Certified Kubernetes Administrator

CKA Practice Exam: Certified Kubernetes Administrator Practice Questions

Upload your Kubernetes notes, course PDFs, or the official curriculum, and the AI writes unlimited CKA practice questions with an answer key in seconds. Built for the current v1.35 curriculum: Gateway API, Helm and Kustomize, CRDs and operators, and troubleshooting at 30% of the exam.

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The CKA exam is 2 hours long, performance-based (live command-line tasks on real clusters, not multiple choice), costs US$445, and requires a score of 66% or above to pass. There are no prerequisites, the certification is valid for 2 years, and the fee includes one free retake, a 12 month eligibility window, and two sessions of the official exam simulator. The exam currently tests on Kubernetes v1.35 and is realigned to the newest minor version within roughly 4 to 8 weeks of release. Five domains: Troubleshooting 30%, Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration 25%, Services and Networking 20%, Workloads and Scheduling 15%, Storage 10%.

Last updated July 2026

What the CKA exam tests on the current curriculum

We read the official CNCF curriculum document for v1.35, as we do for every cert page on this site. Five domains, and the weighting sends a clear message: troubleshooting is the single biggest domain at 30%, nearly a third of your score, and it is the one domain you cannot cram from a features list.

Domain What is actually in it Weight
TroubleshootingTroubleshoot clusters, nodes, and cluster components; monitor cluster and application resource usage; manage and evaluate container output streams; troubleshoot services and networking. This is where broken clusters get handed to you and the clock keeps running.30%
Cluster Architecture, Installation and ConfigurationRBAC, preparing infrastructure, creating and managing clusters with kubeadm, cluster lifecycle, highly-available control planes, installing cluster components with Helm and Kustomize, extension interfaces (CNI, CSI, CRI), and CRDs plus installing and configuring operators.25%
Services and NetworkingPod-to-Pod connectivity, defining and enforcing Network Policies, ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer service types and endpoints, using the Gateway API to manage Ingress traffic, Ingress controllers and resources, and CoreDNS.20%
Workloads and SchedulingDeployments with rolling updates and rollbacks, ConfigMaps and Secrets, workload autoscaling, the primitives behind robust self-healing deployments, and Pod admission and scheduling (resource limits, node affinity, and friends).15%
StorageStorage classes and dynamic volume provisioning, volume types, access modes and reclaim policies, and managing persistent volumes and persistent volume claims.10%

Every task starts with knowing exactly which object and field you need. Drill that recall: generate practice questions from your own Kubernetes notes until reclaim policies, service types, and RBAC verbs come back without thinking.

Format
Hands-on
Time limit
2 hours
Passing score
66%
Exam fee
US$445

Why drill questions for a hands-on exam?

Because the terminal is where you spend time, and recall is what saves it. Every CKA task decomposes into knowledge you either have instantly or have to look up under the clock: which service type exposes a node port, what a reclaim policy of Retain actually does, which kubeadm command joins a control-plane node, where a kubelet logs on a systemd host. Question drills compress that lookup time to zero, so your 2 hours go into doing tasks, not remembering how. Quizzing is the fastest way to find the gaps before the simulator finds them for you.

On the current curriculum

Gateway API for Ingress traffic, Helm and Kustomize for installing cluster components, CRDs and operators, extension interfaces (CNI, CSI, CRI), dynamic volume provisioning, and workload autoscaling. The exam tracks Kubernetes v1.35 and moves to each new minor version within about 4 to 8 weeks.

The staleness test for your course

Search your prep material for "Gateway API" and "Kustomize". If neither appears, the course predates the current curriculum and is quietly skipping topics you will be graded on. Keep the course for fundamentals, but generate your practice questions from the current curriculum document instead.

Your US$445 already includes the official simulator (two sessions, 36 hours of access each). The winning order is cheap drills first, expensive rehearsals second: quiz yourself from your notes until concepts are automatic, then spend the simulator sessions purely on speed and muscle memory.

CKA versus CKAD and CKS

The Linux Foundation runs three hands-on Kubernetes exams, and they share the format: 2 hours, live clusters, command line. What changes is the job they certify.

  CKA CKAD CKS
RoleCluster administrator: install, operate, troubleshootApplication developer: design and run apps on KubernetesSecurity specialist: harden clusters and workloads
Passing score66%66%67%
Biggest domainTroubleshooting, 30%Application design and buildCluster hardening and system security
PrerequisiteNoneNoneA valid CKA
Who takes itPlatform, DevOps, and SRE engineersBackend and full-stack developersSecurity and platform engineers

If your job is keeping clusters alive, take the CKA. It is also the mandatory first step toward CKS, which requires a valid CKA before you can even sit it. If you ship applications to Kubernetes rather than operate it, the CKAD practice exam covers the developer track.

How to build CKA practice questions that actually transfer to the terminal

The exam grades doing. Your questions should drill the knowing that makes doing fast.

1
Upload current material
The CNCF curriculum PDF, your course notes, or pages from the Kubernetes docs. If your course fails the Gateway API test, add the current curriculum alongside it so the questions cover what the exam covers.
2
Weight it like the exam
Troubleshooting is 30% and cluster architecture is 25%, together more than half your score. Generate the most questions from those sections: symptoms, causes, and the first command you would run.
3
Drill until recall is instant
Retake each set until service types, reclaim policies, RBAC verbs, and kubeadm phases come back in under five seconds. On a timed lab exam, slow recall is the same as no recall.
4
Finish in the simulator
Spend your two included simulator sessions last, on pure task speed: 36 hours of access each is plenty when you are no longer pausing to remember which object a task needs.

CKA exam questions, answered

Is the CKA exam multiple choice?
No. The CKA is performance-based: you work in a command-line environment against live Kubernetes clusters and solve real administration tasks for 2 hours. That is exactly why question drills earn their keep. Every minute you spend remembering which resource or flag a task needs is a minute not spent doing the task, and quizzing is the cheapest way to make that recall instant.
What is the passing score for the CKA exam?
66% or above. Tasks are weighted, partial credit exists within tasks, and your score report arrives by email within 24 hours of finishing. The fee includes one free retake, so a first attempt that misses is data, not disaster: the domain breakdown tells you exactly where to drill before the second try.
How hard is the CKA exam?
Genuinely hard, for a structural reason: nothing is multiple choice, so you cannot pass on recognition. You either configure the cluster correctly in the time given or you do not. Troubleshooting is the biggest domain at 30%, which means broken things you have to diagnose cold. The counterweight is that the exam is honest: there are no trick questions, just tasks, and preparation converts directly into points.
How much does the CKA exam cost?
US$445 for the exam alone, which includes one free retake, a 12 month window to use your attempts, and two sessions of the official exam simulator with 36 hours of access each. Bundles with training run US$625 to US$645. Against a typical US platform engineer salary, it is priced like the professional-tier cloud exams it competes with.
Does the CKA certification expire?
Yes, after 2 years. Renewal means taking the current version of the exam again, and the exam follows the newest Kubernetes minor version within about 4 to 8 weeks of release. Expect the curriculum to have moved: this cycle brought the Gateway API and operator content that older prep never mentions.
What Kubernetes version is the CKA exam based on?
Kubernetes v1.35 as of July 2026, per the official curriculum, with realignment to each new minor version within roughly 4 to 8 weeks. Practically, study from current docs and a current curriculum PDF rather than a course recorded several versions ago, and re-check the curriculum page the week you book.
Is the CKA worth it?
If you operate Kubernetes for a living or want to, yes. US postings for platform engineer, SRE, and DevOps roles name the CKA more than any other Kubernetes credential, and hiring managers weight it because it is hands-on: passing means you administered real clusters under time pressure. It is also the required gateway to the CKS security certification.

PDFQuiz is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Linux Foundation or the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Kubernetes is a registered trademark of the Linux Foundation. This generator builds practice questions from material you upload and is a study aid, not a substitute for hands-on cluster practice. Always confirm current exam details on the official certification page before you book.

Related study tools

Building the rest of a platform-engineering resume? Once your CKA is in hand, the CKS practice exam covers the security specialist cert that requires a valid CKA as its prerequisite. The Terraform Associate practice exam covers the infrastructure-as-code cert that pairs with the CKA in most US job postings, and the AZ-400 DevOps practice test covers the Azure DevOps track. Cloud-side, start with the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer practice exam or the AWS Solutions Architect Associate practice test. Any study guide works with the certification exam generator, or start from any PDF with the PDF to practice test generator.

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