CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
You have a pod with resource requests: cpu: 500m, memory: 128Mi. The node has 4 CPU cores and 8Gi memory. What is the maximum number of such pods that can be scheduled on this node based on CPU only?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse CPU cores with millicores (e.g., thinking 4 cores means 4 pods at 500m each, or miscomputing 500m as half a core leading to 8 pods but then incorrectly dividing by memory limits).
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
✓
8
The node has 4 CPU cores, which equals 4000m (millicores). Each pod requests 500m CPU. Dividing 4000m by 500m gives 8 pods. This is the maximum number that can be scheduled based on CPU alone, assuming no other pods or system overhead. Option D is correct.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
4
Why it's wrong here
Choosing 4 assumes each pod consumes 1000m (1 full CPU). Since the request is only 500m, the available 4000m cluster CPU can support twice that many occurrences. This mistake typically comes from misreading millicores or using the node's total cores as per-pod limit.
- ✗
16
Why it's wrong here
Selecting 16 implies a per-pod request of 250m (one-quarter core). That is half the actual 500m request, doubling the number of pods that can be scheduled. This error often arises from confusing megabytes/mebibytes notation with CPU millicores, or dividing by two erroneously.
- ✗
6
Why it's wrong here
There is no consistent divisor that yields 6 from 4000m total CPU. It would correspond to a per-pod request of about 666.67m, which doesn't match the spec. This is likely a random guess or arithmetic slip rather than a calculation based on the given resource request.
- ✓
8
Why this is correct
With 4000m CPU allocatable and 500m requested per pod, the scheduler can pack 4000/500 = 8 pods. This ignores memory limits and other daemonset overhead, so in practice node exhaustion or memory may reduce this number. However, based strictly on CPU request, 8 is the ceiling.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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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.