KCNA Container Orchestration Practice Question
A Kubernetes cluster runs a critical application in a pod. The operations team wants to receive an alert if the application's main process stops responding to HTTP requests on port 8080 at path /healthz. They need Kubernetes to automatically restart the pod if the health check fails. Which type of probe should they configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse liveness and readiness probes; liveness restarts the container on failure, while readiness only controls traffic routing without restarting.
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
✓
livenessProbe
A liveness probe is used to determine if a container is alive and healthy. When it fails, the kubelet restarts the container, which helps recover from deadlocks or unresponsive states. Configuring an HTTP liveness probe on port 8080 at /healthz will cause Kubernetes to periodically send HTTP GET requests; if the response is not successful, the container is restarted, meeting the alert and restart requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
startupProbe
Why it's wrong here
A startup probe checks if the application within the container has started. It is used to delay liveness and readiness probes until the application is up, preventing premature restarts during slow startups. It does not provide ongoing health checks or restart the pod if the application later becomes unresponsive; it only runs until the first success.
- ✗
httpProbe
Why it's wrong here
There is no probe type called httpProbe in Kubernetes. Probes are defined by their purpose (liveness, readiness, startup) and can use HTTP, TCP, or command execution as the handler. The term httpProbe is invalid; the correct configuration would be an HTTP liveness probe.
- ✓
livenessProbe
Why this is correct
A liveness probe checks if the container is still running and responsive. If the liveness probe fails, the kubelet kills the container and restarts it according to the pod's restart policy. This is exactly what the team needs: automatic restart upon health check failure to recover from unresponsive states.
- ✗
readinessProbe
Why it's wrong here
A readiness probe determines if a container is ready to accept traffic. If it fails, the pod's IP is removed from the endpoints of any Services, but the container is not restarted. This would stop traffic to the pod but not restart it, so it does not meet the requirement of automatic restart upon health check failure.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CNCF exam blueprint
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.