CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
A Deployment 'web' has replicas=3 and update strategy RollingUpdate with maxSurge=50% and maxUnavailable=0. You update the container image. During the rollout, what is the maximum number of pods that can be running simultaneously?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates incorrectly round down 1.5 to 1, but Kubernetes rounds up percentages, so maxSurge=50% of 3 becomes 2 extra pods.
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
✓
5
With maxSurge=50% and maxUnavailable=0, the Deployment can create up to ceil(50% of 3) = ceil(1.5) = 2 extra pods above the desired 3 during a rolling update. Therefore, the maximum number of pods running simultaneously is 3 + 2 = 5.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
4
Why it's wrong here
This value is incorrect because it assumes a maxSurge value of 1, which would occur if the 50% surge calculation was rounded down instead of up. In Kubernetes, fractional values for maxSurge are always rounded up to the nearest integer. Therefore, a 50% surge on 3 replicas yields 2 extra pods, not 1, making the peak pod count during the rollout higher than 4.
- ✗
3
Why it's wrong here
It represents the steady-state replica count and assumes that no surge pods are created during the rolling update. Under a rollingUpdate strategy with a positive maxSurge percentage, Kubernetes will provision additional pods beyond the desired replica count of 3 to ensure service availability before terminating older instances.
- ✓
5
Why this is correct
This is the correct maximum number of pods that can exist during the update. With maxSurge set to 50% of the 3 desired replicas, the calculation yields 1.5, which Kubernetes rounds up to 2. Consequently, during the rolling update, the deployment controller can spin up 2 additional pods, bringing the temporary peak total to 5 pods (3 desired + 2 surge).
- ✗
6
Why it's wrong here
It overestimates the surge capacity by assuming a 100% surge rate or an incorrect rounding logic. A peak of 6 pods would require a maxSurge of at least 3 (or 100%), which exceeds the 50% limit specified in the deployment configuration. Kubernetes strictly enforces the rounded-up limit of 2 surge pods for this deployment.
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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.