CKA Services & Networking Practice Question
A company wants to expose a web application running as a Deployment with 3 replicas to external users. They need a stable IP address that does not change and the ability to terminate TLS. Which resource should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
CNCF often tests the misconception that a LoadBalancer Service alone can terminate TLS, but in Kubernetes, TLS termination is not a built-in feature of Services; it requires an Ingress or a custom proxy, making the Ingress resource the correct choice for this requirement.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Ingress resource with a TLS certificate
An Ingress resource with a TLS certificate is the correct choice because it provides a stable IP address (via the underlying LoadBalancer or NodePort Service) and terminates TLS at the ingress controller, allowing the web application to serve HTTPS traffic without modifying the Deployment. This meets the requirements of exposing the application externally with a fixed IP and TLS termination.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
LoadBalancer Service
Why it's wrong here
A LoadBalancer Service provisions an external cloud load balancer (if running on a cloud provider) to expose the application with a stable, externally accessible IP address. While it provides external access, the Kubernetes Service object itself does not inherently handle TLS termination. To secure the web application with TLS, additional configuration would be required either on the underlying cloud load balancer or by offloading TLS termination to an Ingress controller or the application pods themselves.
- ✗
ClusterIP Service
Why it's wrong here
A ClusterIP Service creates a stable internal IP address for a set of pods, making the application accessible only from within the Kubernetes cluster. This service type is designed for internal communication between different services or components within the cluster and does not provide any mechanism for direct external access from outside the cluster. Therefore, it cannot be used alone to expose a web application to external users.
- ✓
Ingress resource with a TLS certificate
Why this is correct
An Ingress resource, coupled with an Ingress controller, provides a robust solution for exposing web applications externally by offering HTTP/S routing, virtual hosting, and crucially, built-in TLS termination. It allows defining rules to route external traffic to specific services based on hostnames or URL paths, and can manage TLS certificates (stored as Kubernetes Secrets) to encrypt traffic from the client to the Ingress controller, ensuring secure communication.
- ✗
NodePort Service
Why it's wrong here
A NodePort Service exposes the application on a static port across all nodes in the cluster, making it accessible via NodeIP:NodePort from outside the cluster. While it provides external access, this method is generally not recommended for production web applications due to several drawbacks. It relies on the potentially dynamic IP addresses of individual nodes, does not offer advanced routing capabilities, and lacks native support for TLS termination, making it less suitable for a stable, secure, and user-friendly external endpoint.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
etcd Backup and Restore
Key term
Ingress Resources
Ingress Resources are Kubernetes API objects that manage external access to services inside a cluster, typically HTTP and HTTPS traffic, by defining rules for routing requests based on hostnames and paths.
Key term
ClusterIP NodePort LoadBalancer
ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer are three types of Kubernetes Services that control how traffic reaches your application pods inside the cluster or from outside.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CKA practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CKA exam.