KCNA Cloud Native Observability Practice Question
A developer wants to monitor the health of a Kubernetes deployment by checking if the number of ready replicas matches the desired replicas. Which metric from kube-state-metrics should they query?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates might confuse metrics that show pod state (like `kube_pod_container_status_running`) with Deployment-level readiness, not realizing that a pod can be running but not ready, and that the correct metric must reflect the Deployment's own status field.
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
✓
kube_deployment_status_replicas_ready
`kube_deployment_status_replicas_ready` directly exposes the number of ready replicas for a Deployment, which can be compared against `kube_deployment_spec_replicas` to determine if the desired state matches the actual healthy state. This metric is emitted by kube-state-metrics, which generates Prometheus-compatible metrics from Kubernetes API objects, making it the standard choice for monitoring Deployment health.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
kube_deployment_status_replicas_ready
Why this is correct
This metric shows ready replicas, enabling comparison with desired replicas.
- ✗
kube_deployment_spec_replicas
Why it's wrong here
This shows desired replicas, but alone doesn't show health.
- ✗
kube_node_status_condition
Why it's wrong here
Node-level metric, not deployment health.
- ✗
kube_pod_container_status_running
Why it's wrong here
This is a pod-level metric, not deployment-level.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Overview and Core Components
Key term
ReplicaSet and Replication
A ReplicaSet ensures a specified number of identical pod instances are running at all times in Kubernetes, using replication to maintain availability and stability.
Key term
Kubernetes API Primitives
Kubernetes API Primitives are the basic building blocks that the Kubernetes API uses to represent and manage the state of a cluster, such as Pods, Services, Deployments, and Namespaces.
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