KCNA Cloud Native Application Delivery Practice Question
A team uses Helm to manage their Kubernetes applications. They need to upgrade a release and want to reuse the values from the previous release while overriding a specific value. Which helm command should they use?
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
✓
helm upgrade --reuse-values my-release ./charts/app --set image.tag=v2
The --reuse-values flag tells Helm to reuse the last release's values and merge any provided overrides. This is the correct approach to preserve existing values while updating a specific one.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
helm upgrade --reset-values my-release ./charts/app --set image.tag=v2
Why it's wrong here
--reset-values discards the previous release's values and rebuilds from chart defaults plus --set, so any prior customisations are lost rather than reused. It is tempting as a way to guarantee a clean upgrade, and would be correct when stale or conflicting values must be deliberately cleared before applying fresh configuration.
- ✓
helm upgrade --reuse-values my-release ./charts/app --set image.tag=v2
Why this is correct
The --reuse-values flag merges the previous release's computed values with the new --set overrides, satisfying the requirement to retain prior configuration while changing only image.tag. Without it, Helm would reset unspecified values to chart defaults.
- ✗
helm upgrade --atomic my-release ./charts/app --set image.tag=v2
Why it's wrong here
--atomic only rolls back the release automatically if the upgrade fails; it does not control value inheritance, so reuse of prior values is unaffected. It is tempting because it sounds like a safe upgrade, and would be correct when the priority is automatic rollback on failed deployments rather than preserving existing values.
- ✗
helm upgrade --history-max 5 my-release ./charts/app --set image.tag=v2
Why it's wrong here
--history-max limits how many release revisions Helm retains; it has no bearing on which values are merged during the upgrade. It is tempting because it appears to reference prior releases, and would be correct when the goal is capping stored revision history to reduce ConfigMap or Secret clutter in the cluster.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This KCNA question is part of Courseiva's 930-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 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.