How I Passed My CKA Exam

CKA stands for Certified Kubernetes Administrator which is one of the major Kubernetes certifications.

I recently cleared the CKA exam and wanted to share my complete preparation journey, what worked for me, and some key lessons learned along the way.

Preparation Strategy

When I began, I had zero hands-on experience with Kubernetes, so I started from scratch.

1. The KodeKloud CKA Course on Udemy

   I used the KodeKloud CKA course on Udemy as my main resource.

   • On my first pass, I focused on understanding concepts and made handwritten notes along with questions or doubts I had about each topic.

   • After finishing the course, I took a break for a few weeks and worked on small Kubernetes projects using kubeadm on a cloud VPS. I practiced setting up clusters, HPAs, Ingress, and other components to apply what I’d learned.

   • I have also done the Kubernetes The Hard Way series by Kelsey High Tower to get a taste of bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster from scratch.

Then I went through the course a second time, completing it in about two weeks. Once I was done, I moved on to KodeKloud’s Ultimate CKA Mock Exams.

• I went through my notes, emphasizing on topics which I found difficult in my first pass.

• I made sure I was able to explain those topics to myself to better understand and figure out the gaps in my knowledge.

2. Mock Exams

   After completing the course work from KodeKloud I started attempting multiple mock exams from different sources.

   • The KodeKloud course itself contains 3 mock exams which is a good starting point

   • Then I did the Ultimate CKA Mock Exams by KodeKloud which is a separate course, unfortunately not available as part of the Udemy course (I purchased 1 month subscription of KodeKloud for this)

   • Ultimate CKA Mock Exams are timed exams which helps you get the feel of the actual exam although the environments are completely different, and these mock exams were a game changer for me.

I created a template to note down my progress for each scenarios on notion, which includes:

• My mental model for approaching each question, and

• The validation steps I used to confirm my answers.

In the first attempt, I didn’t time myself. I just tried to understand the patterns behind each questions.
For example:

If a pod is working intermittently, the first thing to check is the liveness probe.

By my second round, I was scoring 80–100% consistently.

Whenever I found a weak spot, I’d revisit that topic before continuing.
During mocks, I made it a rule to not use ChatGPT or AI tools, instead, I relied on official Kubernetes Docs. This helped me become extremely familiar with the docs, which turned out to be crucial because the real exam manifests are very similar to examples from the official documentation.

3. KillerKoda and Killer.sh

   While doing mocks, I also practiced the scenario-based labs from Kim’s KillerKoda.
   During the final three days before the exam, I did Sachin HR’s scenarios, which really helped boost my confidence especially in troubleshooting and section-wise question patterns.

   I also attempted the Killer.sh CKA-A set.

   • I completed 6 questions in about 2 hours, scoring around 38%, but I did not care much about this as I was taking notes and analyzing the environment, not rushing.

   • The Killer.sh interface was very useful for understanding how the real exam environment and UI would look.

   • The question style there was also closer to the actual exam than other mock exams I did. But the difficulty is much more than the actual exam, so I did not care to do the CKA-B set.

4. Additional Resources

   Toward the end, I also reviewed a set of popular question dumps available online (you’ll easily find them through YouTube or Reddit).

   • By that time, I was already confident with kubectl and the docs, so I used these dumps only as a final revision to check my speed and familiarity with question types.

   • Interestingly, I recognized around 10 questions exactly, and 3 others were similar but slightly modified in the real exam.

   • That said, I relied on my own solutions rather than what the dumps suggested, many of those answers weren’t accurate or best.

But I would not recommend you to blindly trust these dumps and skip the actual preparation thinking these dumps would be enough. The actual exam is more about troubleshooting and how fast you are at it.

Exam Experience

I scored 72% on my first attempt, completing 13 out of 16 questions and revisiting 2 flagged ones.

Here’s what helped me:

• I never spent more than 5 minutes on a question I wasn’t sure about, I’d flag it and move on. This saved a lot of time and reduced pressure in the final minutes.

• The PSI browser worked smoothly, and the proctor was calm and professional.

However, halfway through, there was a power outage. I had to re-enter again, each re-entry meant repeating the room scan process, which takes a few minutes and doesn’t pause the timer (unfortunately I had to do it twice as I had some issue with audio).

By the time I got back, I had 13 minutes left, so I completed my last question and revisited two flagged ones before time ran out.

After the exam, I gave myself a 50-50 chance as I’d attempted all 16 questions, and even with a few incomplete ones, I likely got partial marks, which helped me cross the line.

Key Takeaways & Tips

Here’s what made the biggest difference for me:

1. Master kubectl

Use imperative commands for almost everything.
Refer to docs only when:

• You need to write manifests for resources without a direct command, or

• You know exactly where in the docs to find a similar example (like HPAs).

2. Improve Typing Accuracy

The remote exam environment can lag slightly, and typos can be frustrating.
Practice typing YAML and commands accurately — it saves tons of time.

3. Learn the Docs by Heart for manifests

Get familiar with the Kubernetes documentation structure and memorize key areas.
I barely used kubectl explain for writing manifests in the real exam because I already knew where to find everything, almost all manifests in the real exam can be found on the docs with some minor changes. Writing manifests from scratch by

4. Troubleshoot Without Docs

Practice troubleshooting scenarios, reading docs during the exam won’t help much as it is time consuming.
You’ll gain this intuition through hands-on mock labs.

5. Use Autocomplete & Vim Efficiently

Enable kubectl autocomplete (it is the default, so no need to worry about it) and get comfortable with Vim shortcuts, use the keyboard for everything inside the terminal to save seconds on each task.

6. Manage Time Wisely

Don’t get stuck on a single question for more than 5 minutes.
If a question is lengthy but you’re confident about it, finish it; otherwise, flag and move on. This way you will get enough time to clear the question which you know, and also get back to those flagged

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Final Thoughts

With consistent practice, mock exams, and familiarity with the official docs, the CKA exam turned out to be much easier than I expected.

If you’re preparing for it:

• Focus on hands-on practice over theory(theory is important but exam tests hands-on skills),

• Build muscle memory with kubectl,

• And simulate the exam environment through mocks and labs as much as possible.

Good luck on your Kubernetes journey!