CKA Storage Practice Question
A DevOps team needs to provide persistent storage to a set of pods that all require read-write access to the same data simultaneously. Which volume type should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse ReadWriteOnce (RWO) with multi-pod access, forgetting that RWO explicitly limits the volume to a single pod mount, while ReadWriteMany (RWX) is required for simultaneous shared access.
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
✓
PersistentVolumeClaim with ReadWriteMany
A PersistentVolumeClaim with ReadWriteMany (RWX) is the correct choice because it allows multiple pods to mount the same volume simultaneously with read-write access. This access mode is supported by network-based storage backends like NFS, GlusterFS, or CephFS, which provide the necessary concurrency controls for shared access across pods.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
PersistentVolumeClaim with ReadWriteMany
Why this is correct
A PersistentVolumeClaim configured with the ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode allows a volume to be mounted as read-write by many nodes concurrently. This is the correct choice for enabling multiple pods distributed across different nodes in a cluster to simultaneously access and modify the same persistent storage backend.
- ✗
hostPath
Why it's wrong here
A hostPath volume mounts a file or directory from the host node's filesystem directly into your Pod. While this allows sharing data between pods on the exact same node, it fails to provide a shared storage solution for pods scheduled across different nodes in a multi-node cluster, and it poses significant security risks.
- ✗
emptyDir
Why it's wrong here
An emptyDir volume is created when a Pod is assigned to a node and exists only as long as that Pod is running on that node. Because its lifecycle is strictly tied to the hosting Pod, it cannot persist data across Pod restarts or deletions, nor can it be shared with other Pods running elsewhere in the cluster.
- ✗
PersistentVolumeClaim with ReadWriteOnce
Why it's wrong here
A PersistentVolumeClaim with the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode restricts volume mounting to a single node at a time for read-write operations. If the DevOps team deploys multiple pods across different nodes, only the pods on the first node to claim the volume will be able to write to it, causing scheduling or mounting failures for the others.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Network Policies and Secure Connectivity
Key term
Storage Classes
A Storage Class in Kubernetes is a template that defines how persistent storage is provisioned automatically, including the type of storage, performance characteristics, and provisioning policies.
Key term
Volumes
In Kubernetes, a volume is a storage resource that outlives the pod it belongs to, enabling data to persist across container restarts and be shared between containers in the same pod.
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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.