Certification > Cloud & Containers > Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
CERTIFICATION

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam certifies that candidates can design, build and deploy cloud-native applications for Kubernetes.

Not sure where to start? You may consider reviewing our suggested CKAD learning path.

EXAM SIMULATOR! Learners will now have access to an exam simulator, provided by Killer.sh, to experience the exam environment. You will have two exam simulation attempts (36 hours of access for each attempt from the start of activation). Simulation includes 20-25 questions (which are exactly the same for every attempt and every user (unlike those found on the actual exams) and graded simulation results.

UPCOMING POLICY CHANGE: Please note that our Certification Period Policy is changing effective April 01, 2024, 00:00UTC. Certifications achieved on or after this date will expire 24 months from the date the program certification requirements, including passing the exam, are met. We encourage anyone interested and prepared to schedule and take your exam before the policy change. Please see additional details here.

Who Is It For

This certification is for Kubernetes engineers, cloud engineers and other IT professionals responsible for building, deploying, and configuring cloud native applications with Kubernetes.
read less read more
About This Certification

CKAD has been developed by The Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), to help expand the Kubernetes ecosystem through standardized training and certification. This exam is an online, proctored, performance-based test that consists of a set of performance-based tasks (problems) to be solved in a command line.
read less read more
What It Demonstrates

The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) can design, build and deploy cloud-native applications for Kubernetes.
A CKAD can define application resources and use Kubernetes core primitives to create/migrate, configure, expose and observe scalable applications.
The exam assumes working knowledge of container runtimes and microservice architecture.

The successful candidate will be comfortable:
– working with (OCI-compliant) container images
– applying Cloud Native application concepts and architectures
– working with and validating Kubernetes resource definitions

read less read more
Domains & Competencies
Expand All
Collapse All
Application Design and Build20%
Define, build and modify container images
Choose and use the right workload resource (Deployment, DaemonSet, CronJob, etc.)
Understand multi-container Pod design patterns (e.g. sidecar, init and others)
Utilize persistent and ephemeral volumes
Application Deployment20%
Use Kubernetes primitives to implement common deployment strategies (e.g. blue/green or canary)
Understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates
Use the Helm package manager to deploy existing packages
Kustomize
Application Observability and Maintenance15%
Understand API deprecations
Implement probes and health checks
Use built-in CLI tools to monitor Kubernetes applications
Utilize container logs
Debugging in Kubernetes
Application Environment, Configuration and Security25%
Discover and use resources that extend Kubernetes (CRD, Operators)
Understand authentication, authorization and admission control
Understand requests, limits, quotas
Understand ConfigMaps
Define resource requirements
Create & consume Secrets
Understand ServiceAccounts
Understand Application Security (SecurityContexts, Capabilities, etc.)
Services and Networking20%
Demonstrate basic understanding of NetworkPolicies
Provide and troubleshoot access to applications via services
Use Ingress rules to expose applications

The CKAD Certification focuses on the skills required to be a successful Kubernetes Application Developer in industry today. The exam assumes working knowledge of container runtimes and microservice architecture.

The successful candidate will be comfortable:
– working with (OCI-compliant) container images
– applying Cloud Native application concepts and architectures
– working with and validating Kubernetes resource definitions

Exam Details & Resources
This exam is an online, proctored, performance-based test that consists of a set of performance-based tasks (problems) to be solved in a command line. Candidates have 2 hours to complete the tasks.

Candidates who register for the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam will have 2 attempts (per exam registration) to an exam simulator, provided by Killer.sh.  

The exam is based on Kubernetes v1.29.
The CKAD exam environment will be aligned with the most recent K8s minor version within approximately 4 to 8 weeks of the K8s release date

Prerequisites
There are no pre-requisites for this exam.
Reviews
Jul 2022
Using prep materials from Linux Foundation/killer.sh and KodeKloud, I felt really at home, even though it was my first exam with you, and first online exam ever.
Jul 2022
I love the promotions for the certification. Who doesn't love a good discount!
Apr 2022
Happy to learn, it was a fun learning process. I had never dared to do a certification before, but in the end I dared to face this challenge, it is my first experience of this type, and it encourages me to get more certifications.