CKAD Application Design and Build Practice Question
A Job must run 10 times in total, with up to 3 pods running simultaneously. Which fields should be set?
⚠ Common exam trap
In CKAD, candidates often confuse `parallelism` (concurrent Pods) with `successfulJobsHistoryLimit` (history retention) or `completions` (total Pod completions). Remember that `parallelism` controls how many Pods run at once, not the total count.
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
✓
completions: 10, parallelism: 3
In a Kubernetes Job, `completions: 10` specifies the total number of successful Pod completions required, and `parallelism: 3` limits the number of Pods that can run concurrently. This ensures the Job runs exactly 10 times with up to 3 Pods in parallel, which matches the requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
completions: 10, parallelism: 3
Why this is correct
This configuration sets the desired Job state: completions: 10 tells the Kubernetes Job controller that it must manage exactly 10 successful pod completions before the Job is marked complete, while parallelism: 3 caps the number of Pods that can run simultaneously. The controller will create Pods in batches, never exceeding the parallelism limit, until the total number of completed Pods reaches 10. This precisely matches the requirement of 10 total runs with at most 3 pods running at any given time.
- ✗
completions: 10, successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 3
Why it's wrong here
successfulJobsHistoryLimit is a Job controller setting that controls how many completed Jobs are retained for inspection after they finish, not a knob for execution concurrency. Setting it to 3 alongside completions: 10 would still run 10 pods sequentially or in parallel depending on the default parallelism (which is 1 if unspecified), but it would not establish a limit of 3 concurrent pods. The correct parallel execution knob is parallelism, so this option confuses history retention with execution semantics.
- ✗
completions: 10, parallelism: 10
Why it's wrong here
parallelism: 10 with completions: 10 allows the Job controller to launch up to 10 Pods at once, meaning all 10 can run concurrently. While this still yields the correct total of 10 completions, it violates the explicit 'up to 3 pods running' constraint by permitting up to 10 simultaneous Pods. The parallelism value is the maximum desired concurrency, so setting it to 10 directly contradicts the 3-pod limit required.
- ✗
completions: 3, parallelism: 10
Why it's wrong here
completions: 3 with parallelism: 10 means the Job is considered successful after only 3 pod completions, even though the requirement demands 10 total runs. With parallelism 10, the controller could theoretically run 3 pods at once, but the total count is wrong—the Job would finish after 3 successful pods, ignoring the required 7 additional runs. Thus this option fails the '10 times in total' requirement, regardless of any parallelism setting.
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