CKAD Application Design and Build Practice Question
You need to run a batch job that processes 10 items in parallel across 10 Pods, but the job should be considered complete only when all 10 Pods have succeeded. Which Job configuration is correct?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse `completions` (total successes required) with `parallelism` (concurrent Pods), leading candidates to pick Option B, which runs 10 Pods in parallel but only waits for one to succeed, missing the requirement that all 10 must succeed.
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
✓
spec: completions: 10; parallelism: 10
Setting `completions: 10` and `parallelism: 10` tells Kubernetes to run 10 Pods concurrently (parallelism) and consider the Job successful only after all 10 Pods have completed without error (completions). This matches the requirement of processing 10 items in parallel with a completion condition of all Pods succeeding.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
spec: completions: 10; parallelism: 1
Why it's wrong here
This configuration sets completions to 10, requiring 10 successful Pods, but parallelism of 1 forces the Job controller to run Pods one at a time. Each Pod must succeed before the next is created, so the batch processes items sequentially rather than in parallel. While the total completion count is correct, the concurrency limit defeats the stated requirement of running in parallel.
- ✗
spec: completions: 1; parallelism: 10
Why it's wrong here
With completions set to 1, the Job is marked complete after just a single Pod completes successfully, regardless of how many Pods are running concurrently due to parallelism 10. This means the Job can finish as soon as the first Pod succeeds, leaving the other nine Pods (and their assigned items) unaccounted for, so not all 10 items are guaranteed to be processed. Parallelism alone does not increase the success requirement; completions defines the goal and this configuration fails to require all items.
- ✓
spec: completions: 10; parallelism: 10
Why this is correct
This is the correct specification because completions 10 and parallelism 10 work together to meet the requirement: the Job controller launches up to 10 Pods concurrently (parallelism), and the Job is considered successful only after 10 distinct Pods complete successfully (completions). Each Pod can handle one of the 10 items, all run in parallel, and the Job waits until every one has finished. The combination precisely matches the stated batch workload.
- ✗
spec: completions: 10; parallelism: 0
Why it's wrong here
Setting parallelism to 0 is an invalid or misconfiguration because the Job controller will never start any Pods—it interprets parallelism as the maximum number of concurrent Pods to create, and zero prevents all creation. Even though completions is 10, no Pods will ever run, so the batch job will make no progress and may remain pending indefinitely. This configuration fails entirely because it eliminates execution rather than enabling parallelism.
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