CKA Storage Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are valid reclaim policies for a PersistentVolume? (Select TWO)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may recall Recycle as a valid policy from older Kubernetes documentation or experience, but the CKA exam focuses on current Kubernetes versions (1.27+) where Recycle is no longer supported, making Retain and Delete the only correct choices.
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
✓
Retain
A is correct because the Retain reclaim policy is one of the two valid policies for PersistentVolumes in Kubernetes. When a PersistentVolume is released from its claim, the Retain policy leaves the volume and its data intact, requiring manual administrator intervention to reclaim the storage. This is defined in the PersistentVolume spec under the `persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy` field.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Retain
Why this is correct
The Retain reclaim policy directs Kubernetes to leave the underlying storage volume and its data completely untouched when a bound PersistentVolumeClaim is deleted. The PV then transitions to the Released phase, and an administrator must manually inspect, clean up, or repurpose the storage asset before the PV can be made Available again. This is the safest choice for data that must be preserved for compliance or recovery, but it requires deliberate manual intervention to reclaim the volume.
- ✓
Delete
Why this is correct
The Delete reclaim policy automatically removes both the PersistentVolume object and its corresponding underlying storage asset—such as an AWS EBS volume, GCE Persistent Disk, or Azure Disk—when the bound PVC is deleted. This is the default behavior for dynamically provisioned volumes and is ideal for ephemeral workloads, but it permanently destroys the data immediately upon PVC release, so it must only be used when data loss is acceptable.
- ✗
Recycle
Why it's wrong here
Recycle is a deprecated reclaim policy that once performed a basic `rm -rf` on the volume contents to prepare it for reuse. It was only ever designed for single-node file volumes and had inconsistent behavior across storage providers, so it was removed in modern Kubernetes versions. The Kubernetes documentation now explicitly advises against using Recycle and recommends Delete for automatic cleanup or Retain for manual data preservation.
- ✗
Preserve
Why it's wrong here
Preserve is not a recognized reclaim policy in the Kubernetes API, which only accepts Retain, Delete, and the deprecated Recycle as valid values for the `persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy` field. Attempting to set `reclaimPolicy: Preserve` on a PersistentVolume manifest will cause the API server to reject the object with a validation error. Data preservation is already fully covered by the Retain policy, so the concept is real but the keyword is invalid.
- ✗
Archive
Why it's wrong here
Archive is also not a valid Kubernetes reclaim policy; the `persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy` field validates against a strict set of allowed strings and does not include Archive. Using it would result in a PersistentVolume that cannot be created, because the API server rejects unknown enum values. Archiving data is an operational task that an administrator may implement manually after using Retain, but Kubernetes itself provides no Archive policy or automatic archival mechanism.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Architecture Overview
Key term
Volumes
In Kubernetes, a volume is a storage resource that outlives the pod it belongs to, enabling data to persist across container restarts and be shared between containers in the same pod.
Key term
Ingress Resources
Ingress Resources are Kubernetes API objects that manage external access to services inside a cluster, typically HTTP and HTTPS traffic, by defining rules for routing requests based on hostnames and paths.
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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.