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KCNA · domain

Container Orchestration

Container Orchestration is the largest KCNA domain, covering how Kubernetes schedules, runs, and connects workloads. Questions test core API objects — Pods, Deployments, Jobs, Services, NetworkPolicies — plus probes, container spec fields, and the reconciliation model, using scenario-style multiple choice rather than hands-on kubectl tasks.

210 questions54 easy96 medium60 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Container Orchestration

Be able to pick the right workload controller and probe for a scenario, and name required container fields. The most important thing: know that liveness restarts containers while readiness controls Service traffic, and that NetworkPolicies are deny-by-default only once a policy selects the pod.

Pod and container spec fields, including required name and image keys

Liveness versus readiness probes and their effect on restarts and endpoints

NetworkPolicy objects selecting pods to allow or deny traffic

Job versus Deployment versus CronJob selection for run-to-completion workloads

Watch out for

Common Container Orchestration exam traps

  • ▸Confusing liveness and readiness: liveness failures restart the container, readiness failures only remove the Pod from Service endpoints.
  • ▸Assuming NetworkPolicies apply by default; without a policy, all pod traffic is allowed, and enforcement needs a CNI plugin that supports them.
  • ▸Choosing a Deployment for batch work; Jobs, not Deployments, track successful completions and retries.

Question index

All Container Orchestration questions (210)

Click any question to see the full explanation, or start a practice session above.

1

Which of the following is a key benefit of container orchestration compared to running containers manually?

Easy
2

Which THREE are valid container runtimes that implement the Kubernetes CRI? (Choose three.)

Hard
3

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using containers over virtual machines? (Choose 2)

Easy
4

A Kubernetes cluster is experiencing network latency. The team suspects that the number of services and endpoints is causing iptables performance degradation. Which CNI plugin or network policy approach is most likely to improve performance?

Hard
5

You need to run a batch job that processes a queue and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
6

You are designing a microservices application. Which of the following is a key principle of microservices architecture?

Hard
7

A team runs a stateless web application and wants to update its container image with zero downtime while gradually shifting traffic to the new version. They also need the ability to pause the rollout, inspect the new Pods, and then resume. Which Kubernetes workload and strategy best supports this workflow?

Medium
8

A developer wants to run a container image locally for testing before deploying to a Kubernetes cluster. Which tool is most appropriate for this task?

Medium
9

Which TWO of the following are benefits of container orchestration?

Medium
10

A developer wants to run a containerized application locally for development. Which tool is most appropriate?

Medium
11

An application requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which workload type should be used?

Medium
12

Which of the following is a benefit of using an orchestrator like Kubernetes?

Easy
13

A Kubernetes cluster runs a critical application that must be highly available. The application consists of three pods managed by a Deployment. To ensure the application remains accessible during a node failure, which configuration should be applied?

Hard
14

A pod is in the 'CrashLoopBackOff' state. You run 'kubectl logs mypod' and see an error related to missing environment variables. The pod is part of a Deployment. What is the best way to fix this without recreating the entire Deployment?

Medium
15

Which two of the following are container runtimes that implement the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)? (Choose two.)

Medium
16

Which of the following is a benefit of using container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes?

Medium
17

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Select 2)

Medium
18

An administrator runs 'kubectl get pods' and sees that a pod named 'app-pod' is in 'CrashLoopBackOff'. They run 'kubectl logs app-pod' and see a segmentation fault error. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
19

An administrator manages a cluster where a Namespace named 'analytics' contains a ResourceQuota that limits pods to 10. A developer applies a manifest containing a ReplicaSet with replicas: 12 in that Namespace. The ReplicaSet controller creates the first 10 Pods successfully, but the remaining 2 Pods are rejected. Which statement best describes what the developer will observe and why?

Hard
20

You have a Deployment with three replicas. You want to update the container image but ensure that only one pod is updated at a time, and the update proceeds only if the new pod becomes healthy. Which update strategy should you configure?

Hard
21

You need to deploy a batch job that processes a queue and runs to completion. The job should run exactly once and create exactly one pod per work item, but some items may fail. Which Kubernetes resource is best suited?

Hard
22

A company wants to adopt immutable infrastructure for its containerized applications. Which practice BEST exemplifies immutability?

Medium
23

You have a Deployment running 3 replicas. You need to update the container image without downtime. Which command updates the image while performing a rolling update?

Medium
24

Which of the following is a benefit of container orchestration?

Medium
25

Which component in Kubernetes is responsible for managing the lifecycle of pods and ensuring the desired number of replicas are running?

Easy
26

A pod uses a ServiceAccount that has a RoleBinding to a Role with 'get', 'list', 'watch' on 'pods'. The pod tries to list pods in the same namespace. Will the request succeed?

Hard
27

A workload running in a namespace called 'payments' is defined by a Pod spec with restartPolicy: Always. The cluster's kubelet on node 'worker-3' is healthy, the API server is reachable, and the scheduler has placed the Pod on worker-3. After the Pod's only container exits with code 0, a platform engineer observes that the Pod restarts repeatedly even though the application completed its work successfully. Which Kubernetes behavior explains this observation?

Medium
28

Which TWO statements about container images are correct? (Choose two.)

Easy
29

A pod spec includes a liveness probe that runs 'cat /tmp/healthy'. The probe is configured with initialDelaySeconds: 10, periodSeconds: 5. At what point does the kubelet first execute the probe?

Medium
30

A DevOps team notices that a new deployment of a web application is not receiving traffic even though the pods are running. The deployment has a selector matching the pod labels, and a Service of type ClusterIP exists. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
31

A Kubernetes cluster has a single control plane node and two worker nodes. The control plane node fails. What is the immediate impact on the workloads running on the worker nodes?

Medium
32

Refer to the exhibit. How many containers are defined in this Pod?

Easy
33

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. You run 'kubectl describe pod mypod' and see the event '0/4 nodes are available: 4 Insufficient cpu'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
34

When using a Service of type ClusterIP, how do pods reach the service?

Hard
35

Which THREE of the following are true about container lifecycle? (Choose 3)

Medium
36

You are asked to deploy a Kubernetes service that exposes a set of pods internally within the cluster only. The service should not be accessible from outside the cluster. Which Service type should you choose?

Hard
37

What is the primary purpose of the Open Container Initiative (OCI)?

Easy
38

You need to run a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage per pod. Which Kubernetes resource is BEST suited?

Hard
39

Which two of the following are characteristics of container images built using OCI standards? (Choose two.)

Medium
40

You are deploying a stateful application that requires each pod to have a stable, unique network identity and its own persistent storage. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Easy
41

A Kubernetes cluster has two nodes: control-plane and worker. The worker node runs several pods. The control-plane node becomes unreachable. What is the immediate impact on the pods running on the worker node?

Hard
42

Which of the following is a key benefit of container orchestration?

Easy
43

What is the primary purpose of a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes?

Easy
44

Which THREE of the following are key benefits of container orchestration? (Choose 3)

Medium
45

What is the primary benefit of using containers over virtual machines?

Easy
46

What is the primary difference between a container and a virtual machine (VM)?

Easy
47

Which THREE are benefits of using a container orchestration platform? (Select 3)

Medium
48

Which TWO are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Select TWO.)

Easy
49

A cluster runs the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) v2 for a Deployment named queue-worker. The HPA is configured with minReplicas: 2, maxReplicas: 10, and a target average CPU utilization of 60%. Metrics Server is installed and reports CPU for the Pods. During a burst, CPU utilization rises to 95% and stays there, but the Deployment remains at 2 replicas. Which condition most likely explains why the HPA is not scaling out?

Hard
50

Which three of the following are benefits of container orchestration? (Choose three.)

Hard
51

Which THREE of the following are benefits of using container orchestration? (Choose three.)

Hard
52

A developer needs to run a one-off batch job that processes a dataset and then terminates. The job should run to completion and not restart after successful completion. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate for this task?

Easy
53

Based on the exhibit, why is the pod web-pod not running?

Easy
54

A container image built using a Dockerfile with multiple layers is stored in a registry. When a node pulls this image, which statement about layers is true?

Medium
55

What is the purpose of a readiness probe in a Kubernetes pod?

Easy
56

Which Kubernetes resource should be used to run a one-time task that performs a computation and then exits?

Medium
57

A developer is troubleshooting a Pod that is stuck in Pending state. The node has sufficient CPU and memory, and the scheduler logs show no errors. Which two factors could prevent the Pod from being scheduled? (Choose two.)

Hard
58

A developer wants to deploy a stateless web application that should scale to 5 replicas. Each replica must be identical and should be automatically replaced if it fails. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Medium
59

Which Kubernetes resource is used to run a batch job that runs to completion?

Easy
60

An administrator must run a privileged DaemonSet on every node, including the control-plane node, to collect host logs. The control-plane node has a taint node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane:NoSchedule. Which change allows the DaemonSet Pods to be scheduled on the control-plane node while keeping the taint intact?

Medium
61

A DevOps engineer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Medium
62

Which THREE of the following are true about the Open Container Initiative (OCI)? (Select 3)

Hard
63

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Choose two.)

Medium
64

Which TWO of the following are required fields when defining a container in a Kubernetes Pod spec? (Choose 2)

Medium
65

Which TWO are characteristics of the microservices architecture that are supported by container orchestration?

Hard
66

Which of the following is a key principle of microservices architecture?

Easy
67

A pod is stuck in the 'Pending' state. You run 'kubectl describe pod mypod' and see the event: '0/3 nodes are available: 1 node had taint that the pod didn't tolerate, 2 Insufficient cpu.' What is the most likely cause?

Medium
68

Which TWO statements about containers are true compared to virtual machines? (Select TWO.)

Medium
69

Which command would you run to get a list of all pods in all namespaces?

Medium
70

Which THREE of the following are key characteristics of microservices architecture?

Hard
71

You need to deploy an application that requires exactly one pod per cluster node for logging purposes. Which Kubernetes workload resource should you use?

Hard
72

You need to ensure that a set of pods in a Deployment can be reached by other pods using a stable IP address and DNS name. Which Kubernetes object should you use?

Medium
73

Drag and drop the steps for a rolling update of a Kubernetes Deployment into the correct order.

Medium
74

What is the Open Container Initiative (OCI) responsible for?

Medium
75

A developer wants to run a one-off database migration task in Kubernetes that must complete successfully and then stop. The task should not restart after successful completion, and the developer wants to inspect logs after it finishes. Which resource should be created?

Easy
76

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to expose a set of pods as a network service in Kubernetes? (Select two.)

Medium
77

Which TWO statements correctly describe how Kubernetes handles self-healing? (Select two.)

Medium
78

Which component of Kubernetes is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster?

Easy
79

Which of the following best describes a key advantage of containers over virtual machines?

Easy
80

A DevOps engineer wants to update a Deployment's container image from 'v1' to 'v2' with zero downtime. Which kubectl command should they use?

Medium
81

Which of the following is a container runtime that implements the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?

Easy
82

A Kubernetes cluster runs a DaemonSet named 'node-agent' that must run on every node, including the control-plane node. The control-plane node has a taint 'node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane:NoSchedule'. The DaemonSet currently does not schedule pods on the control-plane node. Which change to the DaemonSet spec will ensure its pods run on the control-plane node?

Medium
83

A microservices application has multiple services that need to discover each other by name. Which Kubernetes object provides built-in service discovery via DNS?

Hard
84

Which THREE of the following are valid container runtimes that can be used with Kubernetes via the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)? (Select three.)

Hard
85

Which component is responsible for running containers in a Kubernetes node and implements the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?

Medium
86

You run 'kubectl get pods' and see that a pod named 'web-frontend' is in 'Pending' state for more than 5 minutes. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
87

A team deploys an application as a StatefulSet with three replicas. They need each Pod to have a stable network identity and its own persistent storage that survives Pod rescheduling. Which two features of StatefulSet satisfy these requirements?

Hard
88

A developer wants to run a single instance of a stateless web application that should be automatically restarted if it fails, but does not require scaling or updates. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Easy
89

An application Pod needs to read a database password at runtime. The security team requires that the secret material never be stored in the Pod's container image or in a ConfigMap, and that updates to the secret be reflected in the running container without recreating the Pod. Which approach satisfies these requirements?

Hard
90

A developer needs to provide a pod with a persistent volume that must be mounted by multiple pods simultaneously for read-write access. The underlying storage system supports concurrent writes from multiple nodes. Which volume type should be used?

Medium
91

A cluster administrator is configuring a NetworkPolicy for a set of pods labeled 'role=db' in the 'backend' namespace. The policy should allow ingress only from pods labeled 'role=api' in the 'frontend' namespace, and only on TCP port 6379. Which NetworkPolicy specification correctly enforces this?

Hard
92

You want to ensure that a Pod runs on every Node in the cluster. Which resource should you use?

Medium
93

Which command would you use to get the logs of a pod named 'backend' in the 'production' namespace?

Medium
94

A container image is built from a Dockerfile with multiple layers. Which statement about container image layers is TRUE?

Medium
95

You need to run a batch job that processes a queue of 1000 items. The job should run to completion and then terminate. Which Kubernetes resource is BEST suited for this workload?

Medium
96

A platform team runs a 20-node Kubernetes cluster. They want a single Pod to run on every node so that a node-exporter agent can collect host metrics. They also want the Pod to be automatically created when a new node joins the cluster. Which workload resource should they use?

Medium
97

A pod is stuck in the Pending state. Running 'kubectl describe pod <pod-name>' shows the event: '0/3 nodes are available: 1 node had taint {node.kubernetes.io/disk-pressure: }, 2 nodes had taint {node.kubernetes.io/memory-pressure: }'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
98

You have a multi-container pod with a main application container and a sidecar container that handles log shipping. The sidecar container should start before the main container and stop after the main container finishes. Which pod configuration should you use?

Hard
99

You run the command 'kubectl get pods -n default' and see no pods listed. However, you are sure there should be pods. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
100

Which statement accurately describes a key difference between containers and virtual machines?

Easy
101

Which TWO of the following are true about container networking basics? (Choose 2)

Easy
102

You have a microservices application with a frontend service that needs to communicate with a backend service running in a different namespace ('backend-ns'). The default namespace for the frontend is 'frontend-ns'. What DNS name should the frontend use to reach the backend service named 'backend-svc'?

Hard
103

Which of the following is a characteristic of immutable infrastructure?

Hard
104

What is the purpose of a readiness probe in a Kubernetes pod?

Easy
105

What is the purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes?

Easy
106

Which TWO of the following are characteristics of microservices architecture? (Choose 2)

Easy
107

A pod has resource requests of 512Mi memory and 500m CPU, and limits of 1Gi memory and 1 CPU. The node has 4Gi memory and 2 CPU cores. If the pod tries to use 700m CPU, what will happen?

Hard
108

A developer wants to run a one-time task that creates a database schema and then exits. Which Kubernetes workload type is most appropriate?

Easy
109

In a container image built from a Dockerfile, what is the purpose of the CMD instruction?

Hard
110

Which TWO of the following are valid reasons to use a DaemonSet instead of a Deployment? (Select 2)

Hard
111

A cluster administrator notices that a Pod scheduled on a node is stuck in the Pending state. The Pod requests 8 CPU cores, but the node has only 4 allocatable CPU cores. The scheduler logs show a FailedScheduling event with the message 'Insufficient cpu'. Which action will allow the Pod to be scheduled without reducing its CPU request?

Hard
112

Which Open Container Initiative (OCI) specification defines the format of container images?

Easy
113

What is the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?

Easy
114

You have a Kubernetes cluster with a Deployment that uses a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) to store application data. The PVC is bound to a PersistentVolume (PV) with a Retain reclaim policy. You delete the Deployment and the PVC. What happens to the underlying storage?

Hard
115

A cluster administrator deploys a web application as a Deployment named 'web' with 4 replicas. Users report that requests to the application sometimes reach a Pod that is still starting up and not ready to serve traffic. Which Kubernetes object should the administrator configure to ensure only ready Pods receive traffic?

Easy
116

An administrator needs to expose a set of pods running a web application on a static port on each node's IP address. Which Service type should they use?

Medium
117

A company is deploying a microservices application on Kubernetes. They want to ensure that configuration data, such as database URLs and feature flags, can be updated without rebuilding container images. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?

Medium
118

A Kubernetes Deployment manages a set of pods. What is the primary purpose of a Deployment?

Medium
119

Which THREE of the following are core principles of immutable infrastructure? (Choose 3)

Medium
120

A cluster administrator examines a node and notices that the kubelet is running, but the node's status shows 'NotReady'. The administrator runs 'systemctl status containerd' on the node and finds the service is inactive. Which component's failure most directly explains the node's 'NotReady' condition?

Medium
121

A developer wants to expose a set of pods running a web application on a stable IP address. Which Kubernetes resource should they create?

Medium
122

Which of the following is a key benefit of using containers over virtual machines?

Easy
123

Match each Kubernetes command (kubectl) to its primary function.

Medium
124

Which TWO of the following are true about service discovery in Kubernetes? (Choose 2)

Hard
125

Which of the following correctly describes the concept of 'immutable infrastructure' in the context of container orchestration?

Hard
126

A Pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. Which command is most helpful to diagnose the issue?

Medium
127

A developer wants to store non-sensitive configuration data, such as a database hostname and port, that multiple pods in different namespaces will consume as environment variables. The data must be reusable and not hardcoded in pod specs. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Easy
128

You deploy a web application as a Deployment with 3 replicas. Each pod runs an Nginx container that listens on port 80. You need to make the application accessible from outside the cluster on a stable IP address that does not change even if nodes are replaced. Which Service type should you use?

Medium
129

A cluster administrator needs to run a Pod that requires access to a raw block device on a specific node. The Pod must be scheduled only on nodes labeled disktype=ssd, and it must tolerate a taint hardware=gpu:NoSchedule that exists on those nodes. Which combination of Pod spec fields is required?

Medium
130

Which of the following is a valid use case for a DaemonSet?

Medium
131

What is the OCI (Open Container Initiative) responsible for?

Easy
132

An application requires that a specific set of pods be placed on nodes labeled with 'gpu=true'. Which Kubernetes field should be used in the pod spec to enforce this?

Medium
133

An application requires that a pod must not be scheduled on the same node as another pod from the same Deployment. Which configuration should be used?

Hard
134

A Kubernetes administrator needs to ensure that a set of pods can only communicate with each other and with a specific external API, while blocking all other traffic. Which Kubernetes feature should be used to enforce this?

Hard
135

A pod is running but its container exits with code 137. The pod logs show 'Killed'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
136

A cluster administrator needs to run a one-time database migration job that must complete successfully before a new application version is deployed. The job should retry up to 4 times if it fails and should be automatically cleaned up 1 hour after completion. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Medium
137

A Kubernetes cluster has a pod that is stuck in the 'Pending' state. The operations team runs 'kubectl describe pod' and sees the event: '0/3 nodes are available: 3 Insufficient cpu.' What is the most likely cause of this issue?

Hard
138

A developer wants to ensure that a pod runs only on nodes with SSDs. Which mechanism should be used?

Easy
139

You have a microservices application deployed as a set of Pods in a Kubernetes cluster. You need to ensure that Pods can discover each other using stable DNS names. Which Kubernetes resource should you create?

Medium
140

A pod named 'web-app' is not able to resolve the hostname 'db-service' from another namespace 'data'. The 'db-service' Service exists in the 'data' namespace. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
141

Which TWO of the following are characteristics of a microservices architecture? (Select 2)

Medium
142

A developer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which Kubernetes resource is best suited for this workload?

Medium
143

A team runs a stateful application in a Kubernetes cluster. They need each Pod to have a stable network identity and its own persistent storage that survives Pod rescheduling. Which controller should they use?

Hard
144

What is the primary benefit of containers over virtual machines?

Easy
145

Which TWO of the following are valid container runtimes that implement the CRI? (Choose two.)

Medium
146

Which component is responsible for managing the lifecycle of containers on a Kubernetes node?

Easy
147

Which THREE of the following are characteristics of a microservices architecture? (Select 3)

Medium
148

A platform team must ensure that a critical StatefulSet named ledger in the finance namespace always has at least two Pods available during voluntary disruptions such as node drains, and that Pods are spread across different nodes. Which two resources or settings should they configure? (Choose two.)

Hard
149

A team wants to deploy a batch job that runs once to process a large dataset. The job should run to completion and then terminate. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Medium
150

What is the concept of 'immutable infrastructure' as applied to Kubernetes?

Medium
151

Which THREE of the following are true about the Open Container Initiative (OCI)? (Choose 3)

Hard
152

A company wants to run a batch job that processes data and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?

Medium
153

What is the purpose of the 'kubectl scale' command?

Easy
154

A Kubernetes administrator is troubleshooting a Pod that is stuck in the Pending state. The Pod has a resource request of cpu: 2 and memory: 4Gi. Which two commands are most appropriate to identify why the Pod cannot be scheduled? (Choose two.)

Hard
155

What is the primary purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes?

Easy
156

Which component in Kubernetes is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster?

Easy
157

A cluster administrator is configuring a Pod with a container that requires 2 CPU cores and 4Gi of memory. The administrator sets resource requests to 2 CPU and 4Gi memory, and limits to 4 CPU and 8Gi memory. The Pod is scheduled to a node with 4 CPU and 8Gi memory available. What happens when the container attempts to use 3 CPU and 6Gi memory?

Hard
158

Which of the following best describes immutable infrastructure?

Hard
159

Which THREE are benefits of using container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes?

Medium
160

Which TWO statements accurately describe the concept of immutable infrastructure in the context of container orchestration? (Select two.)

Medium
161

What is a primary benefit of using containers over virtual machines?

Easy
162

What is a key advantage of containers compared to virtual machines?

Easy
163

Which command would you use to view the logs of a specific container in a pod?

Easy
164

A developer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage per pod instance. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Medium
165

A developer creates a Pod with a single container that writes logs to stdout. The Pod is running, but the developer wants to view the last 50 lines of logs from that container and have the command keep streaming new output. Which kubectl command accomplishes this?

Hard
166

Which command is used to create a Deployment that runs an nginx container with 3 replicas?

Easy
167

What is a key benefit of container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes?

Easy
168

What is a key benefit of using containers over virtual machines for application deployment?

Easy
169

Which component is responsible for running containers on a Kubernetes node?

Easy
170

You are writing a Deployment YAML (apps/v1) for a stateless web application. The application should have 3 replicas and use rolling updates with maxSurge=1 and maxUnavailable=0. Which field should you set under spec.strategy?

Medium
171

An administrator needs to store a database password for a Pod to consume as an environment variable. The password must be stored securely and not exposed in the Pod specification. Which Kubernetes resource should the administrator create?

Medium
172

You need to run a batch job that processes data every hour and exits upon completion. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
173

An administrator needs to ensure that Pods from two different Deployments cannot communicate with each other. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Hard
174

An administrator wants to allow a Pod to consume a ConfigMap named app-config as environment variables, but only the keys DB_HOST and DB_PORT. The ConfigMap contains additional keys. Which Pod spec snippet correctly injects only those two keys as environment variables?

Medium
175

A platform engineer is troubleshooting a Pod that stays in the Pending phase. Which two conditions can legitimately cause a Pod to remain Pending? (Choose two.)

Medium
176

Which command correctly creates a Deployment named 'web-app' with the image 'nginx:1.21' and 3 replicas?

Medium
177

Which of the following describes the Open Container Initiative (OCI) image specification?

Easy
178

A developer creates a Deployment with 3 replicas. After updating the pod template, they run 'kubectl rollout status deployment/my-deployment' and see that the rollout is stuck. Which command should they use to investigate the rollout history?

Hard
179

Which TWO statements about Docker Compose and Kubernetes are correct?

Medium
180

A team deploys a microservice that requires sticky sessions. The service runs on Kubernetes with multiple replicas. Which Kubernetes resource should be used to ensure requests from a client are consistently routed to the same pod?

Medium
181

A developer wants to run a single instance of a stateless web application in a Kubernetes cluster. The application does not need to maintain state or have a stable network identity. Which workload resource is the most appropriate to use?

Easy
182

You have a Kubernetes cluster with multiple nodes. You need to ensure that a pod runs on a node that has an SSD. How should you achieve this?

Medium
183

A cluster administrator needs to schedule a pod that requires 4 CPU cores and 16Gi of memory on a node with sufficient resources. The pod also must tolerate a taint on a dedicated node. Which combination of pod spec fields must be set to ensure the pod lands on the correct node?

Medium
184

A cluster administrator needs to run a node-level log-shipping agent on every node, including nodes added later, and wants the agent to tolerate the control-plane taint. Which workload API object is the most appropriate choice?

Medium
185

Which TWO of the following correctly describe the difference between Docker Compose and Kubernetes? (Choose 2)

Medium
186

Which THREE of the following are true about the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)? (Choose 3)

Hard
187

An administrator wants to ensure that a pod only runs on nodes that have a specific GPU. Which mechanism should be used to achieve this?

Hard
188

Which Kubernetes resource is best suited for running a batch processing job that must complete successfully exactly once?

Medium
189

Which TWO of the following are true about the Open Container Initiative (OCI)?

Medium
190

Which of the following is an example of immutable infrastructure?

Easy
191

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?

Medium
192

A pod is in the 'Pending' state. Which of the following is a likely cause?

Medium
193

A team runs a stateless API as a Deployment with six replicas across three nodes. They need a stable virtual IP and DNS name that load-balances TCP traffic to the ready replicas from other Pods in the same cluster. Which resource should they create?

Easy
194

Which TWO statements accurately describe Kubernetes scheduling?

Hard
195

Which of the following is a key difference between containers and virtual machines?

Easy
196

A Kubernetes cluster has a Deployment running three replicas of an application. You need to update the container image to a new version with zero downtime. Which approach is most appropriate?

Medium
197

What is the purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?

Easy
198

A DevOps engineer is designing a Kubernetes architecture for a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage across pod rescheduling. The engineer needs to choose the appropriate Kubernetes resource types to meet these requirements. Which two resources should the engineer use? (Choose two.)

Hard
199

A developer creates a Pod with a single container that writes logs to stdout. The Pod is scheduled and running, but the developer needs to view the logs from the past hour. Which kubectl command should the developer use?

Medium
200

Which Kubernetes resource can be used to define network policies that control traffic between pods?

Hard
201

Your application consists of a frontend and a backend. The frontend needs to communicate with the backend using a stable DNS name. The backend is deployed as a Deployment with 3 replicas. Which Kubernetes resource should you create to provide a stable DNS name for the backend?

Hard
202

What is the difference between a liveness probe and a readiness probe?

Medium
203

Which TWO statements about containers compared to virtual machines are correct? (Select 2)

Medium
204

You have a microservices application where Service A needs to discover the IP of Service B. Both services run in the same Kubernetes cluster. Which approach is the most Kubernetes-native way for Service A to reach Service B?

Hard
205

You are designing a microservices application that requires each service to be independently deployable and scalable. The services communicate over HTTP and need service discovery. Which orchestration feature BEST addresses the need for service discovery?

Medium
206

A user creates a Service of type ClusterIP with a selector matching pods labeled 'app: myapp'. However, a pod named 'myapp-pod' with label 'app: myapp' is not receiving traffic. What is a possible reason?

Hard
207

You create a Service of type ClusterIP with the name 'my-service' in the 'default' namespace. What DNS name resolves to the service's cluster IP from a pod in the same namespace?

Medium
208

A Kubernetes administrator needs to restrict inbound traffic to a set of pods. Only pods with the label 'app: frontend' in the same namespace should be allowed to reach the pods on TCP port 8080. Which resource should be used?

Medium
209

Which THREE of the following are correct statements about Kubernetes Deployments?

Hard
210

A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff. You check the logs and see 'Error: container process not found'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Container Orchestration domain cover on the KCNA exam?
Be able to pick the right workload controller and probe for a scenario, and name required container fields. The most important thing: know that liveness restarts containers while readiness controls Service traffic, and that NetworkPolicies are deny-by-default only once a policy selects the pod.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 210 Container Orchestration questions in the KCNA question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Container Orchestration questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
cncf-kcna CNCF-KCNA kcna container orchestration Practice Questions