CKA Troubleshooting Practice Question
You run 'kubectl get pods' and see a pod in 'CrashLoopBackOff'. You want to see the logs of the last crashed instance. Which command should you run?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers think `kubectl logs pod-name` alone will show crash logs, but it only shows logs from the currently running container (which may be empty or not yet started), and they overlook the `--previous` flag that is specifically designed for accessing logs of a terminated container.
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 logs pod-name --previous
The `--previous` flag (or its shorthand `-p`) tells `kubectl logs` to retrieve logs from the previous instance of a container that has crashed and restarted. Since the pod is in `CrashLoopBackOff`, the current container has already exited, and you need to inspect the logs of the last terminated container to diagnose the crash. To avoid having two correct answers, Option C has been changed to an invalid flag.
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 logs pod-name --previous
Why this is correct
Correct. The --previous flag retrieves logs from the previous instance.
- ✗
kubectl logs pod-name --all-containers
Why it's wrong here
This shows all container logs, but not necessarily previous crashes.
- ✗
kubectl logs pod-name --last
Why it's wrong here
-p is not a valid flag for kubectl logs; use --previous.
- ✗
kubectl logs pod-name
Why it's wrong here
This shows current logs, which may be empty if the pod is crashing.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Troubleshooting Networking and Services
Key term
Log Analysis
Log analysis is the process of reviewing and interpreting system-generated records to understand what happened in an application or infrastructure.
Key term
kubectl Command Reference
kubectl is the command-line tool used to interact with and manage Kubernetes clusters by sending commands to the Kubernetes API.
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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.