CNCF · 2026 Edition
A complete preparation guide written by CNCF-certified engineers. Covers the exam format,all 5 blueprint domains, a week-by-week study plan, and proven tips for passing first time.
4–8 weeks
Prep time
Beginner
Difficulty
Hands-on lab
Format
Exam code
KCNA
Full name
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate
Vendor
CNCF
Duration
90 minutes
Exam format
Performance-based lab (no multiple-choice)
Domains covered
5 blueprint domains
Recommended experience
No formal prerequisites; basic familiarity with containers is helpful
Typical prep time
4–8 weeks
KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) is the entry-level cloud native credential. It validates foundational knowledge of Kubernetes and the cloud native ecosystem — a natural starting point before pursuing CKA or CKAD.
Job roles this opens
Domain percentage weights are not currently available for this exam. The checklist below is still useful for planning your study.
Performance-based exam
The real exam is entirely performance-based — there are no multiple-choice questions. Courseiva questions reinforce concepts, but hands-on lab practice is still required.
Weeks 1–2
Kubernetes Fundamentals (46%): architecture, objects, workloads, scheduling basics
Tip: KCNA is a knowledge-based multiple choice exam, not a performance exam. Know the Kubernetes architecture: control plane components (kube-apiserver, etcd, kube-scheduler, kube-controller-manager) and worker node components (kubelet, kube-proxy, container runtime). Know what each component does.
Weeks 3–4
Container Orchestration (22%) and Cloud Native Architecture (16%)
Tip: Container orchestration concepts: service discovery, load balancing, horizontal scaling, rolling updates, self-healing (restart failed containers). Know what problems Kubernetes solves and what you would have to do manually without it.
Weeks 5–6
Cloud Native Observability (8%) and Application Delivery (8%)
Tip: Cloud native observability: metrics (quantitative data — Prometheus), logs (event records — Loki, Elasticsearch), traces (distributed request tracking — Jaeger, Zipkin). Know what each pillar of observability captures and which tools are associated with each.
Weeks 7–8
Practice questions and CNCF landscape review
Tip: The CNCF Cloud Native Landscape includes hundreds of projects. KCNA tests the most prominent ones: Prometheus (metrics), Grafana (dashboards), Fluentd (log aggregation), Jaeger (tracing), Argo CD (GitOps), Helm (package management), Linkerd/Istio (service mesh). Know what category each belongs to.
KCNA is 60 questions in 90 minutes. The passing score is 75%. It is a lower-pressure exam than CKA/CKAD — use it to validate your conceptual knowledge before diving into the performance-based exams.
GitOps is a key KCNA topic: the practice of using Git as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application configuration. Know the two GitOps operators — Argo CD and Flux CD — and what problem GitOps solves (drift between desired and actual cluster state).
Service mesh is tested at a conceptual level on KCNA: a service mesh adds a sidecar proxy to each pod to handle service-to-service communication (mTLS, traffic management, observability) without requiring application code changes. Istio and Linkerd are the primary implementations.
Container runtime interface (CRI): Kubernetes uses the CRI to communicate with container runtimes. Know that Docker was replaced as the default runtime by containerd, and that CRI-O is an alternative lightweight runtime. The CRI abstraction allows Kubernetes to work with any compliant runtime.
Serverless on Kubernetes is a KCNA topic: Knative provides event-driven serverless workloads on top of Kubernetes, automatically scaling to zero when there is no traffic. Know what problem Knative solves and how it differs from running a standard Deployment.
Apply everything in this guide with adaptive practice questions, detailed answer explanations, and domain analytics.
Deep-dive explanations of the key topics tested on KCNA — with exam key points and common misconceptions.