CKAD Application Observability and Maintenance Practice Question
This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of application observability and maintenance. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 have a Deployment named 'api' with 3 replicas. You need to ensure that new pods are not added to the Service's endpoints until the application is ready to serve traffic. Which probe configuration should you add to the pod spec?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Readiness probe
A Readiness probe is the correct choice because it controls whether a pod is added to a Service's endpoints. Kubernetes will only mark a pod as Ready when the probe succeeds, and only Ready pods receive traffic from the Service. This ensures new pods are not added until the application is ready to serve traffic.
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.
✓
Readiness probe
Why this is correct
Readiness probes indicate if a pod is ready to serve traffic; if it fails, the pod is removed from Service endpoints.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
No probe is needed; pods are automatically added when running
Why it's wrong here
Pods are added to endpoints as soon as they are running, which may not be desirable if the application needs initialization.
✗
Startup probe
Why it's wrong here
Startup probes check if a container has started; they do not control Service endpoint membership.
✗
Liveness probe
Why it's wrong here
Liveness probes indicate if a container is healthy; they do not control Service endpoint membership.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Liveness probes (which restart pods) with Readiness probes (which control traffic routing), or assume that a running pod is automatically considered ready for Service endpoints.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the kubelet executes the Readiness probe at a configurable interval (default 10 seconds) and updates the pod's Ready condition in the pod status. The EndpointSlice controller watches pod Ready conditions and only includes pods with Ready=True in the EndpointSlice objects that the kube-proxy uses to program iptables or IPVS rules. A real-world scenario is a Java application that starts its HTTP server quickly but takes 30 seconds to load caches; a Readiness probe on a health endpoint that checks cache readiness prevents traffic loss.
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.
Application Observability and Maintenance — This question tests Application Observability and Maintenance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Readiness probe — A Readiness probe is the correct choice because it controls whether a pod is added to a Service's endpoints. Kubernetes will only mark a pod as Ready when the probe succeeds, and only Ready pods receive traffic from the Service. This ensures new pods are not added until the application is ready to serve traffic.
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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