CKA Troubleshooting Practice Question
You need to see the startup logs of the kubelet service. Which command should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the kubelet with a Kubernetes pod and try to use `kubectl logs`, forgetting that kubelet is a node-level systemd service, not a container managed by the API server.
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
✓
journalctl -u kubelet
`journalctl -u kubelet` retrieves the systemd journal logs for the kubelet service unit. Since kubelet runs as a systemd service on the node, its startup logs (including failures, configuration errors, or TLS bootstrap issues) are captured by journald and can be viewed with this command. This is the standard way to inspect kubelet's early boot-time behavior, which is not accessible via kubectl or systemctl status alone.
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 events --all-namespaces
Why it's wrong here
This command retrieves cluster-level events generated by Kubernetes resources like Pods, Nodes, and Deployments. It does not interface with the underlying host's init system to retrieve systemd service logs. Consequently, it cannot display the startup or runtime logs of the kubelet daemon itself.
- ✗
systemctl status kubelet
Why it's wrong here
While this command displays the current active state, PID, and a brief, truncated snippet of the most recent log entries for the kubelet service, it is not designed for log analysis. It does not provide the comprehensive, historical startup log stream required to diagnose initialization failures.
- ✓
journalctl -u kubelet
Why this is correct
Because the kubelet runs as a native systemd service on the control plane and worker nodes, its standard output and error streams are captured by systemd-journald. Using this command queries the journal daemon specifically for the `kubelet` unit, outputting its complete, chronological startup and runtime log history.
- ✗
kubectl logs kubelet -n kube-system
Why it's wrong here
This command fails because the kubelet is a node-level system daemon rather than a containerized workload running inside a Kubernetes Pod. The `kubectl logs` command only queries the API server to fetch container logs from the container runtime, making it useless for non-containerized host services.
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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.