KCNA Kubernetes Fundamentals Practice Question
A developer creates a Deployment with 3 replicas. The developer runs 'kubectl get pods' immediately after creation and sees that only 1 pod is in Running state, and the other 2 are Pending. What is the most likely reason for this?
⚠ Common exam trap
CNCF often tests the distinction between Pod lifecycle phases — Pending means scheduling failure, not image or runtime issues — so candidates mistakenly associate Pending with image pull errors or node problems rather than resource insufficiency.
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
✓
The cluster does not have enough resources (CPU/memory) to schedule the additional pods
When a Pod remains in Pending state, it indicates that the scheduler cannot find a suitable node to place it. The most common cause is insufficient cluster resources (CPU or memory) to accommodate the additional Pods, as the scheduler checks node allocatable resources against Pod resource requests. With 2 out of 3 Pods pending, the cluster likely has enough resources for only one replica, leaving the others unscheduled.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The cluster does not have enough resources (CPU/memory) to schedule the additional pods
Why this is correct
If nodes lack sufficient resources, new pods remain Pending until resources become available or are released.
- ✗
The Deployment's YAML has a syntax error
Why it's wrong here
A syntax error would cause the 'kubectl apply' to fail; it would not result in a partially created Deployment.
- ✗
The container image is not available on the worker nodes
Why it's wrong here
An unavailable image would cause ImagePullBackOff or ErrImagePull, not Pending.
- ✗
The kubelet on the node is not running
Why it's wrong here
If kubelet were down, the pod would show as Unknown or NodeLost, not Pending.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This KCNA 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 KCNA exam.