Courseiva provides practice questions to reinforce the Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist CKS concepts tested in the real exam. The real CKS is hands-on and performance-based — these questions build the knowledge foundation for your lab preparation.
Performance-based exam
The real CKS exam is entirely performance-based — you harden, monitor, and secure a live Kubernetes cluster. There are no multiple-choice questions. Courseiva practice questions cover the security concepts tested, but hands-on lab practice with Pod Security Standards, RBAC, NetworkPolicies, and Falco is still required.
Use these questions as a knowledge check
Answer each question, read the explanation carefully, and connect the concept back to the relevant lab task. These questions build the knowledge foundation for hands-on CKS lab practice.
This free CKS mock exam uses the same question distribution as the real Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist CKS exam. Each session draws questions proportionally from all 6 official blueprint domains published by CNCF, so the topic mix you see accurately reflects what you'll face on test day.
CKS Domain Distribution
System Hardening
Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities
Supply Chain Security
Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security
Cluster Setup
Cluster Hardening
Every question is written by certified engineers against the 2026 CKS exam objectives. These are original practice questions — not dumps — so you build real understanding rather than memorising answers.
Both the mock exam and practice test use the same question bank. The difference is in how you use them — and when to use each during your CKS study plan.
Practice test — for learning
Use the CKS practice test when you are studying a domain. Answer questions, read every explanation immediately, and build understanding. Do 10–30 questions per domain per session. This is your primary study tool for the first 4 weeks.
Go to practice test →Concept review — for knowledge check
Use the CKS concept review sessions to benchmark your knowledge coverage across all topics. Work through a full question set, review every explanation, and use weak areas to guide your hands-on lab practice priorities.
Start 120-question concept review →Try these sample questions from the mock exam bank. Commit to an answer before revealing the explanation.
A pod is running with AppArmor enabled using a profile named 'k8s-apparmor-profile'. You want to verify that the profile is loaded and set to enforce mode. Which command should you run on the node?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A microservice running as a Deployment in a Kubernetes cluster needs to authenticate to a third-party API using a static API key. Which is the most secure way to store and inject this secret into the container?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A DevOps team deploys a microservice that needs to access a third-party API using credentials stored in a Kubernetes Secret. The team wants to minimize the risk of credential exposure. Which approach best achieves this goal while following security best practices?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A developer wants to ensure that all containers in a pod run with a read-only root filesystem except for a specific volume mounted for writing logs. Which container-level security context field should be set to true?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A development team uses a custom container image for their application, built from a base image that includes multiple CVEs. The security team requires that no container runs with known critical vulnerabilities. Which approach best ensures that only images with no critical vulnerabilities are deployed in production?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
You are a security engineer at a fintech startup. The company runs a Kubernetes cluster in production with hundreds of microservices. Recently, a container image from a public registry was compromised, and the attacker injected a backdoor that exfiltrated customer data. The CISO mandates that all images must come from an internal registry that only stores approved, scanned, and signed images. Currently, developers build images locally and push them to Docker Hub, then reference those images in Kubernetes manifests. You have deployed Harbor as a private registry with vulnerability scanning and Cosign for signing. However, you notice that some pods are still running images directly from Docker Hub. You need to enforce that only images from your internal Harbor registry can be used in the cluster. You cannot change the Kubernetes manifests immediately because of a large backlog. You have access to the cluster's kubelet configuration and can modify cluster-level components. Which single action will most effectively block any pod that tries to use an image not hosted on your internal registry?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A DevOps team uses a CI/CD pipeline to build container images and push them to a private registry. To minimize the risk of supply chain attacks, which of the following is the most effective security control to implement?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A Falco rule is written to detect when a shell is spawned inside a container. The rule condition is: `spawned_process and container and proc.name = bash`. The rule is not triggering. Which of the following is the most likely reason?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
You are responding to a security incident where a pod named `compromised-pod` in namespace `default` is suspected of being used for cryptocurrency mining. You need to immediately isolate the pod from the network while preserving evidence. Which command sequence should you use?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
You are using `crictl` to debug a container that is not responding. Which command should you use to get the list of running containers?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A security audit reveals that the kube-apiserver is using the default insecure port 8080 on a production cluster. Which is the most secure and recommended remediation?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
A developer created a ClusterRole 'pod-reader' with rules to get, list, and watch pods, and bound it to a user. The user reports they cannot list pods in namespace 'test', although the same commands work in the 'default' namespace. What is the most likely cause?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation
Answer all 12 questions to see your domain score breakdown
Passing CKS requires both conceptual understanding and hands-on competency. Use these questions to reinforce concepts, then immediately practise the corresponding lab tasks. Candidates who combine concept review with lab exercises pass at significantly higher rates.
Use these questions to confirm you understand the theory behind each CKS topic before attempting it in a lab. If you cannot explain why an answer is correct, revisit the concept before moving to the hands-on exercise.
After each concept question block, immediately run the equivalent command or configuration in a lab environment. Theory without practice does not pass performance-based exams.
Note which topics have low accuracy in these questions. Those are also the lab tasks most likely to trip you up. Prioritise additional hands-on practice in those areas.
The real CKS exam runs 120 minutes. During the exam, read each task description carefully, manage your time across tasks, and move on if stuck — come back rather than losing all remaining time.
Time limit
120 min
Official exam duration
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist CKS is a performance-based exam. Your score is based on whether tasks are completed correctly in a live environment, not on multiple-choice answers. Strong concept coverage — tested through these questions — is one part of preparation. Hands-on lab practice is still required.
Yes. Courseiva provides free CKS mock exam questions across all official exam domains. The platform includes timed simulation, per-domain score breakdown, missed-question review, and readiness tracking. No account required — free forever, supported by advertising.
The practice test is optimised for learning: you see explanations after each question immediately. The mock exam is optimised for simulation: you answer all questions under time pressure and review at the end. Use practice tests for studying and mock exams for benchmarking.
These questions test your conceptual knowledge. Aim to fully understand every explanation before attempting the hands-on lab exam. High accuracy here indicates solid concept coverage, but hands-on lab practice is still required to pass CKS.
Most candidates preparing for CKS work through these concept questions multiple times while simultaneously doing hands-on lab exercises. Repeat topics where your accuracy is low, then confirm understanding with a lab exercise on the same topic.
No — all Courseiva questions are original, written by certified engineers against public CNCF exam blueprints. Exam dumps are memorised real exam questions shared illegally. Using dumps violates your CNCF certification agreement and can result in your certification being revoked. Our questions make you genuinely competent, not just test-day lucky.
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