CKA Services and Networking Practice Question
A Kubernetes cluster has a Service of type ClusterIP named 'my-svc' in the 'default' namespace. You deploy a pod and want it to resolve the service's cluster IP using DNS. What FQDN should the pod use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often forget the `svc` subdomain or the namespace, picking a shorter form like `my-svc.cluster.local`, which is not a valid Kubernetes Service FQDN.
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
✓
my-svc.default.svc.cluster.local
The standard FQDN for a Kubernetes Service is `<service-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local`. This DNS record resolves to the ClusterIP of the Service, allowing pods to reach it via DNS. The `svc` subdomain is a fixed part of the cluster domain, distinguishing Service records from pod records.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
my-svc.default.pods.cluster.local
Why it's wrong here
The domain .pods.cluster.local is specifically reserved for pod DNS records, not services. A pod's FQDN is derived from its IP address (e.g., 10-244-0-1.default.pod.cluster.local), whereas a ClusterIP service is registered under the .svc subdomain. Because my-svc is a service, the name my-svc.default.pods.cluster.local will not resolve; it belongs to a different DNS namespace.
- ✗
my-svc.cluster.local
Why it's wrong here
This option omits the mandatory namespace and .svc components of a service DNS name. The complete FQDN pattern for a service is <service-name>.<namespace>.svc.<cluster-domain>; without those middle elements, my-svc.cluster.local is not a registered DNS record. While an unqualified service name may work as a short name within the same namespace, the fully qualified name is required for cross-namespace or absolute resolution.
- ✓
my-svc.default.svc.cluster.local
Why this is correct
This is the standard, fully qualified DNS name for a Kubernetes service. CoreDNS creates an A record for every ClusterIP service under <service-name>.<namespace>.svc.<cluster-domain>, so with the service in the default namespace and the standard cluster.local domain, my-svc.default.svc.cluster.local correctly resolves to the service's ClusterIP. Applications can use this FQDN both within and outside the namespace to reach the service.
- ✗
my-svc.default.svc.cluster.com
Why it's wrong here
The cluster domain used by Kubernetes DNS is cluster.local by default, as configured by the --cluster-domain flag in kubelet and the cluster's DNS settings. The suffix .cluster.com is not part of any standard Kubernetes configuration; it would only be valid if someone deliberately customized the cluster domain to .com, which is not indicated here. Therefore, this record will fail DNS resolution for the ClusterIP service.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Installing Kubernetes with kubeadm
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.
About these practice questions
This CKA question is part of Courseiva's 726-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.