CKA Storage Practice Question
A StatefulSet named 'web' uses volumeClaimTemplates to create PVCs for each replica. You scale the StatefulSet from 3 to 5 replicas. What happens to the PVCs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume PVCs are reused or need manual creation, but the StatefulSet controller automatically provisions new PVCs for each new replica, preserving the ordinal-based identity and storage isolation.
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
✓
New PVCs are created for the new replicas (web-3 and web-4).
When a StatefulSet is scaled up, each new replica (e.g., web-3, web-4) automatically gets a new PVC created from the volumeClaimTemplate. The PVC name follows the pattern <statefulset-name>-<volumeClaimTemplate-name>-<ordinal-index>, and the new PVCs are bound to newly provisioned PersistentVolumes. This ensures each pod has its own dedicated storage, preserving the identity and state of each replica.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
New PVCs are created for the new replicas (web-3 and web-4).
Why this is correct
When a StatefulSet is scaled up, the StatefulSet controller sequentially creates new pods and, for each pod, uses the volumeClaimTemplate to dynamically provision a dedicated PVC. The naming convention is <pvc-template-name>-<pod-name>, so scaling from 3 to 5 replicas creates new PVCs bound to web-3 and web-4. These PVCs are independent and persist across pod rescheduling.
- ✗
All PVCs are deleted and recreated.
Why it's wrong here
Scaling up a StatefulSet never deletes existing PVCs, because the controller treats PVCs as persistent storage that must survive pod restarts and deletions. Deleting the original PVCs would cause permanent data loss for web-0, web-1, and web-2, and the controller only creates new PVCs for the new ordinal indices. Therefore, the existing PVCs remain attached to their original pods.
- ✗
The PVCs are not created; you must create them manually.
Why it's wrong here
The presence of a volumeClaimTemplate in the StatefulSet spec means the controller automatically creates PVCs during both initial creation and scaling operations, so no manual PVC creation is needed. Manually creating PVCs would be redundant and could interfere with the controller's management, as it expects to own the lifecycle of these PVCs. The automatic provisioning is part of the stable storage identity guarantee.
- ✗
Existing PVCs are reused for the new replicas.
Why it's wrong here
StatefulSet guarantees a strict one-to-one binding between each pod ordinal and a specific PVC, so existing PVCs are never reused for different replicas. If web-3 reused web-0's PVC, it would violate that binding and create a data integrity risk, as multiple pods would be mnting the same volume. The controller always provisions a fresh PVC from the volumeClaimTemplate for each new ordinal index.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 726 original CKA practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.