CKA Troubleshooting Practice Question
You need to check the status of control plane components. Which TWO commands are appropriate?
⚠ Common exam trap
The CKA exam environment is built using kubeadm. Do not look for systemd services for the apiserver, controller-manager, or scheduler, as they run as static pods. Only the kubelet and the container runtime (e.g., containerd) run as systemd services on the nodes.
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
✓
kubectl get pods -n kube-system
To check the status of control plane components in a kubeadm-established cluster, use 'kubectl get pods -n kube-system' to inspect the static pods. 'kubectl get componentstatuses' (deprecated but still a valid status check) reports health of the control plane components. 'systemctl status kube-apiserver' is not appropriate because the API server runs as a static pod, not a systemd service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
kubectl get pods -n kube-system
Why this is correct
Shows pods for control plane components if running as static pods.
- ✗
systemctl status kube-apiserver
Why it's wrong here
Checks the kube-apiserver service status on the control plane node.
- ✓
kubectl get componentstatuses
Why this is correct
Deprecated and may not show accurate status.
- ✗
top -u kube
Why it's wrong here
Shows process list, not component health.
- ✗
systemctl list-units --type=service
Why it's wrong here
Lists all services; not specific to control plane.
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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.