CKAD Application Observability and Maintenance Practice Question
This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of application observability and maintenance. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A deployment 'api-deploy' has resource limits set but is frequently being OOMKilled. The team suspects the memory limit is too low. Which approach should be taken to confirm this without causing downtime?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the memory limit in the deployment spec and apply the change; the rollout will automatically restart pods.
Option D is correct because updating the deployment spec triggers a rolling update, which replaces pods with new ones having the increased memory limit without downtime. This approach leverages Kubernetes' deployment controller to manage the rollout automatically, ensuring service continuity while adjusting resource limits.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Create a new pod with a higher memory limit and delete the old pods manually.
Why it's wrong here
This does not update the deployment, and manual deletion causes disruption.
✗
Set the memory limit to unlimited by removing the limit section and restart the pod.
Why it's wrong here
Removing limits may cause resource exhaustion on the node; restarting the pod causes a brief outage.
✗
Use 'kubectl set resources' to increase the limit on the running pod dynamically.
Why it's wrong here
'kubectl set resources' updates the deployment, not the running pod directly.
✓
Increase the memory limit in the deployment spec and apply the change; the rollout will automatically restart pods.
Why this is correct
Rolling update applies changes without downtime.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse 'kubectl set resources' with a dynamic in-place update, not realizing it modifies the deployment spec and requires a rollout to take effect, similar to editing the YAML directly.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
When a deployment's pod template is updated (e.g., via 'kubectl set resources' or 'kubectl apply'), the deployment controller creates a new ReplicaSet with the updated spec and gradually scales it up while scaling down the old ReplicaSet, ensuring zero-downtime updates. The OOMKilled status is determined by the kernel's out-of-memory killer, which terminates the pod's container when it exceeds its memory limit (cgroup memory.max); increasing the limit in the spec allows the container to allocate more memory before being killed.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the CKAD exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CKAD question in full detail.
Application Observability and Maintenance — This question tests Application Observability and Maintenance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the memory limit in the deployment spec and apply the change; the rollout will automatically restart pods. — Option D is correct because updating the deployment spec triggers a rolling update, which replaces pods with new ones having the increased memory limit without downtime. This approach leverages Kubernetes' deployment controller to manage the rollout automatically, ensuring service continuity while adjusting resource limits.
What should I do if I get this CKAD question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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