CKA Troubleshooting Practice Question
Which two commands can be used to view the logs of a container that has crashed? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think that systemd services like the kubelet store container logs directly. In Kubernetes, container stdout/stderr logs are managed by the container runtime (like containerd) and written to `/var/log/pods`, which `kubectl logs` reads. The kubelet logs themselves only contain cluster-level lifecycle events, not container application logs.
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
✓
kubectl logs pod-name --previous
To view the logs of a container that has crashed, you can use `kubectl logs pod-name` (Option E) to view the logs of the current container instance (even if it is currently in a terminated or waiting state), or `kubectl logs pod-name --previous` (Option B) to view the logs of the previous instance if the container has restarted. `journalctl -u kubelet` (Option A) and `systemctl status kubelet` (Option D) show the logs and status of the kubelet system service itself, not the stdout/stderr of individual containers. `kubectl describe pod` (Option C) shows pod events and metadata but does not display the container's stdout/stderr logs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
journalctl -u kubelet
Why it's wrong here
Contains container logs from the kubelet.
- ✓
kubectl logs pod-name --previous
Why this is correct
Shows logs of the terminated container.
- ✗
kubectl describe pod pod-name
Why it's wrong here
Shows events and state, not logs.
- ✗
systemctl status kubelet
Why it's wrong here
Shows service status, not container logs.
- ✓
kubectl logs pod-name
Why this is correct
Shows logs of the currently running container, not the crashed one.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Troubleshooting Cluster Security
Key term
kubectl Command Reference
kubectl is the command-line tool used to interact with and manage Kubernetes clusters by sending commands to the Kubernetes API.
Key term
Log Analysis
Log analysis is the process of reviewing and interpreting system-generated records to understand what happened in an application or infrastructure.
About these practice questions
This CKA question is part of Courseiva's 302-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. 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.