CKA · topic practice

Troubleshooting practice questions

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

Courseiva uses original exam-style practice questions designed for learning and revision. The goal is to understand the concepts, recognise exam patterns, and improve through explanations — not memorise copied exam dumps.

Reviewed byJohnson Ajibi· MSc IT Security
20 questionsDomain: Troubleshooting

What the exam tests

What to know about Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting 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 Troubleshooting 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.

Practice set

Troubleshooting questions

20 questions · select your answer, then reveal the explanation

Question 1mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

A pod named 'web-frontend' is in CrashLoopBackOff. You run 'kubectl logs web-frontend' and see: 'Error: listen tcp :8080: bind: address already in use'. What is the most likely cause and how should you fix it?

Question 2hardmultiple choice
Read the full DNS explanation →

A user reports that their application cannot resolve DNS names for services in the cluster. The application runs in a pod with dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst. What is the most likely cause?

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to troubleshoot a pod that is stuck in 'Pending' state?

Question 4mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

Based on the exhibit, the pod is in CrashLoopBackOff. Which command should you run NEXT to identify the root cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ kubectl get pods -n production
NAME                    READY   STATUS             RESTARTS   AGE
api-6f4d7b9d4c-abcde   0/1     CrashLoopBackOff   5          3m

$ kubectl describe pod api-6f4d7b9d4c-abcde -n production
...
Events:
  Type     Reason     Age                   From               Message
  ----     ------     ----                  ----               -------
  Normal   Scheduled  3m40s                 default-scheduler  Successfully assigned production/api-6f4d7b9d4c-abcde to node-1
  Normal   Pulled     3m30s                 kubelet            Container image "nginx:1.21" already present on machine
  Normal   Created    3m30s                 kubelet            Created container api
  Normal   Started    3m30s                 kubelet            Started container api
  Warning  BackOff    1s (x5 over 3m)       kubelet            Back-off restarting failed container

You are a CKA managing a production cluster with 5 worker nodes. A developer reports that a new deployment 'payment-service' is not accessible from other pods via its Service 'payment-svc' in the 'default' namespace. The Service is of type ClusterIP with selector 'app: payment'. The deployment has 3 replicas, all showing 'Running' status. From a test pod, you run 'curl http://payment-svc:8080' and get 'Connection refused'. You verify that the pods are listening on port 8080 and the container's readiness probe passes. 'kubectl get endpoints payment-svc' shows no endpoints. 'kubectl describe svc payment-svc' shows the selector 'app=payment'. What is the most likely cause?

A developer reports that a newly deployed Deployment named 'web-app' is not serving traffic. The Deployment has 3 replicas, a Service of type ClusterIP, and an Ingress. Which TWO commands should you run first to diagnose the issue?

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the pod not running?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.
$ kubectl describe pod nginx-pod
...
Events:
  Type     Reason                  Age   From               Message
  ----     ------                  ----  ----               -------
  Normal   Scheduled               2m    default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/nginx-pod to node-1
  Warning  FailedMount             2m    kubelet            MountVolume.SetUp failed for volume "config" : secrets "my-secret" not found
  Warning  FailedMount             1m    kubelet            MountVolume.SetUp failed for volume "config" : secrets "my-secret" not found
  Warning  FailedMount             30s   kubelet            MountVolume.SetUp failed for volume "config" : secrets "my-secret" not found

You are tasked with troubleshooting a production Kubernetes cluster. A user reports that they cannot access a web application running in the cluster. The application is deployed as a Deployment named 'frontend' with 2 replicas, exposed via a Service of type LoadBalancer. You have kubectl access to the cluster. You run 'kubectl get pods -l app=frontend' and see both pods are Running and Ready. You run 'kubectl get svc frontend' and see the Service has an external IP of 192.168.1.100. However, when you curl http://192.168.1.100 from a machine outside the cluster, you get a connection timeout. You are able to curl the pod IPs directly from within the cluster and get a response. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the issue?

A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff state. Which command should you use to see the logs of the previous instance?

Question 10mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

You run kubectl get nodes and see one node is NotReady. The kubelet is running on the node. What is the most likely cause?

Question 11hardmultiple choice
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A pod is stuck in Pending state. You describe the pod and see: '0/4 nodes are available: 4 node(s) had taint {node.kubernetes.io/not-ready: }, that the pod didn't tolerate.' What is the most likely reason?

Question 12mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

You need to investigate why a service is not reachable from within the cluster. Which of the following is the first step?

Question 13hardmultiple choice
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A pod has status 'Init:Error'. What does this indicate?

Question 14mediummulti select
Read the full DNS explanation →

Which of the following are valid methods to debug a failing CoreDNS pod? (Select TWO)

Question 15easymultiple choice
Read the full NAT/PAT explanation →

A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff state. Which command shows the last termination reason?

Question 16mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

A Node is in NotReady state. Which action should be taken first to diagnose the issue?

Question 17hardmultiple choice
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A pod is stuck in ContainerCreating. Which condition is most likely if `kubectl describe pod` shows 'Failed to create pod sandbox'?

Question 18mediummultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

A pod is in ImagePullBackOff. Which command would help determine the exact reason?

Question 19hardmultiple choice
Read the full Troubleshooting explanation →

A Service of type ClusterIP is not reachable from within the cluster. Pods backing the Service are running and healthy. What is the most likely cause?

A worker node is marked NotReady. Which two checks are most relevant to diagnose the node's kubelet health? (Choose two.)

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Focused Troubleshooting sessions

Start a Troubleshooting only practice session

Every question in these sessions is drawn from the Troubleshooting domain — nothing else.

Related practice questions

Related CKA topic practice pages

Move into related areas when this topic feels solid.

Frequently asked questions

What does the CKA exam test about Troubleshooting?
Troubleshooting questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How should I use these practice questions?
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. Then read why each option is right or wrong — this active recall approach builds retention far faster than re-reading notes.
Can I practise just Troubleshooting questions in a focused session?
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws every question from the Troubleshooting domain. Use a 10-question session first to gauge your baseline, then move to 20 or 30 once the weak spots are clear.
Where can I practise other CKA topics?
Use the topic links above to move to related areas, or go back to the CKA question bank to see all topics.
Are these real exam questions or dumps?
These are original practice questions written to test the same concepts the CKA exam covers. They are not copied from any real exam or dump site.