CKS Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security Practice Question
Which audit policy level logs all requests and responses, including the request body and response body?
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
✓
RequestResponse
RequestResponse logs both the request object and the response object, including bodies. Request logs only the request object. Metadata logs only metadata. None logs nothing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
None
Why it's wrong here
The `None` audit level suppresses audit logging entirely for the matched request, meaning no audit event is generated at all. It is typically used to exclude high-volume or non-sensitive endpoints like health probes or `/version` from the audit trail to reduce performance overhead and log noise. Since no event is recorded, neither metadata, request body, nor response body is captured for those requests.
- ✗
Request
Why it's wrong here
The `Request` audit level logs the request metadata (e.g., user, verb, resource, timestamp) and the request body, but it does not include the response body. This is useful for analyzing what a client attempted to send or modify, especially for write operations that fail or behave unexpectedly. Note that while the HTTP response status is still stored as part of the event metadata, the actual response payload is omitted, so you cannot see the exact object returned or the error body sent back.
- ✗
Metadata
Why it's wrong here
The `Metadata` audit level captures only high-level request metadata—such as the user, source IP, requested resource, HTTP verb, timestamp, and response status—without recording the request or response bodies. This is a widely used level for compliance and monitoring because it records who did what and whether it succeeded while keeping log volume and storage costs low. However, it cannot reveal the content of the request or response, so it is unsuitable for auditing sensitive payloads or debugging why a request was rejected by admission controllers.
- ✓
RequestResponse
Why this is correct
The `RequestResponse` audit level logs the request metadata, the request body, and the response body for matching requests, providing a complete record of the API interaction. This is the only level that enables full reconstruction of what was sent and what the API server returned, including the exact object created, updated, or returned in error. Because it includes potentially sensitive data from both sides, it should be applied selectively (e.g., to Secrets or `exec` endpoints) and is the most resource-intensive level in terms of storage and performance.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CKS question is part of Courseiva's 845-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CKS practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CKS exam.