CKAD Application Deployment Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A team wants to deploy an application using Kustomize. The base directory contains a Deployment and a Service. The overlays/prod directory should add a label 'env: prod' to all resources and change the Deployment image to 'myapp:2.0'. Which kustomization.yaml in overlays/prod correctly achieves this?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

A kustomization.yaml with 'resources: [../../base]', a 'commonLabels: {env: prod}' block, and an 'images:' entry with name 'myapp' and newTag '2.0'.. Kustomize overlays combine base resources with environment-specific customizations. The resources field includes the base, commonLabels propagates labels to all resources and selectors, and the images transformer rewrites container image tags declaratively. Alternatives such as deprecated bases, JSON6902 patches, or configMapGenerator either fail to apply the label correctly or do not change the image at all.

Answer

A kustomization.yaml with 'resources: [../../base]', a 'commonLabels: {env: prod}' block, and a 'configMapGenerator:' entry that stores the image tag.

Answer

A kustomization.yaml with 'resources: [../../base]', a 'commonLabels: {env: prod}' block, and a 'patchesJson6902:' entry targeting the Deployment to set the image.

Answer

A kustomization.yaml with 'bases: [../../base]', a 'labels:' block, and a 'patchesStrategicMerge:' entry that sets the image.

Question 2

You need to update the container image of an existing Deployment named 'api' in namespace 'staging' to 'registry.example.com/api:2.1' without editing YAML files manually. Which TWO actions accomplish this? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Run 'kubectl patch deployment/api -n staging --type=json -p '[{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/template/spec/containers/0/image","value":"registry.example.com/api:2.1"}]'.. Both kubectl set image and kubectl patch with a JSON replace operation update a Deployment's container image non-interactively and trigger a rolling update with a new revision. Editing the manifest, using kubectl edit, or invoking a nonexistent rollout update subcommand either requires manual editing or fails outright, so they do not meet the stated constraints.

Answer

Run 'kubectl edit deployment/api -n staging' and change the image field in the opened editor.

Answer

Run 'kubectl rollout update deployment/api --image=registry.example.com/api:2.1 -n staging'.

Answer

Run 'kubectl replace -f deployment.yaml' after editing the file to set the new image.

Question 3

A developer wants to deploy a stateless application as a set of identical pods. They need the pods to be distributed across nodes and have stable network identities. Which resource should they use?

Accepted Answer

StatefulSet. StatefulSet is the correct resource because it provides each pod with a stable, unique network identity (e.g., pod-name-0, pod-name-1) that persists across rescheduling. While Deployment manages replicas for stateless applications, it does not assign per-pod stable hostnames. The question explicitly requires 'stable network identities' for identical pods, which is a defining feature of StatefulSet. A Service combined with a Deployment gives a stable endpoint for the set, not per-pod identities.

Answer

Job

Answer

Deployment

Answer

DaemonSet

Question 4

A team is deploying a microservice that must be reachable within the cluster via a stable DNS name. They also need to distribute traffic among pods. Which Kubernetes resource provides both service discovery and load balancing?

Accepted Answer

Service. A Service in Kubernetes provides a stable DNS name (via cluster DNS, e.g., CoreDNS) that resolves to the Service's ClusterIP, and it load-balances traffic across the pods selected by its label selector using iptables or IPVS rules. This directly fulfills the requirement for both service discovery and load balancing within the cluster.

Answer

ConfigMap

Answer

Secret

Answer

Ingress

Question 5

A developer needs to run a one-time batch job to process data. After completion, the pod should be retained for logs inspection. Which Job configuration parameter should be set?

Accepted Answer

Leave ttlSecondsAfterFinished unset. To retain a Job's Pod after completion for log inspection, the `ttlSecondsAfterFinished` field must be left unset (or set to nil). When this field is unset, the Job controller does not automatically delete the Pod, allowing logs to be inspected. Setting it to any non-negative integer would schedule automatic deletion after that many seconds, which contradicts the requirement.

Answer

backoffLimit: 0

Answer

ttlSecondsAfterFinished: -1

Answer

activeDeadlineSeconds: 3600

Question 6

A company wants to deploy a stateful database cluster where each pod has its own persistent storage. They need stable network identities and ordered pod creation. Which resource should they use?

Accepted Answer

StatefulSet. StatefulSet is the correct resource because it provides stable, unique network identities (via headless Services and ordinal hostnames) and ordered, graceful deployment and scaling (pod creation/deletion in sequence). This matches the requirements for a stateful database cluster where each pod requires its own PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) and stable identity for clustering.

Answer

Deployment

Answer

CronJob

Answer

DaemonSet

Question 7

A Deployment has replicas: 5. During a rolling update, the developer sets maxSurge: 2 and maxUnavailable: 1. What is the maximum number of pods that can be running during the update?

Accepted Answer

7. During a rolling update, the total number of pods running is the sum of the desired replicas (5) plus the maxSurge (2), which equals 7. The maxUnavailable setting (1) controls how many pods can be down, not the upper limit of running pods. Kubernetes ensures that the number of pods above the desired count does not exceed maxSurge, so the maximum running pods is 5 + 2 = 7.

Answer

5

Answer

8

Answer

6

Question 8

A developer wants to ensure that a critical application always runs on every node in the cluster. Which resource should they use?

Accepted Answer

DaemonSet. A DaemonSet ensures that a pod runs on every node in the cluster, or on a subset of nodes based on a node selector. This is the correct resource for deploying a critical application that must be present on all nodes, such as a logging agent or a monitoring daemon.

Answer

StatefulSet

Answer

ReplicaSet

Answer

Deployment

Question 9

A pod is running but not responding to requests. The developer suspects the liveness probe is misconfigured. Which command can they use to check the probe configuration of a running pod?

Accepted Answer

kubectl describe pod . `kubectl describe pod ` displays the full pod specification, including the liveness probe configuration (e.g., `Liveness: http-get /healthz delay=0s timeout=1s period=10s #success=1 #failure=3`). This allows the developer to verify the probe type, endpoint, initial delay, timeout, and failure threshold directly from the running pod's definition.

Answer

kubectl logs <pod-name>

Answer

kubectl exec <pod-name> -- env

Answer

kubectl get pod <pod-name>

Question 10

A Deployment has replicas: 3 and uses a ConfigMap. The ConfigMap is updated. The developer wants to update the pods to use the new ConfigMap without recreating the Deployment. What is the correct approach?

Accepted Answer

kubectl rollout restart deployment/. A `kubectl rollout restart deployment/` triggers a rolling restart of the Pods managed by the Deployment. Since ConfigMaps are mounted as volumes or injected as environment variables at Pod creation time, the only way to pick up updated ConfigMap data without recreating the Deployment object itself is to force the existing Pods to be terminated and recreated. The Deployment controller handles this gracefully, ensuring zero downtime by following the configured rolling update strategy.

Answer

kubectl set image deployment/ =

Answer

The pods automatically mount the new ConfigMap within seconds

Answer

Delete and recreate each pod manually

Question 11

Which TWO of the following are valid strategies for updating a Deployment?

Accepted Answer

RollingUpdate. RollingUpdate is the default update strategy in Kubernetes Deployments. It gradually replaces old Pods with new ones, ensuring zero downtime by incrementally scaling down old ReplicaSets and scaling up new ones based on configurable parameters like maxSurge and maxUnavailable.

Answer

Canary

Answer

Ramped

Answer

Blue/Green

Question 12

Which TWO of the following conditions must be met for a RollingUpdate to proceed?

Accepted Answer

The new pod must pass its readiness probe. A is correct because during a RollingUpdate, the new pod must pass its readiness probe before the old pod is terminated. This ensures the new pod is capable of serving traffic, preventing service disruption. The readiness probe is checked by the kubelet, and only when it succeeds does the ReplicaSet controller proceed with the update.

Answer

The new ReplicaSet must have the desired number of pods

Answer

The old ReplicaSet must be scaled to zero

Answer

The old ReplicaSet must be deleted

Question 13

A company wants to deploy a stateless web application on Kubernetes. The application needs to be accessible externally via a stable IP address and should support SSL termination at the ingress level. Which resource should be used to route external traffic to the application?

Accepted Answer

Ingress. Ingress is the correct resource because it provides external HTTP/HTTPS access to services within a cluster, supports SSL/TLS termination at the ingress controller level, and can expose multiple services under a single stable IP address or hostname. Unlike other service types, Ingress is specifically designed for layer 7 routing and SSL termination, making it ideal for stateless web applications that require a stable external endpoint.

Answer

ClusterIP

Answer

NodePort

Answer

LoadBalancer

Question 14

A developer needs to deploy a container that runs a batch job to process data once and then exit. The job should be restarted only if it fails. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Accepted Answer

Job. A Kubernetes Job is the correct resource for a batch workload that runs to completion and exits. It ensures the pod is restarted only on failure (via the `RestartPolicy: OnFailure` or `Never`), which matches the requirement of restarting only if the job fails. Deployments and DaemonSets are designed for long-running processes, not termination.

Answer

DaemonSet

Answer

Deployment

Answer

StatefulSet

Question 15

A company wants to deploy a stateful database on Kubernetes. The database requires stable network identities and persistent storage per pod. Which resource should be used?

Accepted Answer

StatefulSet. StatefulSet is the correct resource because it provides stable, unique network identities (via headless Services and ordinal pod names like `db-0`, `db-1`) and persistent storage per pod (via PersistentVolumeClaims that are retained across rescheduling). This matches the requirement for a stateful database where each pod must maintain its identity and data independently.

Answer

Job

Answer

Deployment

Answer

DaemonSet