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Learnings from passing the Kubernetes certification CKAD

Learnings from passing the Kubernetes certification CKAD
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In this blog post, I will share my experience and learnings from passing the Kubernetes certification CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer) after failing it in the first trial. This is a small summary. I hope it will be useful for those who want to pass this certification.

What is the CKAD certification

The kubernetes CKAD certification is "2-hour, performance-based online test that evaluates your practical ability to design, build, and deploy cloud-native applications on Kubernetes"

Tips and materials to prepare and pass the CKAD certification

  • I used the kodekloud CKAD course mainly to prepare for the exam. I am not affiliated with this platform in any way. I am just sharing what worked for me. I also used this material of mock exams to prepare for the exam.
  • Get comfortable searching in the official documentation. Since you get access to it, it is important to be quick in searching in it for the information you need.
  • When you finish preparing, passs the killer.sh mock exams you get when you sign up for the exam. It helps you to get used to the exam environment, which can be confusing. I made the mistake of not doing this in my first trial, which made me lose a lot of time during the first trial.
  • Practice a lot of exams. That what will make you comfortable with the time pressure.
  • Use aliases in the exam. The most basic ones are k=kubectl and k get po=kubectl get pods. It can look that it doesn't save time, but it does.
  • Use the kubectl explain command to get help on the different resources. It is difficult to remember all the different fields of every resource. This command shows you the different fields and also a detailed description of each one. This is also useful in order to not waste time searching on the documentation.
  • You may get some questions about Docker. Do not forget to review the basics of Docker.
  • If you are on a question, and you get stuck, flag it and move to the next one. You can come back to it later. It is important to not waste time on a question that you are stuck on.