This CKAD practice question tests your understanding of application observability and maintenance. 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.
You need to view the logs of a container that previously crashed and has been restarted. Which flag do you use with 'kubectl logs'?
--all-containers
Why wrong: --all-containers shows logs from all containers in the pod, but not previous instances.
--tail
Why wrong: --tail shows the last N lines of the current logs.
--previous
--previous shows logs from the previous container instance.
-f
Why wrong: -f streams logs from the current container.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
--previous
The `--previous` flag is used with `kubectl logs` to view logs from the previous instance of a container that has crashed and been restarted. This allows you to inspect the logs of the terminated container before the restart, which is essential for debugging crash loops.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
--all-containers
Why it's wrong here
--all-containers shows logs from all containers in the pod, but not previous instances.
--tail
Why it's wrong here
--tail shows the last N lines of the current logs.
--previous
Why this is correct
--previous shows logs from the previous container instance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
-f
Why it's wrong here
-f streams logs from the current container.
Common exam traps
CNCF often tests the distinction between flags that affect log output formatting (`--tail`, `-f`) versus flags that change which container instance's logs are accessed (`--previous`), leading candidates to confuse `--tail` or `-f` as solutions for viewing previous crash logs.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
--all-containers shows logs from all containers in the pod, but not previous instances.
Detailed technical explanation
When a container crashes and is restarted by the kubelet, the previous container's logs are retained in the container runtime (e.g., containerd or CRI-O) and are accessible via the `--previous` flag. This flag works by reading the log file of the terminated container, which is stored separately from the current container's logs. In a real-world scenario, if a pod is in a CrashLoopBackOff state, using `kubectl logs --previous` is the primary method to diagnose the root cause of the crash without needing to access the node directly.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Application Observability and Maintenance — This question tests Application Observability and Maintenance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: --previous — The `--previous` flag is used with `kubectl logs` to view logs from the previous instance of a container that has crashed and been restarted. This allows you to inspect the logs of the terminated container before the restart, which is essential for debugging crash loops.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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