You will find a lot of articles with good tips on how to ace the CKA exam. You should definitely read them! When preparing for the exam, it sure helped me a lot. But as I am now certified, in retrospect I can say some of these advices may not be worthwhile.

In this article I will focus on tips I would call discussable: they do not give you a real competitive edge and may even impediment your success. Let’s start!

#1 You need prior experience with Kubernetes

This is simply not true. Accounts of people with 1+ years of experience on Kubernetes that barely pass the exam make me wonder what they really did during their time with the technology.

Of course, prior experience is good, and most experienced Kubernetes administrators or developers will only need some refresh on key areas. But even if you did not use Kubernetes you can pass the exam by focusing your study on the certification curriculum. More on this below.

#2 You need to use a course or training

The exam is performance-based. More precisely, task-based. You are given a terminal, a Kubernetes installation, and should clear each question by executing commands to reach a given state. What you need to succeed:

• To understand the general architecture of a Kubernetes cluster and what are the main components
• Know how to navigate the official documentation on kubernetes.io
• Do at least once most of the tasks in the official documentation

The understanding of the Kubernetes architecture required for the exam is quite basic, you should not be afraid.

#tips-and-tricks #cloud #cka #devops #kubernetes