CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
You have a Deployment with 5 replicas. During a rolling update, you want to ensure that at most 3 pods are unavailable at any time. Which field should you set in the Deployment's strategy?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse `maxUnavailable` with `maxSurge`, thinking that limiting the number of new Pods (surge) indirectly controls unavailability, but `maxUnavailable` directly caps the number of Pods that can be down at any time.
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
✓
maxUnavailable: 3
The `maxUnavailable` field in a Deployment's rolling update strategy specifies the maximum number of Pods that can be unavailable during the update process. Setting `maxUnavailable: 3` ensures that at most 3 out of 5 replicas can be down simultaneously, which directly satisfies the requirement. This field is part of the `spec.strategy.rollingUpdate` configuration in the Deployment manifest.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
replicas: 3
Why it's wrong here
The replicas field defines the steady-state desired number of pods for the Deployment, not the behavior of the rolling update process itself. Modifying this value to 3 would permanently scale down the entire application from 5 to 3 instances, rather than controlling how many pods can be offline simultaneously during an active rollout.
- ✗
minReadySeconds: 3
Why it's wrong here
The minReadySeconds parameter specifies the minimum time in seconds a newly created pod must run without crashing before it is considered available. While it slows down the rollout to ensure stability, it does not directly limit or define the number of pods that can be taken offline at any given moment during the update.
- ✓
maxUnavailable: 3
Why this is correct
The maxUnavailable field directly specifies the maximum number of pods that can be unavailable during the update process relative to the desired replica count. Setting this to 3 ensures that during a rolling update of a 5-replica deployment, at least 2 pods (5 minus 3) remain online and capable of serving traffic at all times.
- ✗
maxSurge: 3
Why it's wrong here
The maxSurge parameter dictates how many additional pod instances can be created above the desired replica count during a rolling update. While it helps speed up the deployment by provisioning new pods before terminating old ones, it does not set a threshold on the maximum number of existing pods that can be terminated or unavailable.
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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.