This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of application deployment. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 developer needs to deploy a container that runs a batch job to process data once and then exit. The job should be restarted only if it fails. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?
DaemonSet
Why wrong: DaemonSet runs on each node.
Deployment
Why wrong: Deployment is for continuously running pods.
Job
Job runs a task to completion and restarts on failure.
StatefulSet
Why wrong: StatefulSet is for stateful applications.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Job
A Kubernetes Job is the correct resource for a batch workload that runs to completion and exits. It ensures the pod is restarted only on failure (via the `RestartPolicy: OnFailure` or `Never`), which matches the requirement of restarting only if the job fails. Deployments and DaemonSets are designed for long-running processes, not termination.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
DaemonSet
Why it's wrong here
DaemonSet runs on each node.
Deployment
Why it's wrong here
Deployment is for continuously running pods.
Job
Why this is correct
Job runs a task to completion and restarts on failure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
StatefulSet
Why it's wrong here
StatefulSet is for stateful applications.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse a Job with a Deployment because both can run containers, but a Deployment is designed for long-running services and will restart pods even on successful completion, which violates the 'run once' requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, a Job controller creates one or more pods and tracks their completion status via the `.status.succeeded` field. If a pod fails (non-zero exit code), the Job controller can create a new pod based on the `backoffLimit` setting (default 6). The `RestartPolicy` for Job pods must be `OnFailure` or `Never`, which is enforced by the API server; using `Always` (the default for Deployments) is rejected. In real-world scenarios, a Job is ideal for ETL pipelines or database migrations that must run exactly once.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Application Deployment — This question tests Application Deployment — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Job — A Kubernetes Job is the correct resource for a batch workload that runs to completion and exits. It ensures the pod is restarted only on failure (via the `RestartPolicy: OnFailure` or `Never`), which matches the requirement of restarting only if the job fails. Deployments and DaemonSets are designed for long-running processes, not termination.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CKAD 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 CKAD exam.
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