CKAD Services and Networking Practice Question
Which of the following Service types exposes a pod on a static port on each node's IP address?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse NodePort with LoadBalancer, thinking LoadBalancer also exposes a static port on each node, but LoadBalancer actually relies on NodePort internally and adds an external LB, not a direct per-node static port exposure.
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
✓
NodePort
NodePort is the correct answer because it exposes a pod on a static port (in the range 30000-32767) on every node's IP address. When a Service of type NodePort is created, Kubernetes opens that port on all nodes in the cluster, forwarding traffic to the target pods. This allows external access to the pod via any node's IP and the assigned static port.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
LoadBalancer
Why it's wrong here
LoadBalancer provisions an external cloud load balancer with a public IP, not a port on every node. NodePort is the Service type that opens a static port on each node's IP. LoadBalancer would be correct when exposing a Service externally through a cloud provider's managed load balancer.
- ✗
ExternalName
Why it's wrong here
ExternalName maps a Service to a DNS CNAME record, providing no node port or proxying at all, so it cannot expose a pod on each node's IP. It is tempting because it is designed to reference external resources by DNS name, and would be correct when pods must reach an outside database via a stable alias.
- ✗
ClusterIP
Why it's wrong here
ClusterIP gives a virtual IP reachable only inside the cluster, so it cannot publish a static port on every node's IP. It is tempting because it is the default Service type for internal pod-to-pod communication, and would be correct for backend services that never need external or node-level access.
- ✓
NodePort
Why this is correct
NodePort allocates a static port from the default range 30000–32767 on every node's IP address, forwarding traffic to the targeted pods. ClusterIP exposes only a virtual internal address, and LoadBalancer builds on NodePort with an external cloud load balancer, so NodePort uniquely satisfies the static-port-per-node 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.