How I passed the newly released CKA exam V1.19 in First Attempt(2021)

CKA have the skills, knowledge, and competency to perform the responsibilities of Kubernetes administrators.

Duration of the exam is now 2 hours (instead of 3) with 17 questions and The syllabus of the CKA Exam as follows:

https://github.com/cncf/curriculum

25%-Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration
15%-Workloads & Scheduling
20%-Services & Networking
10%-Storage
30%-Troubleshooting

Preparation

For the Preparation , I have used the below resources :

• This course on Udemy by Mumshad Mannambeth. The course structure is good and the instructor covers all the topics with great explanation. with hands on exercises .
• The course content and the katakoda terminal is enough to pass through the exam. Practice, Practice & Practice.
• most of the people have recommended killer.sh For mock exams, I haven’t used killer.sh. you can go for killer.sh

Tips

1. Make use of the auto-completion, it helps to avoid typo errors.
2. Practice your bookmarks well which make easier for you to find the exact link during exam.
3. Do refer to the network policies in as per the github link https://github.com/ahmetb as network policy question are tricky and need more practice.
4. During the exam, make sure to switch to correct cluster context using the command given at the top of every question. Make sure to run it before attempting every question.
5. if you are not familiar with any question or problem, just flag it and come back later. Aim to complete ones you can do quickly and return to questions with time you have left.
6. Get familiar with official Kubernetes documentation, especially practice all the questions using your own bookmarks. This will speed you up during exam, since you will know where to look for particular information.
7. Spend time depending on the weighting of the question. There is no point in spending 15 minutes on a question with 2% weight. Skip those and come back later.
8. During the exam, sometimes you need to ssh to another node or change to root user. Beware of where you are shelled to all the time on the bash terminal.
9. Time management is very crucial, refer the section below on how to manage time wisely.

Conclusion

CKA exams require lots of hands-on practice and skills. However, it is also one of the most rewarding experiences. Even if you don’t pass on your first attempt, there is one free retake opportunity. Remember: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.

I hope this helps you. Good luck .

In Case of Any Issues and Questions, you can connect me on LinkedIn:

varun thukral - Software Developer Hybrid Cloud - IBM | LinkedIn