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Certified Kubernetes Administrator


Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam is all about the types of tasks an administrator might need to perform as part of their job. It will involve more than just creating and destroying pods and their associated objects, and so the exam questions cover more than just YAML and kubectl. I consider myself lucky because for the past one & half years, I had the chance to work on Kubernetes in one of my projects. I regularly worked on improving my skills and studied for the exam, as it is one of the toughest and practical based exam.
This is one of the most difficult certifications that I have ever done. CKA exam is one of its kind with very rich content and about everything hands-on. The exam itself felt fair in terms of complexity and difficulty. You should know where to look in the Kubernetes docs to help you on more complex tasks and I mean knowing exactly where to look.

Preparation:
Firstly, I would advise you to download the exam study handbook and get an understanding of what is required of you. The structure of the exam is given below:
1. 3 hours
2. 24 questions
3. Pass mark of 74%
4. Remotely proctored
5. Chrome browser plus an extension
6. Government-issued non-expired ID
7. Webcam and microphone
8. Steady internet, preferably 5MB up/down.
9. Exam Cost: $300 and includes one free retake.
10.Ubuntu machines

You may refer the below clusters to practice:               
1. Katacoda’s Kubernetes Playground
2. Minikube
3. Google Kubernetes Enginer (GKE)

Some additional useful links:

https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/practice-enough-with-these-questions-for-the-ckad-exam-2f42d1228552  
https://github.com/walidshaari/Kubernetes-Certified-Administrator
https://github.com/krzko/awesome-cka
https://github.com/dgkanatsios/CKAD-exercises
https://github.com/stretchcloud/cka-lab-practice
https://github.com/David-VTUK/CKA-StudyGuide
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with Practice Tests

Exam Day:
You must meet all the requirements as mentioned in the exam handbook. Before starting the exam a proctor will ask to confirm your identity & will validate whether your working surface is clean (nothing around that can help).

The CKA is an exam that is kind of an open book test. You are allowed to have a single tab open to anything in the *.kubernetes.io or github.com/kubernetes. When you are solving a question and need a reference or an example, search for it in the documentation. Kubernetes.io has a great search function & you can refer to examples, copy-paste YAML text and commands.
There is a built-in notepad in the exam interface which might be handy since you're not allowed to write on paper during the exam.

Try to focus on the questions & read it very carefully in order to understand the requirements. Some questions are tricky in context therefore try to stay calm and avoid typing mistakes. I took around 2:30 hours to complete my exam.
So, practice, practice, and practice. This is a practical exam, no multiple-choice questions here.

Result:
In my case, I got results within 30 hours via an email after the completion of the exam. You will also receive an official email at the end of the exam informing you that the result will be declared within 36 hours.



I hope this article would be useful for you and please let me know in the comments if it somehow helped you to pass the exam.



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