KCNA · domain
Container Orchestration
Practise Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate KCNA Container Orchestration practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.
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What to know about Container Orchestration
Container Orchestration questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.
Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.
How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.
How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.
Watch out for
Common Container Orchestration exam traps
- ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
- ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
- ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
- ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.
Question index
All Container Orchestration questions (173)
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Which of the following is a key benefit of container orchestration compared to running containers manually?
Easy2Which THREE are valid container runtimes that implement the Kubernetes CRI? (Choose three.)
Hard3An administrator wants to ensure that a specific pod only runs on nodes that have solid-state drives (SSDs). Nodes with SSDs are labeled with 'disktype=ssd'. Which pod specification field should be used?
Hard4Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Select 2)
Medium5Which TWO of the following are benefits of using containers over virtual machines? (Choose 2)
Easy6A Kubernetes cluster has a Service named 'my-svc' in the 'default' namespace. Which command would correctly expose this service as an external endpoint using a cloud load balancer?
Medium7A 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?
Hard8You need to run a batch job that processes a queue and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?
Medium9You are designing a microservices application. Which of the following is a key principle of microservices architecture?
Hard10Which Kubernetes component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster?
Easy11A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?
Medium12A developer wants to run a containerized application locally for development. Which tool is most appropriate?
Medium13An application requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which workload type should be used?
Medium14Which of the following is a benefit of using an orchestrator like Kubernetes?
Easy15Which component is responsible for running containers on a Kubernetes node?
Easy16Which of the following is a benefit of using container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes?
Medium17Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Select 2)
Medium18What is the purpose of a readiness probe in a Kubernetes pod?
Medium19An 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?
Medium20You 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?
Hard21You 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?
Hard22A company wants to adopt immutable infrastructure for its containerized applications. Which practice BEST exemplifies immutability?
Medium23Your organization runs a microservices application in a Kubernetes cluster with 5 worker nodes. Each microservice is deployed as a Deployment with 3 replicas. Recently, users report intermittent timeouts when accessing the frontend service. The frontend communicates with a backend service via ClusterIP. You check the backend pods and find that one of the three replicas is in CrashLoopBackOff. The other two backend pods are healthy. The frontend deployment has no readiness or liveness probes. You notice that the frontend's connection pool to the backend has a timeout of 5 seconds. The crashing backend pod logs show an occasional NullPointerException that causes the container to restart, but the pod becomes ready after restart within 2 seconds. However, the frontend's connection pool does not evict unhealthy connections quickly. What is the best course of action to reduce timeouts?
Hard24Which of the following is a benefit of container orchestration?
Medium25A 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?
Hard26You are troubleshooting a service that is not accessible from within the cluster. The service has a label selector that matches the pods. You run 'kubectl get endpoints myservice' and see that the ENDPOINTS column is empty. What is the most likely cause?
Medium27Which TWO of the following are valid methods to expose a set of pods to external traffic in Kubernetes?
Hard28Which TWO statements about container images are correct? (Choose two.)
Easy29A 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?
Medium30A 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?
Medium31A 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?
Medium32What is the purpose of a Readiness Probe in a Kubernetes pod?
Medium33You have a microservices application where Service A needs to communicate with Service B running in a different namespace ('backend'). Both namespaces have a NetworkPolicy that denies all ingress by default. You create a NetworkPolicy in the 'backend' namespace allowing ingress from pods with label 'app: frontend'. What else is needed for Service A to reach Service B?
Hard34Refer to the exhibit. How many containers are defined in this Pod?
Easy35A Deployment manages 3 replicas of a pod. During a rolling update, one of the new pods enters CrashLoopBackOff. What happens next?
Hard36A 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?
Medium37When using a Service of type ClusterIP, how do pods reach the service?
Hard38Which THREE of the following are true about container lifecycle? (Choose 3)
Medium39You 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?
Hard40What is the primary purpose of the Open Container Initiative (OCI)?
Easy41You need to run a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage per pod. Which Kubernetes resource is BEST suited?
Hard42Which two of the following are characteristics of container images built using OCI standards? (Choose two.)
Medium43A 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?
Hard44Which of the following is a key benefit of container orchestration?
Easy45What is the primary benefit of using containers over virtual machines?
Easy46What is the primary difference between a container and a virtual machine (VM)?
Easy47Which THREE are benefits of using a container orchestration platform? (Select 3)
Medium48Which TWO are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Select TWO.)
Easy49Which of the following is a benefit of container orchestration?
Easy50Which three of the following are benefits of container orchestration? (Choose three.)
Hard51Which THREE of the following are benefits of using container orchestration? (Choose three.)
Hard52Which component implements the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) to manage container lifecycle in Kubernetes?
Medium53What is the purpose of a readiness probe in a Kubernetes pod?
Easy54Based on the exhibit, why is the pod web-pod not running?
Easy55What is the purpose of a readiness probe in a Kubernetes pod?
Easy56A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. Which of the following is a likely cause?
Medium57Which Kubernetes resource should be used to run a one-time task that performs a computation and then exits?
Medium58Which TWO of the following are characteristics of immutable infrastructure? (Select two.)
Medium59A 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?
Medium60Which Kubernetes resource is used to run a batch job that runs to completion?
Easy61A DevOps engineer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?
Medium62Which THREE of the following are true about the Open Container Initiative (OCI)? (Select 3)
Hard63Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes? (Choose two.)
Medium64Which TWO of the following are required fields when defining a container in a Kubernetes Pod spec? (Choose 2)
Medium65Which of the following is a key principle of microservices architecture?
Easy66Which THREE are valid ways to perform a rolling update of a Deployment in Kubernetes? (Select THREE.)
Hard67A 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?
Medium68Which TWO statements about containers are true compared to virtual machines? (Select TWO.)
Medium69Drag and drop the steps to update a Kubernetes Secret and ensure Pods use the new value into the correct order.
Medium70Which command would you run to get a list of all pods in all namespaces?
Medium71Which THREE of the following are key characteristics of microservices architecture?
Hard72You need to deploy an application that requires exactly one pod per cluster node for logging purposes. Which Kubernetes workload resource should you use?
Hard73You 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?
Medium74What is the role of etcd in a Kubernetes cluster?
Medium75Drag and drop the steps for a rolling update of a Kubernetes Deployment into the correct order.
Medium76What is the Open Container Initiative (OCI) responsible for?
Medium77A user runs 'kubectl exec -it pod1 -- /bin/sh' and gets the error: 'error: unable to upgrade connection: container not found ("app")'. The pod has one container named 'app'. What is the most likely cause?
Hard78Which TWO statements correctly describe how Kubernetes handles self-healing? (Select two.)
Medium79What is the purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes?
Medium80Which component of Kubernetes is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster?
Easy81A DevOps engineer wants to update a Deployment's container image from 'v1' to 'v2' with zero downtime. Which kubectl command should they use?
Medium82Which of the following is a container runtime that implements the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?
Easy83A microservices application has multiple services that need to discover each other by name. Which Kubernetes object provides built-in service discovery via DNS?
Hard84Which command would you use to view the logs of a specific container in a multi-container pod, using the short flag?
Medium85Which component is responsible for running containers in a Kubernetes node and implements the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?
Medium86You 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?
Hard87A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?
Medium88You want to ensure that a Pod runs on every Node in the cluster. Which resource should you use?
Medium89A container image is built from a Dockerfile with multiple layers. Which statement about container image layers is TRUE?
Medium90You 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?
Medium91A 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?
Hard92Which statement accurately describes a key difference between containers and virtual machines?
Easy93Which TWO of the following are true about container networking basics? (Choose 2)
Easy94Match each Kubernetes component to its role in the control plane.
Medium95What is the purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes?
Easy96Which TWO of the following are characteristics of microservices architecture? (Choose 2)
Easy97A 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?
Hard98A developer wants to run a one-time task that creates a database schema and then exits. Which Kubernetes workload type is most appropriate?
Easy99In a container image built from a Dockerfile, what is the purpose of the CMD instruction?
Hard100Which Open Container Initiative (OCI) specification defines the format of container images?
Easy101What is the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?
Easy102An 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?
Medium103A 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?
Medium104A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?
Medium105A Kubernetes Deployment manages a set of pods. What is the primary purpose of a Deployment?
Medium106Which THREE of the following are core principles of immutable infrastructure? (Choose 3)
Medium107A developer wants to expose a set of pods running a web application on a stable IP address. Which Kubernetes resource should they create?
Medium108Which of the following is a key benefit of using containers over virtual machines?
Easy109A developer creates a Deployment with replicas: 3 and strategy type: RollingUpdate with maxSurge: 1 and maxUnavailable: 1. During a rolling update, the Deployment controller creates a new ReplicaSet. After the new ReplicaSet has 2 pods ready, the node running one of the original ReplicaSet's pods fails. What is the MOST likely number of total pods running after the node failure, assuming no other actions?
Hard110Match each Kubernetes command (kubectl) to its primary function.
Medium111Which TWO of the following are true about service discovery in Kubernetes? (Choose 2)
Hard112Which of the following correctly describes the concept of 'immutable infrastructure' in the context of container orchestration?
Hard113A Pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. Which command is most helpful to diagnose the issue?
Medium114A pod in the 'production' namespace is in a CrashLoopBackOff state. The pod has been running successfully for several days. You run 'kubectl describe pod app-pod -n production' and see the message: 'OOMKilled'. What is the MOST appropriate action to resolve this issue?
Medium115What is the primary difference between a container and a virtual machine (VM)?
Easy116Which of the following is a valid use case for a DaemonSet?
Medium117What is the OCI (Open Container Initiative) responsible for?
Easy118An 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?
Medium119A pod is running but its container exits with code 137. The pod logs show 'Killed'. What is the most likely cause?
Hard120A developer wants to ensure that a pod runs only on nodes with SSDs. Which mechanism should be used?
Easy121You 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?
Medium122Which TWO of the following are characteristics of a microservices architecture? (Select 2)
Medium123A developer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage. Which Kubernetes resource is best suited for this workload?
Medium124What is the primary benefit of containers over virtual machines?
Easy125Which TWO of the following are valid container runtimes that implement the CRI? (Choose two.)
Medium126Which component is responsible for managing the lifecycle of containers on a Kubernetes node?
Easy127Which TWO statements about the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) are correct? (Select 2)
Hard128Which THREE of the following are characteristics of a microservices architecture? (Select 3)
Medium129A 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?
Medium130What is the concept of 'immutable infrastructure' as applied to Kubernetes?
Medium131Which THREE of the following are true about the Open Container Initiative (OCI)? (Choose 3)
Hard132A company wants to run a batch job that processes data and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?
Medium133What is the primary purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes?
Easy134Which TWO statements about container images are correct? (Choose two.)
Medium135Which component in Kubernetes is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster?
Easy136Which of the following best describes immutable infrastructure?
Hard137A Service of type ClusterIP is created for a Deployment, but Pods in other namespaces cannot reach it. What is the most likely cause?
Hard138An application running in a Kubernetes pod needs to access a database that is deployed on a VM outside the cluster. The database IP is stable. Which is the best way to expose the database to the pod?
Medium139Which TWO statements accurately describe the concept of immutable infrastructure in the context of container orchestration? (Select two.)
Medium140What is a primary benefit of using containers over virtual machines?
Easy141A developer wants to deploy a stateful application that requires stable network identities and persistent storage per pod instance. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?
Medium142A user wants to ensure that a pod is automatically restarted if its main process crashes. Which Kubernetes controller should they use?
Medium143What is the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?
Easy144Which command is used to create a Deployment that runs an nginx container with 3 replicas?
Easy145What is a key benefit of using containers over virtual machines for application deployment?
Easy146Which component is responsible for running containers on a Kubernetes node?
Easy147You 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?
Medium148An administrator needs to ensure that Pods from two different Deployments cannot communicate with each other. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?
Hard149Which TWO of the following are valid ways to expose a set of pods as a network service in Kubernetes?
Medium150Which command correctly creates a Deployment named 'web-app' with the image 'nginx:1.21' and 3 replicas?
Medium151Which of the following describes the Open Container Initiative (OCI) image specification?
Easy152A 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?
Medium153You 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?
Medium154Which TWO of the following correctly describe the difference between Docker Compose and Kubernetes? (Choose 2)
Medium155Which THREE of the following are true about the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)? (Choose 3)
Hard156Which Kubernetes resource is best suited for running a batch processing job that must complete successfully exactly once?
Medium157Which of the following is an example of immutable infrastructure?
Easy158A pod is in the 'Pending' state. Which of the following is a likely cause?
Medium159Which of the following is a key difference between containers and virtual machines?
Easy160A 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?
Medium161What is the purpose of the Container Runtime Interface (CRI)?
Easy162Which Kubernetes resource can be used to define network policies that control traffic between pods?
Hard163Your 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?
Hard164A team notices that a ReplicaSet is not creating the desired number of pods. The ReplicaSet YAML is correctly configured with replicas: 3. The cluster has sufficient resources. What is the most likely cause?
Hard165What is the difference between a liveness probe and a readiness probe?
Medium166Which TWO statements about containers compared to virtual machines are correct? (Select 2)
Medium167You 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?
Hard168You 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?
Medium169A 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?
Hard170You 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?
Medium171A 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?
Medium172Which THREE of the following are correct statements about Kubernetes Deployments?
Hard173A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff. You check the logs and see 'Error: container process not found'. What is the most likely cause?
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Container Orchestration domain cover on the KCNA exam?
- Container Orchestration questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 173 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.