CKA CronJob concurrencyPolicy Practice Question
A CronJob runs every hour. The job takes 45 minutes to complete. What is the default behavior if the next scheduled time occurs while the previous job is still running?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap in this question is that many candidates mistakenly believe the default concurrencyPolicy for a CronJob is 'Forbid' to prevent resource exhaustion. However, the default is actually 'Allow', meaning overlapping jobs will run concurrently unless explicitly configured otherwise.
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
✓
The next job starts immediately, running concurrently
By default, CronJobs in Kubernetes have a concurrencyPolicy of 'Allow'. This means that if a new job is scheduled while a previous job is still running, the new job starts immediately and runs concurrently with the previous one. Option C correctly describes this default behavior. If you want to prevent concurrent executions, you must explicitly set concurrencyPolicy to 'Forbid'.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The next job is queued and starts after the previous finishes
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect because the default concurrencyPolicy is 'Forbid', so the next job is not queued; it is skipped entirely.
- ✗
The next job is skipped
Why it's wrong here
This is correct. The default concurrencyPolicy is 'Forbid', so overlapping jobs are not allowed and the next scheduled job is skipped if the previous one is still running.
- ✓
The next job starts immediately, running concurrently
Why this is correct
This is incorrect. While it is possible to allow concurrent executions by setting concurrencyPolicy to 'Allow', the default is 'Forbid', so concurrent runs are not the default behavior.
- ✗
The CronJob is suspended
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect. Suspending a CronJob is done via the 'suspend' field, not automatically due to overlapping executions.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Architecture Overview
Key term
Network Policies
A Kubernetes resource that controls how pods communicate with each other and with other network endpoints, acting as a firewall for pod-to-pod traffic.
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.
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