Passed CKA with 83% - Detailed Write-up & Advice (From a DevOps Engineer)

Hey all,

Just passed the CKA with an 83% score after about 3 months of study (2 hours/day). Wanted to give back with a detailed write-up since these helped me so much.

Background: I'm a DevOps Engineer. I work with k8s on clouds (EKS, AKS, GCP) and have set up clusters via kubeadm/the hard way. I took the exam to test my limits—it's less about daily use and more about speed and precision under pressure.

Resources That Worked:

1. Mumshad's Course (Udemy): Solid foundation.
2. Killercoda.com: ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL. The terminal-in-browser environment is identical to the exam. I lived here.
3. Dumbitguy on Youtube.
4. Official Kubernetes Documentation: The only "book" you need.

The "Aha!" Moments:

• Imperative Commands: kubectl run, kubectl expose, and kubectl edit are your best friends. They save massive amounts of time.
• Docs Navigation: You don't memorize YAML. You memorize where to find it in the docs. Get fast at: Tasks -> Configure Pods and Containers -> Configure a Pod to Use a ConfigMap. This skill is worth 20% of your score.

Exam Breakdown & Tough Topics:
The exam is exactly as practical as advertised. Heaviest hitters for me were:

• Storage: PV, PVC, StorageClass (had to patch one to make it default).
• Networking: NetworkPolicy (classic), and Gateway API & HTTPRoute (study this!).
• Operations: Installing a CNI, Troubleshooting (e.g., fix the API server), Helm (know --set install.CRDs=true vs --skip-crds ).
• Workloads: Sidecar containers, Resource quotas, HPA (use the walkthrough doc!), PriorityClass (patching required).
• Configuration: CRD (cert-manager came up), ConfigMap (e.g., configuring TLS versions).

Practical Exam Tips:

1. Flag Questions: Some solutions aren't verbatim in the docs. You have to understand the intent of the question to craft the right kubectl command with the correct flags.
2. Notepad: Use it to note down cluster names/contexts for each question. Avoid switching to the wrong cluster.
3. Pace: Skip and flag anything that takes more than 2-3 minutes on first attempt. Come back later.

Why I Likely Got 83%, Not 100%: The time pressure is real. I probably over-engineered a solution or two in the first half and had to rush later. The key is steady, systematic clicks, not perfection.

Final & Most Important Advice:

How I feel: It feels damn good to finally achieve this feat. On to the next one.

Good luck to everyone preparing! Ask any questions below.