CKAD Application Observability and Maintenance Practice Question
What is the purpose of a readiness probe in Kubernetes?
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
✓
To control whether the pod receives traffic from Services
A readiness probe determines whether a container is ready to serve traffic. If the probe fails, the pod is removed from the endpoints of Services, thus it does not receive traffic. Option B describes a startup probe (to delay liveness/readiness probes for slow-starting containers). Option C describes resource monitoring, not a probe. Option D describes a liveness probe, which restarts the container if unhealthy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
To control whether the pod receives traffic from Services
Why this is correct
A failing readiness probe removes the pod from Service endpoints.
- ✗
To delay the start of other probes for slow-starting containers
Why it's wrong here
That is the purpose of a startup probe.
- ✗
To monitor resource usage of the container
Why it's wrong here
Resource monitoring is done via metrics-server, not probes.
- ✗
To restart the container if it becomes unhealthy
Why it's wrong here
A readiness probe determines whether a container is ready to accept traffic; it does not trigger a restart. The liveness probe serves that restart function when a container becomes unhealthy. This option is tempting because both probes assess container health, but readiness only controls service endpoint inclusion, whereas liveness enforces the restart policy defined in the pod spec.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Core Concepts and Architecture
Key term
Liveness Probes
A liveness probe is a Kubernetes health check that tells the system whether a container is running properly and should be kept alive or restarted.
Key term
Readiness Probes
A Kubernetes mechanism that checks if a container is ready to start accepting traffic and serve requests.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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