CKA Practice Test 15 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A Deployment 'web' has replicas=3 and update strategy RollingUpdate with maxSurge=50% and maxUnavailable=0. You update the container image. During the rollout, what is the maximum number of pods that can be running simultaneously?

Accepted Answer

4. With maxSurge=50% (rounded up to 1) and maxUnavailable=0, the Deployment can create up to 1 extra pod above the desired 3 during a rolling update. Therefore, the maximum number of pods running simultaneously is 3 (desired) + 1 (surge) = 4.

Answer

3

Answer

5

Answer

6

Question 2

Which three are valid pod phases?

Accepted Answer

Pending. The valid pod phases are Pending, Running, Succeeded, Failed, Unknown. CrashLoopBackOff is a container state, not a pod phase.

Answer

Terminating

Answer

CrashLoopBackOff

Question 3

A Pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. You run 'kubectl describe pod my-pod' and see the event: '0/3 nodes are available: 1 node(s) had taint {node-role.kubernetes.io/master: }, that the pod didn't tolerate, 2 Insufficient cpu.' The pod has resource requests: cpu: 2, memory: 1Gi. The cluster has 3 nodes: one control-plane with taint node-role.kubernetes.io/master:NoSchedule, and two worker nodes each with 1 CPU. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The pod requests more CPU than any available node can provide.. Option A is correct. The two worker nodes have only 1 CPU each, so they cannot satisfy the request of 2 CPUs. The control plane node is tainted and the pod does not tolerate it. Option B is incorrect because memory is not the issue. Option C is incorrect because the control plane node is not available due to taint, not because of resource shortage. Option D is incorrect because there is no mention of a PriorityClass.

Answer

The pod requests more memory than any available node can provide.

Answer

The pod has a higher priority than other pods and is preempting them.

Answer

The control-plane node has insufficient resources.

Question 4

You want to ensure that a pod only runs on nodes that have a GPU. Nodes with GPUs are labeled with 'gpu=true'. Which scheduling constraint should you use?

Accepted Answer

spec.nodeSelector: { gpu: "true" }. Option B is correct. nodeSelector is the simplest way to require a node label. Option A (nodeName) is for specific node names. Option C (nodeAffinity with requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution) can also be used, but nodeSelector is more straightforward for a simple equality. Option D (podAffinity) is for scheduling pods relative to other pods, not nodes.

Answer

spec.nodeName: gpu-node

Answer

spec.affinity.podAffinity.requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution

Answer

spec.affinity.nodeAffinity.requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution

Question 5

You have a HorizontalPodAutoscaler targeting a Deployment with minReplicas=2 and maxReplicas=10. currentReplicas is 2. The HPA uses average CPU utilization across pods, targetting 80% of the requested CPU. Pod CPU request is 500m. The current average CPU utilization is 90%. What will the HPA do?

Accepted Answer

Scale up to 3 replicas. Option B is correct. HPA scales up when current utilization exceeds target. Current = 90% > target 80%, so it will increase replicas. It calculates desired replicas = ceil(currentUtilization/target * currentReplicas) = ceil(90/80 * 2) = ceil(2.25) = 3, so it scales to 3.

Answer

Do nothing; wait for stabilization

Answer

Scale up to 4 replicas

Answer

Scale down to 1 replica because utilization is too high

Question 6

Which THREE of the following are valid fields in a Deployment's rolling update strategy? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

maxSurge. Correct options: B, C, D. Rolling update strategy has two parameters: maxSurge and maxUnavailable. Option A 'minReadySeconds' is a field of the Deployment's pod template spec, not of the rolling update strategy. Option E 'progressDeadlineSeconds' is a field of the Deployment spec, not the rolling update strategy.

Answer

progressDeadlineSeconds

Answer

minReadySeconds

Question 7

A StatefulSet named 'web' has 3 replicas. You need to update the container image from 'nginx:1.19' to 'nginx:1.20' using a rolling update with ordered pod management. What must you ensure in the StatefulSet spec?

Accepted Answer

Set spec.podManagementPolicy to OrderedReady (default). Option C is correct. StatefulSets support two pod management policies: OrderedReady (default) and Parallel. OrderedReady ensures that pods are updated one by one in order, which is the desired behavior. The update strategy can be RollingUpdate or OnDelete; RollingUpdate with OrderedReady policy performs a rolling update maintaining order. Option A is incorrect because Partition is for canary deployments, not for ordered updates. Option B is incorrect because Parallel policy does not maintain order. Option D is incorrect because maxSurge is not a valid field in StatefulSet; it is for Deployments.

Answer

Set spec.updateStrategy.rollingUpdate.maxSurge to 1

Answer

Set spec.updateStrategy.rollingUpdate.partition to 0

Answer

Set spec.podManagementPolicy to Parallel

Question 8

You have a Deployment with 4 replicas. During a rolling update, you want to ensure that only 2 pods are unavailable at any given time. Which field should you set in the Deployment spec?

Accepted Answer

spec.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable. Option B is correct. The 'maxUnavailable' field specifies the maximum number of pods that can be unavailable during a rolling update. Setting it to 2 ensures that at most 2 pods are down at any time. Option A is incorrect because 'maxSurge' controls how many extra pods can be created above the desired count. Option C is for StatefulSets, not Deployments. Option D is not a valid field.

Answer

spec.updateStrategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable

Answer

spec.replicas.maxUnavailable

Answer

spec.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxSurge

Question 9

Which command can be used to scale a Deployment named 'webapp' to 5 replicas?

Accepted Answer

kubectl scale deployment webapp --replicas=5. Option B is correct. 'kubectl scale' is the command to scale resources. Option A is incorrect because 'kubectl update' does not exist. Option C is incorrect because 'kubectl edit' opens an editor, not a direct scale. Option D is incorrect because 'kubectl patch' can be used but is more complex than necessary.

Answer

kubectl patch deployment webapp -p '{"spec":{"replicas":5}}'

Answer

kubectl edit deployment webapp --replicas=5

Answer

kubectl update deployment webapp --replicas=5

Question 10

Which command rolls back a Deployment named 'web' to the previous revision?

Accepted Answer

kubectl rollout undo deployment web. The correct command is 'kubectl rollout undo deployment web'. Option A is correct.

Answer

kubectl rollout restart deployment web

Answer

kubectl rollout history deployment web --revision=previous

Answer

kubectl rollout revert deployment web

Question 11

A container requests 256Mi memory and has a limit of 512Mi. The container tries to allocate 600Mi. What happens?

Accepted Answer

The container is killed with OOMKilled and restarted. When a container exceeds its memory limit, the kernel OOM killer terminates it. The container will be restarted (depending on restartPolicy).

Answer

The container is allowed to use up to 600Mi if the node has free memory

Answer

The kernel throttles the container's memory usage

Answer

The container is evicted from the node

Question 12

You create a CronJob that should run every day at midnight. The CronJob has a startingDeadlineSeconds of 100. If the CronJob controller is down for 2 minutes, what happens?

Accepted Answer

The job is missed and will not run until the next scheduled time.. Option C is correct. The CronJob controller missed the scheduled time, but since the downtime (2 minutes = 120 seconds) exceeds the startingDeadlineSeconds (100), the job is considered missed and will not be started retroactively. Option A is incorrect because the job is not started after the controller comes back if the deadline has passed. Option B is incorrect because the job is missed, not just delayed. Option D is incorrect because the controller does not automatically adjust the schedule.

Answer

The job runs as soon as the controller recovers.

Answer

The controller creates a Job with a backoff limit.

Answer

The job runs immediately but is delayed by 2 minutes.

Question 13

You need to create a ConfigMap named 'app-config' from a file named 'config.properties' located in the current directory. Which command should you use?

Accepted Answer

kubectl create configmap app-config --from-file=config.properties. Option C is correct. The command 'kubectl create configmap app-config --from-file=config.properties' creates a ConfigMap from the file. Option A is incorrect because the syntax uses --from-literal for key-value pairs. Option B uses 'create configmap' but with wrong flag syntax. Option D is incorrect because 'apply' requires a manifest file.

Answer

kubectl create configmap app-config --from-file config.properties

Answer

kubectl create configmap app-config --from-literal=config.properties

Answer

kubectl apply configmap app-config --from-file=config.properties

Question 14

You need to update a Deployment's container image to 'nginx:1.21' and ensure the rollout performs a rolling update with 2 extra pods allowed above the desired count during the update. Which command should you use?

Accepted Answer

kubectl set image deployment/nginx-deployment nginx=nginx:1.21. Option C is correct. The 'kubectl set image' command updates the container image, and the '--record' flag is not needed in v1.29+ (but still works). The '--rollout' flag does not exist; 'kubectl rollout' is a separate command. To set maxSurge, you need to edit the Deployment or use 'kubectl patch'. However, the question asks for the command to update the image and ensure rolling update; the default strategy is RollingUpdate with default maxSurge=25%, which satisfies the requirement. Option A uses incorrect flags.

Answer

kubectl update deployment/nginx-deployment --image=nginx:1.21 --strategy=rolling

Answer

kubectl edit deployment/nginx-deployment --patch '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"nginx","image":"nginx:1.21"}]}}}}'

Answer

kubectl rollout set image deployment/nginx-deployment nginx=nginx:1.21 --max-surge=2

Question 15

Which THREE of the following are characteristics of a StatefulSet? (Select 3)

Accepted Answer

Pods are started and terminated in a controlled order (sequentially). Options A, B, and C are correct. StatefulSets provide stable network identities (ordinal hostnames), ordered pod management (sequential start/stop), and persistent storage per pod (PVC templates). Option D is incorrect because DaemonSets run pods on every node, not StatefulSets. Option E is incorrect because StatefulSets use a headless service for stable network identities, not a ClusterIP service.

Answer

Pods are automatically distributed across all nodes in the cluster

Answer

StatefulSets require a ClusterIP service for stable network identities