CKAD Application Deployment Practice Question
During a rolling update of a Deployment with 10 replicas, you set maxSurge to 3 and maxUnavailable to 2. What is the maximum number of pods that can be unavailable during the update?
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
✓
2
maxUnavailable: 2 means at most 2 pods can be unavailable. Option C is correct.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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5
Why it's wrong here
The value 5 incorrectly sums maxSurge and maxUnavailable, but these are independent constraints in a rolling update. maxUnavailable caps how many existing pods may be down at any moment, while maxSurge caps how many extra pods can be created above the desired count. They do not combine into a single limit, so 5 is not a valid interpretation of the update policy.
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3
Why it's wrong here
The number 3 corresponds to the maxSurge setting, which controls how many additional pods may be temporarily created above the desired replicas during the rollout. It is not related to the allowed number of unavailable pods. In this scenario, maxUnavailable is set to 2, so that is the limit for existing pods being down, not 3.
- ✓
2
Why this is correct
The maxUnavailable field directly specifies the maximum number of pods that can be unavailable during a rolling update relative to the desired replica count. With maxUnavailable set to 2, the Deployment controller will ensure that at least 8 of the 10 original pods remain available at any time. Therefore, the maximum number of unavailable pods is exactly 2.
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10
Why it's wrong here
A value of 10 would only be correct if maxUnavailable were set to 100%, which would allow the controller to take down all replicas at once. Because maxUnavailable is set to 2, the controller cannot scale down more than 2 pods at a time during the rolling update. Thus, 10 is far too high and ignores the explicit availability constraint.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.