This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of services and networking. Examine the command output carefully: the correct answer depends on what the output actually shows, not on general recall alone. 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.
You are responsible for a multi-tier application running in a Kubernetes cluster. The frontend Pods communicate with backend Pods via a Service named 'backend' in the same namespace. Recently, the frontend team reported that the backend Service is intermittently unreachable. You inspect the backend Pods and notice that they are all running and ready, but the Endpoints object for the 'backend' Service shows only a subset of the Pod IPs. You also notice that the backend Pods have a readiness probe configured that checks an HTTP endpoint '/healthz'. The readiness probe has a periodSeconds of 5 and failureThreshold of 3. The application logs show occasional spikes in response time on the /healthz endpoint, sometimes exceeding 15 seconds. You need to resolve the intermittent unavailability without removing the readiness probe. Which action should you take?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the failureThreshold to 10 and periodSeconds to 10 to tolerate transient slowness
Option D is correct because increasing the failureThreshold to 10 and periodSeconds to 10 gives the readiness probe more time (100 seconds total) to tolerate transient slowness on the /healthz endpoint, preventing premature removal of Pod IPs from the Endpoints object. This keeps all backend Pods in the ready state during response time spikes, ensuring the Service remains reachable.
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.
✗
Remove the readiness probe configuration from the backend Pods
Why it's wrong here
Removing readiness probe would eliminate health checking, potentially routing traffic to unhealthy Pods.
✗
Add a second readiness probe on a different endpoint to increase redundancy
Why it's wrong here
Multiple readiness probes would compound the issue; both must pass for Pod to be ready.
✗
Change the Service type from ClusterIP to NodePort to bypass endpoint issues
Why it's wrong here
Service type does not affect endpoint population; readiness probe still controls endpoints.
✓
Increase the failureThreshold to 10 and periodSeconds to 10 to tolerate transient slowness
Why this is correct
Higher threshold and period allow more tolerance for slow health checks, reducing flapping.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates might think removing the readiness probe (Option A) is a quick fix, but the CKAD exam emphasizes that readiness probes are essential for traffic routing and should be tuned, not removed, to handle transient issues.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The readiness probe's failureThreshold and periodSeconds determine how long a Pod is allowed to fail health checks before being removed from the Endpoints object. With periodSeconds=5 and failureThreshold=3, a Pod is removed after 15 seconds of consecutive failures; increasing these values to 10 and 10 respectively extends the tolerance to 100 seconds, which accommodates the observed 15-second response time spikes. The Endpoints controller watches Pod readiness status via the kubelet, which marks the Pod as NotReady when the probe fails, causing the Service's endpoints to be updated accordingly.
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 practitioner preparing for the CKAD exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CKAD question in full detail.
Services and Networking — This question tests Services and Networking — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the failureThreshold to 10 and periodSeconds to 10 to tolerate transient slowness — Option D is correct because increasing the failureThreshold to 10 and periodSeconds to 10 gives the readiness probe more time (100 seconds total) to tolerate transient slowness on the /healthz endpoint, preventing premature removal of Pod IPs from the Endpoints object. This keeps all backend Pods in the ready state during response time spikes, ensuring the Service remains reachable.
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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