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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.
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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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What is the purpose of the kube-proxy component?
Easy2A node named 'worker-1' is unhealthy. You want to mark it as unschedulable and move workloads to other nodes. Which command sequence is correct?
Medium3A 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?
Medium4Which component runs on every node in a Kubernetes cluster and ensures containers are running in a pod?
Easy5Which of the following YAML snippets correctly defines a Kubernetes Deployment with 3 replicas and a rolling update strategy?
Medium6A 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?
Medium7A ClusterRoleBinding grants cluster-admin access to a user. Which field in the ClusterRoleBinding specifies the user?
Medium8To make a node unschedulable without evicting existing pods, which command should be used?
Medium9An admin runs 'kubectl get pods' and sees a pod in the 'Pending' state. Which is the most likely cause?
Medium10You 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?
Hard11Which command initializes a Kubernetes control plane node using kubeadm?
Easy12You need to prepare a worker node for maintenance. Which TWO actions should you perform? (Choose TWO.)
Hard13You 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?
Medium14An 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?
Hard15A 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?
Medium16You 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?
Hard17A 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?
Medium18A 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?
Medium19Which TWO of the following are valid methods to provide a token to a Pod for authenticating to the Kubernetes API server?
Medium20You 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?
Medium21You run `kubectl get pods` and get an error: 'error: You must be logged in to the server (Unauthorized)'. What is the most likely cause?
Medium22A 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?
Hard23You run 'kubectl get nodes' and see that one node is marked as 'NotReady'. Which component is likely failing on that node?
Medium24An 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?
Hard25A 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?
Medium26A node in the cluster has been cordoned. Which of the following is true about the node?
Medium27What is the function of the 'kube-scheduler' in Kubernetes?
Easy28An 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?
Hard29An 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?
Hard30Which THREE are valid steps when upgrading a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm? (Select 3)
Medium31Which subcommand of 'kubectl config' is used to switch between different contexts?
Medium32A 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?
Hard33You 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.)
Hard34You 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?
Hard35Which kubectl command is used to drain a node before performing maintenance?
Easy36Which control plane component is responsible for storing the cluster state and configuration?
Easy37An admin wants to view the current context in their kubeconfig. Which command should they use?
Medium38After running 'kubeadm certs check-expiration', an admin sees that the 'apiserver' certificate expires in 30 days. Which command should be used to renew it?
Hard39You 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?
Medium40Which THREE of the following are valid methods to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server? (Select 3)
Hard41Which command allows you to view the current context in a kubeconfig file?
Easy42Which command is used to backup etcd data using etcdctl?
Easy43Which component on a worker node is responsible for maintaining network rules and forwarding traffic to the correct pod?
Easy44Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select two.)
Medium45Which command can you use to check the expiration date of certificates managed by kubeadm?
Easy46Which command is used to initialize a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm?
Easy47An 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?
Medium48A 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?
Hard49You 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?
Hard50An administrator runs 'kubectl cordon node1' and then 'kubectl drain node1 --ignore-daemonsets'. What is the effect on node1?
Medium51Which command displays the expiration date of all certificates managed by kubeadm?
Easy52You need to back up etcd on a single control plane node. Which command correctly creates a snapshot?
Hard53A developer needs to create a Role that allows listing pods in the 'dev' namespace. Which YAML snippet correctly defines this Role?
Medium54An 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?
Medium55A 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?
Medium56Which component is responsible for maintaining network rules on worker nodes?
Easy57You 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?
Easy58Which component is responsible for assigning pods to nodes?
Easy59A developer wants to run a one-time batch job that processes data and then exits. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?
Medium60A pod is failing with 'CrashLoopBackOff'. You run 'kubectl logs mypod' and see no output. What is the first troubleshooting step?
Medium61You 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?
Hard62A 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?
Medium63You 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.)
Medium64A 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?
Hard65Which kubeconfig context is currently active?
Medium66A 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?
Hard67Your 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.)
Medium68You 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?
Hard69You have a kubeconfig file with multiple contexts. How do you switch to the context named 'prod-cluster'?
Medium70A ServiceAccount 'monitor-sa' needs to be able to list Pods in namespace 'monitoring'. Which RBAC configuration is appropriate?
Hard71A 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?
Medium72You 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?
Hard73You need to allow a specific user to create and manage deployments in the 'development' namespace only. Which RBAC resources should you create?
Medium74Which kubeconfig context field defines the set of users, clusters, and namespaces for kubectl operations?
Easy75An 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?
Medium76Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select 2)
Easy77Which command creates a kubeconfig file that can be used to authenticate as a specific user?
Easy78Which component is responsible for running containers on a node?
Easy79You 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?
Medium80You 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.)
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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.