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Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration

Practise Certified Kubernetes Administrator CKA Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

80 questions19 easy39 medium22 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration

Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration exam traps

  • Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Question index

All Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration questions (80)

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1

What is the purpose of the kube-proxy component?

Easy
2

A node named 'worker-1' is unhealthy. You want to mark it as unschedulable and move workloads to other nodes. Which command sequence is correct?

Medium
3

A new Kubernetes administrator runs 'kubeadm join --token <token> <control-plane-ip>:6443 --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:<hash>' on a worker node. The join fails with 'error execution phase preflight: couldn't validate the identity of the API Server'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
4

Which component runs on every node in a Kubernetes cluster and ensures containers are running in a pod?

Easy
5

Which of the following YAML snippets correctly defines a Kubernetes Deployment with 3 replicas and a rolling update strategy?

Medium
6

A ClusterRole named 'pod-reader' exists that grants get, list, and watch permissions on pods. You want to bind this ClusterRole to a user 'john' in the 'development' namespace only. Which resource should you create?

Medium
7

A ClusterRoleBinding grants cluster-admin access to a user. Which field in the ClusterRoleBinding specifies the user?

Medium
8

To make a node unschedulable without evicting existing pods, which command should be used?

Medium
9

An admin runs 'kubectl get pods' and sees a pod in the 'Pending' state. Which is the most likely cause?

Medium
10

You have a cluster with multiple worker nodes. You need to upgrade the cluster from v1.28.0 to v1.29.0 using kubeadm. What is the correct sequence of steps?

Hard
11

Which command initializes a Kubernetes control plane node using kubeadm?

Easy
12

You need to prepare a worker node for maintenance. Which TWO actions should you perform? (Choose TWO.)

Hard
13

You have a service account named 'my-sa' in the 'default' namespace. You want to mount its token into a pod automatically. Which field in the pod spec achieves this?

Medium
14

An admin attempts to restore an etcd snapshot using 'etcdctl snapshot restore' but encounters an error. Which environment variable must be set for etcdctl to work with v3 API?

Hard
15

A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?

Medium
16

You need to grant a ServiceAccount named 'jenkins' in the 'ci' namespace the ability to list pods in the 'production' namespace. Which RBAC resources should you create?

Hard
17

A Kubernetes cluster was upgraded from v1.28 to v1.29. After the upgrade, nodes report NotReady. You check kubelet logs and see: 'error: failed to run Kubelet: misconfiguration: kubelet cgroup driver: "systemd" is different from docker cgroup driver: "cgroupfs"'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
18

A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?

Medium
19

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to provide a token to a Pod for authenticating to the Kubernetes API server?

Medium
20

You are upgrading a cluster from v1.28 to v1.29. You have already drained and upgraded all worker nodes. The control plane nodes have not been upgraded yet. 'kubectl get nodes' shows the control plane nodes are still v1.28. What is the correct next step?

Medium
21

You run `kubectl get pods` and get an error: 'error: You must be logged in to the server (Unauthorized)'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
22

A user reports that they cannot access a Service of type ClusterIP from within the cluster. The Service selects pods that are running and responding. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Hard
23

You run 'kubectl get nodes' and see that one node is marked as 'NotReady'. Which component is likely failing on that node?

Medium
24

An administrator is setting up RBAC to allow a CI/CD pipeline to create and delete pods only in the 'ci' namespace. Which combination of resources should be created?

Hard
25

A user needs to deploy a pod that requires access to the Kubernetes API server from within the pod. Which resource should be used to provide authentication credentials automatically?

Medium
26

A node in the cluster has been cordoned. Which of the following is true about the node?

Medium
27

What is the function of the 'kube-scheduler' in Kubernetes?

Easy
28

An administrator backs up etcd data using 'ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save /backup/etcd-snapshot.db'. Which command correctly restores this snapshot on a new etcd instance?

Hard
29

An administrator runs 'kubectl get nodes' and sees that one node is in the 'NotReady' state. Which component should be checked FIRST to diagnose the issue?

Hard
30

Which THREE are valid steps when upgrading a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm? (Select 3)

Medium
31

Which subcommand of 'kubectl config' is used to switch between different contexts?

Medium
32

A developer needs to access the Kubernetes API from a pod using a ServiceAccount. Which of the following is the recommended way to mount the ServiceAccount token into a pod?

Hard
33

You have a multi-node Kubernetes cluster. After upgrading the kubelet on a worker node, the node remains in 'NotReady' state. Which TWO actions should you take to troubleshoot? (Choose TWO.)

Hard
34

You have a Kubernetes cluster with a single control-plane node and multiple worker nodes. You need to upgrade the cluster from v1.28.0 to v1.29.0. Which sequence of steps is correct?

Hard
35

Which kubectl command is used to drain a node before performing maintenance?

Easy
36

Which control plane component is responsible for storing the cluster state and configuration?

Easy
37

An admin wants to view the current context in their kubeconfig. Which command should they use?

Medium
38

After running 'kubeadm certs check-expiration', an admin sees that the 'apiserver' certificate expires in 30 days. Which command should be used to renew it?

Hard
39

You are using kubeadm to initialize a cluster. After running 'kubeadm init', you follow the instructions to set up the kubeconfig for the regular user. Which of the following commands should you run to allow kubectl to communicate with the cluster?

Medium
40

Which THREE of the following are valid methods to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server? (Select 3)

Hard
41

Which command allows you to view the current context in a kubeconfig file?

Easy
42

Which command is used to backup etcd data using etcdctl?

Easy
43

Which component on a worker node is responsible for maintaining network rules and forwarding traffic to the correct pod?

Easy
44

Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select two.)

Medium
45

Which command can you use to check the expiration date of certificates managed by kubeadm?

Easy
46

Which command is used to initialize a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm?

Easy
47

An admin runs 'kubectl get pods' and sees a pod in 'Pending' state for a long time. 'kubectl describe pod' shows '0/1 nodes are available: 1 node has memory pressure'. Which is the most likely cause?

Medium
48

A cluster was upgraded from v1.28 to v1.29 using kubeadm. After upgrading the control plane, nodes remain at v1.28. What is the correct next step to upgrade a worker node?

Hard
49

You are performing a backup of etcd using the command: 'ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save /backup/etcd-snapshot.db'. You get an error: 'Error: context deadline exceeded'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
50

An administrator runs 'kubectl cordon node1' and then 'kubectl drain node1 --ignore-daemonsets'. What is the effect on node1?

Medium
51

Which command displays the expiration date of all certificates managed by kubeadm?

Easy
52

You need to back up etcd on a single control plane node. Which command correctly creates a snapshot?

Hard
53

A developer needs to create a Role that allows listing pods in the 'dev' namespace. Which YAML snippet correctly defines this Role?

Medium
54

An administrator runs 'kubectl run test-pod --image=nginx' and the pod is created but stays in 'Pending' state. Which command would BEST help diagnose why the pod is not running?

Medium
55

A cluster was installed using kubeadm. You need to upgrade the cluster from v1.28 to v1.29. Which of the following is the correct order of operations?

Medium
56

Which component is responsible for maintaining network rules on worker nodes?

Easy
57

You are setting up a new Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm. After running 'kubeadm init', you want to start using the cluster with kubectl. Which of the following commands should you run to configure kubectl for the admin user?

Easy
58

Which component is responsible for assigning pods to nodes?

Easy
59

A developer wants to run a one-time batch job that processes data and then exits. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Medium
60

A pod is failing with 'CrashLoopBackOff'. You run 'kubectl logs mypod' and see no output. What is the first troubleshooting step?

Medium
61

You need to create a ServiceAccount named 'deployer' and grant it permission to create Deployments in namespace 'app'. Which YAML snippet correctly creates the necessary RBAC resources?

Hard
62

A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?

Medium
63

You are applying the following RBAC manifest: --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: namespace: development name: pod-reader rules: - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["pods"] verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"] Which TWO statements are true about this Role? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
64

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. 'kubectl describe pod' shows '0/1 nodes are available: 1 node(s) had taint {node-role.kubernetes.io/master: }, that the pod didn't tolerate'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
65

Which kubeconfig context is currently active?

Medium
66

A user reports that they can't authenticate to the cluster using a kubeconfig file. Running 'kubectl config view' shows the current context points to a user with client certificate and key. Which command checks the expiration date of the client certificate?

Hard
67

Your cluster has three control plane nodes. You suspect the etcd cluster has a leader election issue. Which TWO commands can help diagnose the etcd cluster health and membership? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
68

You are asked to backup the etcd database on a control plane node. The etcd is running as a static pod. Which command sequence will create a consistent snapshot?

Hard
69

You have a kubeconfig file with multiple contexts. How do you switch to the context named 'prod-cluster'?

Medium
70

A ServiceAccount 'monitor-sa' needs to be able to list Pods in namespace 'monitoring'. Which RBAC configuration is appropriate?

Hard
71

A developer created a ClusterRole named 'pod-reader' with rules to get and list pods. They created a ClusterRoleBinding 'read-pods-global' binding this ClusterRole to a service account 'sa-pod-reader' in the 'default' namespace. Which of the following is true about the permissions of this service account?

Medium
72

You run 'kubeadm certs check-expiration' and see that the 'apiserver' certificate expires in 30 days. What is the correct way to renew just that certificate using kubeadm?

Hard
73

You need to allow a specific user to create and manage deployments in the 'development' namespace only. Which RBAC resources should you create?

Medium
74

Which kubeconfig context field defines the set of users, clusters, and namespaces for kubectl operations?

Easy
75

An administrator needs to grant a service account 'sa-monitor' in namespace 'monitoring' the ability to read pods and services cluster-wide. Which RBAC configuration is correct?

Medium
76

Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select 2)

Easy
77

Which command creates a kubeconfig file that can be used to authenticate as a specific user?

Easy
78

Which component is responsible for running containers on a node?

Easy
79

You need to upgrade a Kubernetes cluster from v1.28 to v1.29 using kubeadm. After upgrading the control plane, what should you do on each worker node?

Medium
80

You need to create a Kubernetes ServiceAccount named 'build-bot' and ensure that pods using this ServiceAccount can authenticate to the Kubernetes API using a long-lived token. Which TWO steps are necessary? (Choose TWO.)

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration domain cover on the CKA exam?
Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 80 Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration questions in the CKA question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
Certified Kubernetes Administrator CKA Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration Practice Questions