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CKS · domain

Cluster Hardening

Use this page to practise Cluster Hardening questions for this certification. Focus on how the exam tests cluster hardening in scenario format — understanding the why behind each answer builds more durable knowledge than memorising options.

15 questions3 easy6 medium6 hard

Focused practice

Practice Cluster Hardening questions

Scored sessions drawing only from this domain — pick a length below.

What this domain covers

What to know about Cluster Hardening

Cluster Hardening questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage cluster hardening concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core Cluster Hardening concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.

How to deploy cluster hardening correctly and verify the outcome.

Troubleshooting cluster hardening issues by interpreting error output and system state.

Cloud best practices and Cluster Hardening design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Watch out for

Common Cluster Hardening exam traps

  • Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
  • Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
  • Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
  • Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

Question index

All Cluster Hardening questions (15)

Click any question to see the full explanation, or start a practice session above.

1

A cluster uses RBAC and a ServiceAccount 'monitor' in namespace 'observability'. The account needs to list pods in all namespaces. Which ClusterRole and binding should be created?

Medium
2

You are the security engineer for a multi-tenant Kubernetes cluster. The cluster uses kubeadm and runs Kubernetes v1.24. Each tenant has a dedicated namespace. A new tenant, 'acme-corp', requires that all pods in their namespace run with a read-only root filesystem and must not be able to escalate privileges. They also need to run a legacy container that must listen on a port below 1024. The cluster currently uses PodSecurityPolicy (PSP) but is planning to migrate to Pod Security Admission (PSA). The legacy container needs to run as non-root with the NET_BIND_SERVICE capability to bind to port 80. You need to configure security policies for the 'acme-corp' namespace without affecting other tenants. Which approach best meets these requirements while following Kubernetes best practices?

Hard
3

Which THREE of the following are required to secure etcd in a Kubernetes cluster?

Hard
4

Which TWO of the following are best practices for securing container images?

Easy
5

A security team wants to ensure that all pods in a namespace run with a restricted seccomp profile. Which Pod Security Standard admission controller mode should be used to enforce this without blocking necessary pods?

Hard
6

Which THREE of the following are valid methods to enforce pod security standards in a Kubernetes cluster?

Hard
7

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to restrict access to the Kubernetes API server?

Medium
8

A cluster has a PodSecurityPolicy that requires 'RunAsAny' for the user. An administrator wants to enforce that all pods in namespace 'production' must run with a specific seccomp profile. Which approach is recommended given PSP is deprecated?

Hard
9

Arrange the steps to enable and configure audit logging in Kubernetes.

Medium
10

Match each Kubernetes security tool or feature to its purpose.

Medium
11

Which Kubernetes resource should be used to restrict egress traffic from pods?

Easy
12

A pod is failing to start with: 'Error: container has runAsNonRoot and image will run as root'. The pod spec sets securityContext.runAsNonRoot: true. The container image is 'nginx:latest' which runs as root. Which change allows the pod to run while maintaining security?

Hard
13

A developer created a ClusterRole 'pod-reader' with rules to get, list, and watch pods, and bound it to a user. The user reports they cannot list pods in namespace 'test', although the same commands work in the 'default' namespace. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
14

A company uses kube-bench to scan their cluster. The report shows a warning: 'Ensure that the --authorization-mode argument is set to Node,RBAC'. What is the best way to fix this?

Medium
15

An administrator wants to prevent pods from running as root. Which SecurityContext field should be set at the pod level?

Easy

Frequently asked questions

What does the Cluster Hardening domain cover on the CKS exam?
Cluster Hardening questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage cluster hardening concepts in scenario-based situations.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 15 Cluster Hardening questions in the CKS question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Cluster Hardening questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
cncf-cks CNCF-CKS cluster hardening Practice Questions