CKAD Application Design and Build Practice Question
A CronJob is configured with concurrencyPolicy: Replace and a job execution takes 10 minutes. The schedule is */5 * * * *. Which statement is true about job executions?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'Replace' with 'Forbid' or 'Allow', and mistakenly think the job is skipped or that overlap is allowed, when in fact 'Replace' actively terminates the running job to start a new one.
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
✓
Every 5 minutes, a new job is created, and if the previous job is still running, it is killed
With `concurrencyPolicy: Replace`, if a new job is triggered by the schedule (every 5 minutes) while the previous job is still running (it takes 10 minutes), the running job is terminated and replaced by the new one. This ensures only one job runs at a time, and the new job starts immediately, even if the previous one hasn't finished.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Jobs will never overlap because the schedule is too frequent
Why it's wrong here
A schedule interval shorter than the job's runtime does not prevent overlap; it actually guarantees overlap attempts. The CronJob controller triggers a new Job every 5 minutes regardless of whether the previous Job has completed. Since Replace policy is configured, the controller will forcibly terminate the prior Job at that point, so overlap is actively resolved, not avoided by the frequency itself.
- ✓
Every 5 minutes, a new job is created, and if the previous job is still running, it is killed
Why this is correct
This is exactly what concurrencyPolicy: Replace does. When the CronJob controller fires a new schedule, it checks whether the Job from the previous invocation is still active; if so, it deletes that existing Job (terminating its Pods) and creates a fresh Job for the current run. This ensures the schedule is always honored and only one Job's worth of work executes at a time.
- ✗
The job will be skipped if the previous one hasn't finished
Why it's wrong here
This behavior belongs to concurrencyPolicy: Forbid, not Replace. With Forbid, the controller skips the newly scheduled run if the previous Job is still running, leaving the old Job untouched. Replace, by contrast, never skips a schedule; it instead cancels and replaces the running Job so the new run proceeds immediately.
- ✗
Jobs will overlap, with up to two jobs running concurrently
Why it's wrong here
This is false because Replace is designed to eliminate overlap entirely, not limit it to two. The controller terminates the currently running Job before creating the next one, so at most one Job exists at a time. Allowing up to two concurrent Jobs would be the result of concurrencyPolicy: Allow, but even that policy does not impose a fixed maximum — it permits unbounded concurrency, not a cap of two.
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