CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
A Deployment named 'app' has 3 replicas. The rolling update strategy is set with maxSurge=1 and maxUnavailable=1. During an update, a new ReplicaSet is created. How many pods will be in terminating state at the moment when the new ReplicaSet has 2 pods ready?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the number of ready pods with the number of terminating pods, or incorrectly assume that the controller terminates all old pods at once, ignoring the maxSurge and maxUnavailable constraints that limit the scale-down to 1 pod at a time.
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
✓
1
With maxSurge=1 and maxUnavailable=1, the Deployment controller ensures that during a rolling update, the total number of pods across old and new ReplicaSets does not exceed desiredReplicas + maxSurge (3+1=4). When the new ReplicaSet has 2 pods ready, the controller will begin terminating old pods to bring the total down. At that exact moment, exactly 1 old pod will be in Terminating state, as the controller scales down the old ReplicaSet by 1 to maintain the surge limit.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
3
Why it's wrong here
If three old pods are terminating while two new pods are ready, it means all original pods are being shut down. This would result in three unavailable pods (the terminating ones), directly violating the `maxUnavailable=1` policy. Furthermore, with only two new pods ready and zero old pods running, the total available replicas would be two, falling below the desired three and indicating an unacceptable level of service disruption.
- ✗
0
Why it's wrong here
If zero old pods are terminating, it implies that all three original pods are still running alongside the two newly created and ready pods. This configuration would lead to a total of five active pods (3 old + 2 new). Such a state violates the `maxSurge=1` policy, which permits at most one additional pod beyond the desired replica count of three, meaning a maximum of four total pods.
- ✓
1
Why this is correct
When one old pod is terminating and two new pods are ready, the deployment maintains a balanced state. There would be two old pods still running, plus the two new ready pods, totaling four active pods. This adheres to the `maxSurge=1` rule (4 <= 3 + 1). Crucially, only one pod is unavailable (the terminating old pod), which perfectly satisfies the `maxUnavailable=1` policy, ensuring minimal service disruption during the update.
- ✗
2
Why it's wrong here
If 2 terminating, total pods would be 3 (2 new + 1 old), but 2 new ready means at least 2 old pods must be terminating to keep maxUnavailable=1? Actually maxUnavailable is 1, so only 1 pod can be unavailable. If 2 old pods are terminating, then 2 are unavailable, violating maxUnavailable=1.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CKA question from scratch — 302 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.