CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
You create a CronJob that should run every day at midnight. The CronJob has a startingDeadlineSeconds of 100. If the CronJob controller is down for 2 minutes, what happens?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume the controller will always catch up on missed jobs after recovery, but Kubernetes explicitly drops jobs if the delay exceeds `startingDeadlineSeconds`, testing your understanding of the deadline's purpose as a hard cutoff.
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
✓
The job is missed and will not run until the next scheduled time.
The CronJob controller was down for 2 minutes (120 seconds), which exceeds the `startingDeadlineSeconds` of 100. According to Kubernetes CronJob behavior, if the controller misses the scheduled start time by more than `startingDeadlineSeconds`, the job is considered missed and will not be retroactively created. The controller will only run the next scheduled instance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The job runs as soon as the controller recovers.
Why it's wrong here
When the CronJob controller recovers, it checks if the missed execution time falls within the window defined by startingDeadlineSeconds. Because the controller was offline for 120 seconds, which exceeds the 100-second deadline, the controller decides not to start the job. Instead of running immediately upon recovery, the execution is skipped entirely.
- ✓
The job is missed and will not run until the next scheduled time.
Why this is correct
Since the controller was down for 120 seconds, the gap between the scheduled midnight execution and the controller's recovery exceeds the configured startingDeadlineSeconds of 100 seconds. Consequently, Kubernetes classifies this execution as a missed deadline and skips it. The controller will now wait until the next scheduled daily occurrence at midnight to trigger the job.
- ✗
The controller creates a Job with a backoff limit.
Why it's wrong here
The backoffLimit parameter in a Job spec controls the number of retries before marking a failed Pod as failed. It has no bearing on how the CronJob controller schedules missed executions or handles controller downtime. The controller will not create a Job at all in this scenario because the starting deadline has already been violated.
- ✗
The job runs immediately but is delayed by 2 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
This option incorrectly assumes that the job will execute late to compensate for the controller's downtime. Because the 2-minute (120-second) delay is strictly greater than the 100-second startingDeadlineSeconds limit, the controller is forbidden from starting the job late. The job is completely bypassed rather than being executed with a delay.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Installing Kubernetes with kubeadm
Key term
Network Policies
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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.