-deploy.yaml etc. This will help you when you come back for review at a later stage.
• Practice the kubeadm installation and multi node configuration atleast 3–4 times with additional arguments.
• Import the following bookmarks created by KK.
• Please login to the exam portal 15mins prior to the scheduled start of the exam, the process with the proctor took around 25 mins for me.
• Please note, https://discuss.kubernetes.io/ is not allowed in the exam
• I feel there is no need to invest time for Kubernetes the hard way, the scope in the exam is limited to kubeadm installation.
• Do not skip any of the questions, there is some marking even if you do not solve the question completely, it is always better to attempt everything.
• Do not shy away from attempting the exam even if you are not 100% prepared. There is one more chance just in case you do not succeed.
• Try to get used to typing the commands without autocomplete, this will help you if there is an issue with the exam portal.
• Join the slack channel from KodeKloud, the slack community will help you to solve your queries and questions.
• The difficulty level of the exam depends on how much you have practiced!
• Don’t stress out and do not panic during the exam. Keep calm!

That’s pretty much it for my side.
If you have any questions, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn
All the best!

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Cheers!!