I recently successfully completed the Cloud Native Computing Foundation Certified Kubernetes Administrator certification. This happened to be one of the most enjoyable certifications I have completed in recent memory.
If you are looking to learn more about:
- how to deploy Kubernetes,
- how to troubleshoot common Kubernetes issues,
- or how to perform a wide range of administative tasks inside of Kubernetes
then this certification is right for you. Since I did not have any experience with Kubernetes before purchasing this exam, I did some research and opted to purchase a subscription to Kode Kloud to bolster my knowledge. The CKA course on their platform was awesome, and the labs provided hands on activities to perform a wide range of administrative tasks within a Kubernetes cluster. There was also a separate “course” that contained a ton of practice tests, which provided me with much needed additional hands on opportunities to perform administrative tasks. I believe there were a total of 10 practice tests available, but by the time I had finished 5 of them, I felt comfortable enough to take the certification exam.
Now about the certification itself. Overall, this certification sets itself apart by the fact that the entire exam is hands on. No multiple choice was present on this exam. You are given a handful of tasks to perform in a two hour timeframe and I felt the time provided was fair, as I finished with about 15 minutes left. The other thing I really liked about this exam that made it feel more “real world” was that you were allowed to puruse the documentation on the Kubernetes website. While beneficial, you still had to know what you were looking for and what options to select while digging through the documentation, but this is definitely something that is commonly performed in the real world.
If you are looking to get your feet wet in the world of containerization and microservices, then I highly recommend the combination of Kode Kloud and this certification. I was so impressed that I’ve moved on to the Certificate Kubernetes Security Specialist as my next certification to complete.