Lesson 1 · Free · 2 min
$ kubectl -n shop describe pod web-7b64869677-x92x6
Watch lesson 1 freeWhy the CKA is a typing exam · 2 min

Kubernetes certification: the CKA curriculum

Cloud · 28 lessons · 1 h 7 min · Intermediate

A terminal-first course for working engineers preparing for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam. You build and extend one small system across every exam domain, then diagnose a failing release at the end. Exam technique is taught alongside the skills.

What you'll be able to do

  • Generate and edit Kubernetes manifests quickly with imperative commands, dry-run output and kubectl explain
  • Roll out, roll back, configure and schedule workloads, and set requests, limits and autoscaling with sound judgement
  • Expose workloads with Services, CoreDNS, Network Policies, Ingress and the Gateway API, and say what each does and does not do
  • Provision storage with PersistentVolumes, claims and StorageClasses, and choose the right access mode and reclaim policy
  • Bootstrap, upgrade and back up a kubeadm cluster, and grant access with RBAC, Helm and Kustomize
  • Diagnose pod, node, control plane and network failures in a repeatable order under time pressure

How the lessons work

Lessons that move

Narrated, animated lessons with real terminals and code on screen.

Pause and ask

Stuck? Ask out loud or type. The answer plays as a short video made for your question.

Check yourself

Short quizzes inside the lessons show whether it stuck.

Course content

28 lessons · 1 h 7 min · 2 lessons are free
Unit 1 · The exam and the mental model4 lessons · 9 min
01Why the CKA is a typing exam2 minFree02The cluster is a set of loops2 minFree
03kubectl at speed2 min
04The dry-run YAML factory2 min
Unit 2 · Workloads and scheduling5 lessons · 11 min
05Deployments, rollouts and rollbacks2 min
06ConfigMaps and Secrets2 min
07Probes and self-healing2 min
08Requests, limits and autoscaling2 min
09Taints, tolerations and placement2 min
Unit 3 · Services and networking5 lessons · 12 min
10Services and their endpoints2 min
11CoreDNS and service discovery2 min
12Network Policies2 min
13Ingress, and what happened to ingress-nginx2 min
14Gateway API and HTTPRoute3 min
Unit 4 · Storage2 lessons · 5 min
15PersistentVolumes, claims and reclaim policy2 min
16StorageClasses and dynamic provisioning2 min
Unit 5 · Cluster architecture, installation and configuration6 lessons · 16 min
17RBAC: roles, bindings and can-i3 min
18Bootstrapping with kubeadm, and HA2 min
19Upgrading a kubeadm cluster in order3 min
20etcd backup and restore3 min
21Helm and Kustomize3 min
22CNI, CSI, CRI, CRDs and operators3 min
Unit 6 · Troubleshooting4 lessons · 11 min
23Workload triage: describe, events, logs2 min
24A node is NotReady3 min
25When the control plane is down3 min
26Debugging services and networking3 min
Unit 7 · Capstone: ship the shop2 lessons · 5 min
27Ship the shop3 min
28The bad release2 min