CKAD Practice Question: Application Environment, Configuration and Security
This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of application environment, configuration and security. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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.
Which THREE of the following are characteristics of Pod Security Admission (PSA) standards? (Select three.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
PSA can be configured to warn or audit violations without blocking
Option A is correct because Pod Security Admission (PSA) supports three modes: enforce (blocks violations), audit (logs violations in audit logs), and warn (returns a warning to the user). This allows administrators to test or monitor PSA policies without immediately blocking pod creation, which is critical for gradual adoption.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
PSA can be configured to warn or audit violations without blocking
Why this is correct
PSA supports modes: enforce, audit, and warn.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
There are three predefined security levels: privileged, baseline, restricted
Why this is correct
These are the three levels defined by the Pod Security Standards.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
PSA requires Open Policy Agent (OPA) Gatekeeper to function
Why it's wrong here
PSA is independent of OPA; it's a native Kubernetes feature.
✓
A namespace can be labeled to enforce a security level for all pods in that namespace
Why this is correct
Labels like 'pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: baseline' set the enforcement level.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
PSA is a CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) that must be installed separately
Why it's wrong here
PSA is built into the kube-apiserver as an admission controller; it's not a CRD.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse PSA with third-party tools like OPA Gatekeeper or think it requires a CRD, when in fact PSA is a built-in, label-driven admission controller that works out of the box in Kubernetes v1.23+.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
PSA uses three predefined policy levels — privileged, baseline, and restricted — that map to specific Pod Security Standards (PSS) defined in the Kubernetes documentation. Under the hood, the kube-apiserver evaluates pod specs against these levels during admission, checking fields like securityContext, seccomp profiles, and allowed host paths. A real-world scenario is a cluster administrator labeling a namespace with pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=restricted to block any pod that does not meet the restricted standard, while using the warn or audit mode on other namespaces to identify violations before enforcing.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A junior network technician can log in to a core router but cannot reach the enable prompt or configuration mode. The AAA server is authenticating the login — but the authorisation policy only grants privilege level 1, not 15. Authentication (who you are) is working; authorisation (what you can do) is not.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CKAD question in full detail.
Application Environment, Configuration and Security — This question tests Application Environment, Configuration and Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: PSA can be configured to warn or audit violations without blocking — Option A is correct because Pod Security Admission (PSA) supports three modes: enforce (blocks violations), audit (logs violations in audit logs), and warn (returns a warning to the user). This allows administrators to test or monitor PSA policies without immediately blocking pod creation, which is critical for gradual adoption.
What should I do if I get this CKAD question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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