CKA Services and Networking Practice Question
You have an Ingress resource with the following spec:
spec: rules: - host: example.com http: paths: - path: /api pathType: Prefix backend: service: name: api-service port: number: 80
A client sends a request to http://example.com/api/v1/users. Which path is matched?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse `Prefix` with `Exact` and think the entire request path must match the specified path, leading them to incorrectly select Option A or D, or they assume `ImplementationSpecific` is the default behavior when `pathType` is explicitly set.
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
✓
/api
The Ingress rule uses `pathType: Prefix` with a path of `/api`. According to the Kubernetes Ingress specification, a Prefix pathType matches any URL path that has the specified path as its prefix. The request `/api/v1/users` starts with `/api`, so it matches the rule, and the traffic is forwarded to the `api-service` on port 80.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
/api/v1/users
Why it's wrong here
This is the request URI, not the path defined in the Ingress rule. The rule specifies path /api with pathType Prefix, so any URL that begins with /api—including the full request /api/v1/users—matches. If the pathType were Exact, then /api/v1/users would be the only path that matches that exact string, but that is not the case here.
- ✗
ImplementationSpecific: depends on the Ingress controller
Why it's wrong here
pathType is explicitly set to Prefix in the Ingress spec, not ImplementationSpecific. ImplementationSpecific defers path-matching behavior to the Ingress controller (e.g., nginx may use regex), but with Prefix, Kubernetes requires a literal path prefix match that starts at a segment boundary. Therefore, the match is fully determined by the spec and does not depend on the controller's implementation.
- ✓
/api
Why this is correct
With pathType Prefix, the path /api matches any request URL whose path starts with /api, and matching is performed on a segment boundary; /api/v1/users begins with /api followed by the / segment, so it satisfies the rule. Prefix is the default and most common pathType for REST APIs because it allows a single rule to govern all nested resource endpoints. Thus /api is the correct path that the Ingress rule defines.
- ✗
No match, returns 404
Why it's wrong here
A 404 would only be returned if no Ingress rule matches the request, but this Prefix rule does match /api/v1/users. Because the request path satisfies the /api prefix, the Ingress controller routes the request to the specified backend service, so no 404 is generated by the Ingress layer. A 404 could still be returned later by the backend application, but not as a result of path matching failure.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Architecture Overview
Key term
Network Policies
A Kubernetes resource that controls how pods communicate with each other and with other network endpoints, acting as a firewall for pod-to-pod traffic.
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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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.