This CKA practice question tests your understanding of storage. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A team is deploying a stateful application that requires persistent storage. The application runs on multiple pods that need to share the same volume. Which volume type should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim with access mode ReadWriteMany and use a supported storage class like NFS.
Option B is correct because a stateful application with multiple pods that need to share the same volume requires a ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode, which allows concurrent read-write access from multiple pods. A supported storage class like NFS provides the necessary network filesystem protocol to enable this shared access across pods, potentially on different nodes.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim with access mode ReadOnlyMany and mount it in each pod.
Why it's wrong here
ROX is read-only; the application needs write access.
✓
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim with access mode ReadWriteMany and use a supported storage class like NFS.
Why this is correct
RWX allows multiple pods to write concurrently, which matches the requirement.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim with access mode ReadWriteOnce and mount it in each pod.
Why it's wrong here
RWO only allows a single pod to mount the volume at a time.
✗
Use a hostPath volume configured on each node where pods are scheduled.
Why it's wrong here
hostPath is not suitable for sharing across pods on different nodes and is not recommended for production.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse ReadWriteOnce (RWO) with the ability to share a volume across pods, not realizing that RWO strictly limits access to a single pod, while ReadWriteMany (RWX) is the only access mode that supports concurrent multi-pod read-write access.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, ReadWriteMany (RWX) is typically implemented via network filesystems like NFS (Network File System) or cloud-native solutions such as CephFS or GlusterFS, which use a distributed or shared filesystem layer to coordinate concurrent access. In Kubernetes, the PersistentVolume (PV) backing an RWX claim must support locking or consistency mechanisms (e.g., NFSv4 with file locking) to prevent data corruption when multiple pods write simultaneously. A real-world scenario is a content management system where multiple web server pods need to write uploaded files to a shared storage backend, requiring RWX to avoid single-pod bottlenecks.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CKA question in full detail.
Storage — This question tests Storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a PersistentVolumeClaim with access mode ReadWriteMany and use a supported storage class like NFS. — Option B is correct because a stateful application with multiple pods that need to share the same volume requires a ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode, which allows concurrent read-write access from multiple pods. A supported storage class like NFS provides the necessary network filesystem protocol to enable this shared access across pods, potentially on different nodes.
What should I do if I get this CKA question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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