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Kubernetes Fundamentals

Practise Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate KCNA Kubernetes Fundamentals practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

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What to know about Kubernetes Fundamentals

Kubernetes Fundamentals 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 Kubernetes Fundamentals 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 Kubernetes Fundamentals questions (326)

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

1

You have a ConfigMap named 'app-config' with key 'database.url'. Which environment variable reference in a Pod spec injects this value correctly?

Medium
2

Which component runs on every node and is responsible for ensuring that containers are running as specified in Pod manifests?

Easy
3

A pod is stuck in Pending state. Which THREE of the following are possible causes?

Hard
4

You need to expose a set of pods running in the 'dev' namespace internally within the cluster on a stable IP. All pods have the label 'app: web'. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
5

You need to run a stateless web application with three replicas, and you want to ensure that if a pod fails, it is automatically replaced. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
6

Which kubectl command would you use to view the logs of a specific container named 'app' in a multi-container Pod named 'web-pod'?

Medium
7

What is the role of the kubelet on a worker node?

Easy
8

What is the primary purpose of Kubernetes?

Easy
9

Which command would you use to view the logs of a container named 'web' in a pod named 'frontend' running in the 'production' namespace?

Medium
10

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to expose a Deployment as a Service?

Medium
11

You have a Deployment that uses a ConfigMap for configuration. You update the ConfigMap with new data. However, the pods in the Deployment continue to use the old configuration. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
12

A 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?

Medium
13

Which two components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select TWO.)

Medium
14

You have a Pod that needs to run a one-time batch job to completion. Which resource type should you use?

Hard
15

Which of the following is a worker node component responsible for ensuring that containers are running in a pod as specified in the pod's spec?

Easy
16

Which component on a worker node is responsible for enforcing the network rules and implementing Service abstractions?

Medium
17

You have a Deployment named 'web-app' that manages 3 replicas. You need to update the container image from version 1.0 to 2.0 with zero downtime. Which Kubernetes feature is designed to handle this automatically when you update the Deployment's pod template?

Medium
18

A Deployment manages ReplicaSets and supports rolling updates. You want to change the container image of a Deployment without downtime. What is the recommended approach?

Medium
19

Which THREE of the following are valid options for the 'kubectl get' command to display output in different formats?

Medium
20

A cluster has a node with the taint 'node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane:NoSchedule'. A pod must be scheduled on this node for a special workload. Which action is required?

Hard
21

You want to update a Deployment's container image from 'nginx:1.20' to 'nginx:1.21' and record the change. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
22

You create a Service of type ClusterIP in the 'default' namespace. You try to reach the Service from a pod in the 'production' namespace using the service name. The connection fails. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
23

You have a Deployment that runs a web application. You need to expose this application externally on a fixed port using a cloud load balancer. Which Service type should you use?

Hard
24

Which component runs on every node and is responsible for maintaining network rules that allow communication to Pods from network endpoints?

Medium
25

Which THREE of the following are valid types of Kubernetes Services? (Select THREE)

Medium
26

What is the purpose of kube-proxy on a worker node?

Medium
27

Which Kubernetes resource provides stable network endpoints for a set of pods, enabling service discovery and load balancing?

Medium
28

Which resource type provides a stable IP address and DNS name to access a set of Pods, regardless of Pod IP changes?

Medium
29

Which TWO statements about Kubernetes Services are correct?

Medium
30

You have a Pod with a container that runs a web server. The Pod has a memory request of 256Mi and a memory limit of 512Mi. The container attempts to allocate 600Mi of memory. What happens?

Hard
31

Which THREE of the following are valid fields in a Kubernetes Deployment spec (apps/v1)?

Hard
32

What is the primary purpose of Kubernetes?

Easy
33

Which kubectl command would you use to view detailed information about a specific pod, including events and container status?

Easy
34

A Service of type ClusterIP has been created, but pods in the same namespace cannot reach it by its DNS name. The Service selector matches the pods. What is a likely cause?

Hard
35

You need to run a one-time batch job that processes data and then exits. The job should run to completion and not be restarted. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Hard
36

Which two commands are valid for viewing information about pods in a namespace named 'production'?

Easy
37

Which three components are part of the Kubernetes control plane?

Hard
38

Which component of the Kubernetes control plane is responsible for persisting the cluster state?

Easy
39

Which TWO of the following components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select 2)

Medium
40

You have a Deployment that manages 3 replicas. You want to perform a rolling update with a maximum of 2 Pods unavailable during the update. Which field should you set in the Deployment spec?

Hard
41

You have a Pod with a container that needs to read sensitive data such as a database password. Which Kubernetes resource should you use to store this data?

Medium
42

Which TWO of the following are valid Kubernetes resource types that can be used to store configuration data or secrets?

Medium
43

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to view the logs of a pod named 'my-pod'?

Easy
44

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to create a Kubernetes resource using kubectl?

Medium
45

An administrator wants to update the image of a Deployment named 'my-app' from 'nginx:1.19' to 'nginx:1.20' with a rolling update strategy. They want to ensure that during the update, the number of unavailable pods never exceeds 1. Which field should they set in the Deployment spec?

Medium
46

A Deployment is configured with 'replicas: 5' and a rolling update strategy. During an update, you notice that the number of available pods drops to 3 momentarily. Which field in the Deployment spec can be adjusted to control the minimum number of pods available during a rolling update?

Hard
47

Which TWO of the following are responsibilities of the kube-controller-manager?

Hard
48

Which Kubernetes object can be used to store sensitive data, such as passwords or API keys, and inject them into pods?

Medium
49

A Deployment is configured with 'replicas: 3'. After a node failure, only 2 pods are running. What component ensures that a new pod is scheduled to restore the desired replica count?

Medium
50

A user reports that they cannot connect to a database service named 'db-service' from another pod in the same namespace. The service selector matches the database pod's labels. Which command would you run FIRST to troubleshoot the service's endpoints?

Hard
51

Refer to the exhibit. A pod is created with the above manifest. The container runs nginx listening on port 80, but the liveness probe is configured to check port 8080. What will happen?

Medium
52

A pod is running a Java application that occasionally leaks memory. After a few hours, 'kubectl describe pod' shows the container exited with OOMKilled. You want to automatically restart the container but ensure the application has enough memory. What should you do?

Hard
53

Which component is the primary entry point for all administrative tasks and API requests in a Kubernetes control plane?

Easy
54

You create a Deployment with 'replicas: 3' and update the pod template to use a new image. After the rollout, you notice that the new ReplicaSet has 3 pods but they are all failing with 'CrashLoopBackOff'. You want to rollback to the previous working revision. Which command should you run?

Hard
55

You have a Deployment with image: myapp:v1. You update the image to myapp:v2 using 'kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp=myapp:v2'. The rollout status shows 'Waiting for rollout to finish: 0 out of 3 new replicas have been updated...'. What is the most likely cause of this behavior?

Hard
56

Which three of the following are valid methods to expose a Service to external traffic? (Select THREE)

Hard
57

You have a Deployment named 'frontend' with 3 replicas. You want to perform a rolling update to a new container image. Which command should you use?

Medium
58

A Deployment named 'myapp' is managing a ReplicaSet. You need to update the application image to version 2.0. What is the recommended approach?

Medium
59

Which component of the Kubernetes control plane is responsible for storing the cluster state?

Medium
60

A production issue arises: a Deployment with 10 replicas is updated, but the new Pods are failing health checks and being terminated. The old Pods are also being terminated. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
61

Which field in a Pod's container specification defines the minimum amount of CPU guaranteed to the container?

Medium
62

Which kubectl command is used to create or update resources defined in a YAML file?

Medium
63

Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane?

Easy
64

Which two of the following are valid ways to expose a set of Pods to external traffic?

Medium
65

A user wants to run a one-time batch job that runs to completion. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?

Medium
66

Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select exactly two.)

Medium
67

A Kubernetes cluster has multiple worker nodes. You create a Pod without any node selector. The scheduler places the pod on a node, but the pod remains in 'Pending' state. 'kubectl describe pod' shows '0/1 nodes are available: 1 node had taint {node-role.kubernetes.io/master: }, that the pod didn't tolerate'. What does this indicate?

Hard
68

A user reports that their application's DNS resolution is failing for a Service named 'my-service' in the same namespace. They are able to reach the Service by its cluster IP. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Hard
69

A Service of type ClusterIP is created. What is the default behavior of this Service?

Medium
70

You have a Deployment with 3 replicas. You need to perform a rolling update with 2 extra pods during the update and ensure that only 1 pod is unavailable at any time. Which update strategy configuration achieves this?

Hard
71

Which two of the following are benefits of using Kubernetes for container orchestration? (Select TWO.)

Easy
72

A developer wants to inject environment variables into a pod from a ConfigMap named 'app-config'. Which YAML snippet correctly mounts all key-value pairs from the ConfigMap as environment variables?

Hard
73

A developer wants to run a one-time batch job that processes a queue and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?

Easy
74

Which TWO resources can be used to store configuration data separately from container images?

Medium
75

Refer to the exhibit. A pod 'my-pod' shows repeated 'BackOff' events after the container starts. Which is the most likely cause?

Hard
76

You create a Pod with a liveness probe that uses an HTTP GET on port 8080, path /healthz. The probe fails after the container starts. What will happen to the Pod?

Hard
77

A Deployment is created with `replicas: 3`. After applying the manifest, only 2 pods are running and one is in Pending state. What is the most likely reason?

Medium
78

Which component on a worker node is responsible for enforcing the desired state of pods as defined in the pod specification?

Easy
79

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. Which of the following is NOT a common cause for a pod to remain Pending?

Hard
80

Which of the following is a correct way to assign a pod to a specific node using a nodeSelector?

Hard
81

Which THREE are valid ways to provide configuration data to a pod in Kubernetes?

Hard
82

Which control plane component is responsible for assigning pods to nodes?

Easy
83

Which THREE fields are required in a Kubernetes manifest YAML file?

Medium
84

You have two pods in different namespaces that need to communicate using a stable IP address. Which Kubernetes object provides a stable endpoint for a set of pods?

Medium
85

A Deployment is rolling out a new version. The rollout has stalled, and 'kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp' shows 'Waiting for deployment rollout to finish: 2 out of 5 new replicas have been updated...'. The Deployment's spec.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable is set to 25% and maxSurge is 25%. What is the maximum number of Pods that could be unavailable during this rollout?

Hard
86

You have a Pod that is in 'Pending' state. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
87

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to expose environment variables from a ConfigMap to a pod?

Medium
88

You need to provide an application with configuration data that does not change often and should not be baked into the container image. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
89

Which component is the primary entry point for all administrative tasks and API requests in a Kubernetes cluster?

Easy
90

You have a ConfigMap named 'app-config' and a Secret named 'db-password'. You want to mount them into a pod. Which statement is correct?

Hard
91

A cluster administrator needs to ensure that a Deployment named 'frontend' in namespace 'web' is updated with a new image version using a rolling update strategy. The current deployment has 4 replicas. The administrator runs: kubectl set image deployment/frontend frontend=nginx:1.21 -n web. Which of the following describes the expected behavior?

Hard
92

Which Kubernetes object provides stable network endpoints and load balancing for a set of pods?

Easy
93

Which THREE of the following are required for a Kubernetes pod to be considered healthy and ready to serve traffic?

Hard
94

You create a Deployment with 'replicas: 3' and update the pod template without changing the selector. After the update, you notice that only the new Pods are running, but old Pods have been terminated. What is the default update strategy?

Hard
95

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes that can be created and managed?

Medium
96

Which of the following kubectl commands would you use to update a Deployment's image to 'nginx:1.21' and record the change in the rollout history?

Hard
97

What is the primary purpose of a Namespace in Kubernetes?

Easy
98

Which component runs on each worker node and ensures that containers are running as specified in the Pod spec?

Easy
99

A Service of type ClusterIP is not resolving DNS names for pods. The pods are running and can communicate with each other via IP addresses. Which component should be checked first?

Hard
100

Which TWO statements correctly describe the purpose of etcd in a Kubernetes cluster?

Medium
101

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to expose a set of pods as a network service in Kubernetes?

Medium
102

Drag and drop the steps to create a Kubernetes Namespace and deploy an application into it into the correct order.

Medium
103

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

Medium
104

Which component runs on every Kubernetes node and ensures that the containers in a pod are running?

Medium
105

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

Medium
106

Which of the following is true about Kubernetes Namespaces?

Medium
107

An administrator wants to perform a rolling update of a Deployment. Which TWO actions will achieve this?

Hard
108

Which THREE of the following are valid Kubernetes resource types?

Medium
109

A DevOps engineer has created a ConfigMap named 'app-config' with some configuration data. They want to make that data available as environment variables in a pod. Which field in the pod spec should they use to achieve this?

Medium
110

Which Kubernetes controller ensures that a specified number of pod replicas are running at all times?

Medium
111

When creating a Deployment, you want to ensure that only a certain number of pods run at a time across all nodes. Which field in the Deployment spec controls this?

Medium
112

A developer has created a Deployment with 3 replicas. The application should be reachable from other Pods within the same cluster. Which Kubernetes resource should be used to provide a stable network endpoint?

Medium
113

You need to store a sensitive database password in Kubernetes. Which resource should you use?

Medium
114

A pod is experiencing high memory usage. The administrator wants to enforce that the pod is terminated if it exceeds a memory limit and restarted automatically, but also wants to guarantee a minimum amount of memory for the pod. Which resource specification should be used in the container definition?

Medium
115

A developer creates a Deployment with 3 replicas. The developer runs 'kubectl get pods' immediately after creation and sees that only 1 pod is in Running state, and the other 2 are Pending. What is the most likely reason for this?

Medium
116

Which two of the following are valid ways to expose a Deployment externally to the internet? (Select TWO)

Medium
117

A pod has resource requests: cpu: 250m, memory: 512Mi and limits: cpu: 500m, memory: 1Gi. If the container tries to use 600m CPU and 700Mi memory, what will happen?

Hard
118

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. 'kubectl describe pod' shows '0/4 nodes are available: 4 Insufficient memory'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
119

A DevOps engineer wants to ensure that a critical application pod is rescheduled on a different node if its current node fails. The pod should be scheduled with a preference for nodes in a specific availability zone but can run elsewhere if needed. Which scheduling mechanism should be used?

Hard
120

A pod is running but you need to view the contents of a file '/var/log/app.log' inside the container to debug an issue. Which kubectl command allows you to do this without modifying the pod?

Hard
121

Which three components are part of the Kubernetes control plane? (Select THREE)

Hard
122

Which Kubernetes control plane component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster, such as ensuring the correct number of pods are running?

Easy
123

An application requires a unique identifier per replica, stored in an environment variable. Which Kubernetes resource should be used to inject this identifier into each pod without manual updates?

Hard
124

Which TWO components are part of the Kubernetes control plane?

Medium
125

You run 'kubectl get pods' and see a Pod in the 'Pending' state. Which of the following is a likely cause?

Medium
126

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using a Deployment over managing ReplicaSets directly? (Choose two.)

Medium
127

What is the primary purpose of a liveness probe in a container?

Easy
128

A StatefulSet named 'web' with 3 replicas is deployed in the 'production' namespace. The first two pods are running, but the third pod 'web-2' is pending with the error shown. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
129

You need to run a batch job that processes a queue and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Medium
130

A DevOps engineer needs to expose a set of pods running an HTTP API to external clients. The pods are stateless and should be load-balanced. Which Kubernetes resource should they use?

Easy
131

A team observes that a Pod is stuck in CrashLoopBackOff. The Pod runs a single container with an entrypoint that exits with non-zero code after a few seconds. The team wants to inspect the container's logs to understand why it is crashing. Which command should they use?

Medium
132

An application requires that configuration data be mounted as a file inside the container. The data may change at runtime, and the application should automatically read the updated values without restarting. Which approach should be used?

Hard
133

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

Easy
134

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes that can be created and managed?

Easy
135

Which command creates a Deployment named 'nginx' from the 'nginx:1.19' image?

Easy
136

Which two of the following are valid ways to set resource constraints on a container in a Pod spec?

Medium
137

Which Kubernetes object is used to store non-confidential configuration data that can be consumed by pods?

Medium
138

Which Kubernetes resource provides a stable IP address and DNS name to access a set of pods?

Easy
139

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes that you can create and manage?

Easy
140

Which component runs on every worker node and is responsible for ensuring that containers are running in a pod as specified in the PodSpec?

Easy
141

A cluster administrator notices that a Deployment's pods are not receiving traffic as expected. The Service selector matches the pod labels. What is a possible cause?

Hard
142

Which of the following is a correct apiVersion for a Deployment in a modern Kubernetes cluster (v1.19+)?

Medium
143

Which Kubernetes control plane component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster by running controller loops?

Easy
144

An application requires that a set of Pods each be assigned a unique DNS name that can be used for peer-to-peer communication. Which Kubernetes resource should be used?

Hard
145

Which Kubernetes object provides a stable IP address and DNS name for a set of Pods?

Easy
146

Which two scenarios would benefit from using a StatefulSet instead of a Deployment? (Choose two.)

Hard
147

What is the primary purpose of a Kubernetes Service?

Easy
148

You want to view the logs of a container named 'app' inside a pod named 'web-pod-7d4f8'. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
149

A Deployment manages ReplicaSets. What is the primary benefit of using a Deployment over directly managing ReplicaSets?

Medium
150

Which command would you use to view the logs of a container named 'sidecar' inside a pod named 'app'?

Medium
151

What does the 'kubectl get pods' command display?

Medium
152

Which TWO of the following are true about Kubernetes Pods?

Hard
153

You have a Kubernetes cluster with multiple namespaces. You need to allow communication only from pods with label 'app: frontend' to pods with label 'app: backend' in the same namespace. Which resource should you use?

Medium
154

Which Kubernetes control plane component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster by running reconciliation loops?

Easy
155

Drag and drop the steps to set up a Kubernetes cluster using kubeadm into the correct order.

Medium
156

Which TWO of the following are control plane components? (Select TWO)

Medium
157

A pod has a liveness probe that returns failure. What action will Kubernetes take?

Medium
158

You want to create a new Namespace called 'staging' and apply a ResourceQuota to it. Which of the following YAML snippets correctly defines a ResourceQuota that limits total memory to 10Gi and total CPU to 5 cores in namespace 'staging'?

Hard
159

What is the purpose of a Namespace in Kubernetes?

Easy
160

Which THREE statements about Labels and Selectors are correct?

Hard
161

Which three of the following are valid ways to interact with the Kubernetes API? (Select THREE.)

Medium
162

Which THREE of the following are true about Kubernetes Namespaces?

Hard
163

What is the primary purpose of a Kubernetes Service?

Easy
164

You want to expose a set of pods running on node port 30080 to external traffic. Which Service type should you use?

Medium
165

Which THREE of the following are responsibilities of the kube-controller-manager?

Medium
166

A development team deploys a microservice that crashes every few minutes. The deployment uses a single replica, and the pod restarts repeatedly. Which Kubernetes feature should be enabled to ensure the service remains available during failures?

Medium
167

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes that can be created, scheduled, and managed?

Easy
168

Which two of the following are responsibilities of the kubelet? (Select TWO.)

Medium
169

A Pod has two containers. You need to see the logs of the second container named 'sidecar'. Which kubectl command should you use?

Easy
170

A user wants to ensure that a Deployment undergoes a rolling update with zero downtime, and that new Pods are fully ready before old Pods are terminated. Which field in the Deployment spec controls this behavior?

Hard
171

A company wants to ensure that a database pod runs on a node with SSD storage. How should this be achieved?

Easy
172

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to expose a Service to external traffic? (Select exactly three.)

Medium
173

Which TWO of the following are true about Kubernetes Services? (Select 2)

Medium
174

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
175

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. After running 'kubectl describe pod', you see the event: '0/3 nodes are available: 3 Insufficient cpu'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
176

Which of the following is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
177

Which control plane component is responsible for persisting the entire cluster state?

Medium
178

A team is designing a Kubernetes cluster for a production workload that requires high availability. They have three worker nodes in different availability zones. Which statement about scheduling Pods is correct?

Medium
179

Which TWO components run on every worker node in a Kubernetes cluster?

Easy
180

Match each cloud native concept to its definition.

Medium
181

Which component of the control plane is the only one that directly interacts with etcd?

Easy
182

Which TWO of the following are valid uses of Kubernetes Namespaces? (Select 2)

Medium
183

Which command is used to view detailed information about a specific pod, including events and conditions?

Easy
184

In a YAML manifest for a Deployment, which field defines the number of pod replicas?

Hard
185

You have a Deployment with the following rollout strategy: rollingUpdate: maxSurge: 1, maxUnavailable: 0. What behavior does this configuration enforce?

Hard
186

You have a Service of type ClusterIP named 'my-svc' in the 'default' namespace. A Pod in the same cluster wants to reach this Service using DNS. What is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that resolves to the Service's cluster IP?

Hard
187

You have a Service named 'my-svc' in namespace 'default'. A pod in namespace 'other' tries to reach it using the DNS name 'my-svc'. What is the correct DNS name for cross-namespace service discovery?

Hard
188

Which Kubernetes object is used to store non-sensitive configuration data that can be consumed by pods?

Medium
189

A team uses a Deployment with 3 replicas and a RollingUpdate strategy. They update the container image. During the update, one of the new pods fails to start. What will happen by default?

Medium
190

A ClusterIP Service named 'db-service' in namespace 'prod' selects pods with label 'app: database'. A pod in the same cluster needs to reach this service using DNS. What is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the service?

Hard
191

Which TWO statements about Kubernetes namespaces are true?

Medium
192

A developer wants to run a stateless web application with 5 replicas and ensure that when a new version is released, Pods are updated one by one with no downtime. Which Kubernetes resource is best suited?

Medium
193

Which TWO of the following are characteristics of a Kubernetes Pod?

Easy
194

You run 'kubectl get pods' and see a pod with status 'Pending'. Which is the most likely cause?

Medium
195

A cluster administrator wants to ensure that a specific pod only runs on nodes that have an SSD for local storage. The nodes with SSDs have the label 'disk-type: ssd'. How should the administrator configure the pod to enforce this constraint?

Hard
196

A developer created a Deployment with image 'myapp:v1' and then ran 'kubectl set image deployment/myapp myapp=myapp:v2'. What is the effect of this command?

Medium
197

Which Kubernetes component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster by running controller loops?

Easy
198

Which Kubernetes object is used to logically isolate resources within a cluster, such as for separating environments like dev and prod?

Easy
199

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to assign a pod to a specific node? (Choose three.)

Hard
200

A Deployment has a strategy of RollingUpdate with maxSurge=1 and maxUnavailable=0. The Deployment manages 3 replicas. The image is updated. What happens during the update?

Hard
201

What is the purpose of a Kubernetes Service?

Easy
202

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
203

Which TWO of the following are valid reasons that a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) may remain in 'Pending' state?

Hard
204

A developer deploys a CronJob that runs a batch job every 5 minutes. After a while, they notice that the job fails with 'DeadlineExceeded' and the pod is stuck in 'PodInitializing' state. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
205

Which component runs on every worker node and ensures that containers are running in a Pod as specified in the Pod manifest?

Medium
206

A developer creates a Service of type ClusterIP in namespace 'default'. They attempt to reach the Service from another pod in the same namespace using the Service name 'my-svc'. The connection fails. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
207

A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff state. 'kubectl logs pod' shows 'Error: cannot connect to database at db-service:5432'. The database Service exists and is reachable from other pods. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
208

Which TWO of the following are true about Kubernetes Pods?

Medium
209

You deploy a new version of your application by updating the container image in the Deployment manifest. The rollout seems to be progressing, but after a few minutes you notice that the new Pods are failing and the old Pods are still running. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
210

Which command would you use to view the logs of a container named 'nginx' in a Pod named 'web-pod'?

Easy
211

A 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?

Medium
212

You run 'kubectl get pods' and see a pod in 'Pending' state for over 5 minutes. You describe the pod and see '0/1 nodes are available: 1 Insufficient memory'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
213

Which THREE of the following are core components of a Kubernetes worker node?

Medium
214

Which Kubernetes component is the primary entry point for all administrative tasks and API requests?

Easy
215

Which Kubernetes component is responsible for storing the cluster state?

Easy
216

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to expose a set of pods to traffic from outside the Kubernetes cluster?

Medium
217

You create a Service of type NodePort with nodePort: 30080. The cluster's nodes have IP addresses 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2. From outside the cluster, which address and port can you use to access the Service?

Hard
218

A team runs a stateless web application in Kubernetes. They have a Deployment named 'web-app' with 5 replicas. They want to ensure that a Service named 'web-svc' distributes traffic evenly to all healthy pods. Which type of Service should they use?

Medium
219

You have a Deployment defined with replicas: 5. You run 'kubectl scale deployment myapp --replicas=3'. Which component is responsible for ensuring the actual number of Pods matches the desired 3?

Hard
220

Which TWO of the following are true about Pod resource limits? (Select TWO)

Hard
221

You need to update a running Deployment to use a new container image. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
222

You need to expose a set of pods running a web application to internal cluster traffic on a stable IP address. Which resource should you create?

Medium
223

A developer deploys a pod that continuously restarts. 'kubectl describe pod' shows the container exits with code 137. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
224

Which component of the Kubernetes control plane is responsible for storing the cluster state?

Easy
225

A Pod is stuck in Pending state. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Medium
226

Which component is responsible for ensuring that containers are running as specified in a Pod's specification on a node?

Medium
227

A user runs 'kubectl create deployment my-deploy --image=nginx' and then wants to scale the deployment to 5 replicas. Which command should they use?

Medium
228

A pod in a ReplicaSet is failing with 'CrashLoopBackOff'. 'kubectl logs pod' shows 'Error: listen tcp :8080: bind: address already in use'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
229

What is the primary purpose of a Kubernetes Service object?

Easy
230

Which TWO of the following are Kubernetes control plane components?

Medium
231

A pod is stuck in Terminating state for several minutes. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
232

Which TWO statements about Namespaces are correct?

Medium
233

What is the primary purpose of a Kubernetes Service?

Easy
234

Which TWO of the following are functions of the kube-controller-manager?

Easy
235

A pod is in 'Pending' state for a long time. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
236

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes that can be created and managed?

Easy
237

You want to run a batch job that processes data and then terminates. Which Kubernetes resource is best suited for this workload?

Medium
238

Which TWO of the following statements about Kubernetes namespaces are true?

Hard
239

Which of the following kubectl commands would you use to apply a manifest file and also save it for later updates?

Hard
240

A Deployment named 'nginx' is failing to update. You run 'kubectl rollout status deployment nginx' and see 'Waiting for deployment "nginx" rollout to finish: 0 out of 3 new replicas have been updated...'. The pod template has an image that does not exist. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
241

You create a Pod with the following YAML. What will happen when you apply it?

Medium
242

You have a multi-container pod with containers 'app' and 'sidecar'. You need to execute a shell command inside the 'sidecar' container. Which kubectl command should you use?

Hard
243

Which Kubernetes object provides stable network endpoints and load balancing for a set of pods?

Easy
244

Which THREE of the following are valid reasons to use a StatefulSet instead of a Deployment? (Select 3)

Hard
245

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
246

A team wants to minimize downtime during a Deployment rollout. Which strategy ensures that new pods are created before old pods are terminated?

Medium
247

Which three of the following are valid methods to create or update resources in Kubernetes? (Choose three.)

Medium
248

An application running in a Kubernetes cluster needs to securely access a third-party API. The API key must be stored in the cluster and mounted into the Pod as an environment variable. Which is the best practice?

Hard
249

Which THREE of the following are true about Kubernetes labels and selectors?

Hard
250

Which Kubernetes object provides a stable IP address and DNS name to access a set of pods, and can perform load balancing?

Medium
251

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
252

A team notices that a pod remains in 'CrashLoopBackOff' state after deployment. The application logs show 'Error: unable to bind to port 8080'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
253

What is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
254

Match each Kubernetes scheduler concept to its description.

Medium
255

You need to ensure that a pod runs on a node with SSD storage. How can you achieve this?

Hard
256

A pod is stuck in 'Pending' state. 'kubectl describe pod' shows '0/4 nodes are available: 4 node(s) had taint {node.kubernetes.io/unreachable: }, that the pod didn't tolerate.' What is the most likely cause?

Easy
257

Which Kubernetes object should you use to store non-sensitive configuration data that can be consumed by Pods as environment variables or mounted files?

Medium
258

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

Medium
259

A Deployment named 'web-app' is configured with replicas: 3. You update the container image. Which Kubernetes object directly manages the pods during the rolling update?

Medium
260

Which kubectl command is used to see the logs of a container in a pod?

Easy
261

A developer reports that a Pod cannot reach another Service in the same namespace via its DNS name. The Service name is 'api'. What is the correct DNS query for a Pod to resolve this Service?

Hard
262

Which of the following is true about Kubernetes Namespaces?

Medium
263

Refer to the exhibit. The nginx Pod is created, but the Pod never becomes Ready. The container starts and runs. What is the most likely reason?

Hard
264

Which of the following is used to logically isolate resources within a Kubernetes cluster?

Easy
265

You want to deploy a stateless web application that should maintain 5 running instances at all times. You need to support rolling updates and rollbacks. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Medium
266

Which TWO statements about Namespaces are correct?

Hard
267

Which TWO of the following statements about Kubernetes Deployments are correct? (Select 2)

Hard
268

Which TWO are valid reasons to use a Namespace in Kubernetes?

Medium
269

A pod named 'db' in the 'default' namespace cannot connect to another pod named 'cache' in the 'prod' namespace via DNS. The service 'cache-svc' exists in the 'prod' namespace. What DNS name should the 'db' pod use to reach the 'cache-svc' service?

Hard
270

You need to create a ConfigMap from a file named 'app.properties'. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
271

What is the primary purpose of Kubernetes?

Easy
272

An administrator notices that a pod in a Deployment is stuck in CrashLoopBackOff. The pod logs show 'Error: failed to start container: exec: "app": executable file not found in $PATH'. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
273

Which TWO of the following are functions of the kube-controller-manager?

Medium
274

A user reports that a web application is not accessible via its Service. The Service is of type ClusterIP. Which TWO steps should be taken to troubleshoot?

Hard
275

You have a Namespace 'team-a' and you want to see all Pods in that namespace, including those that are not ready. Which command should you use?

Medium
276

You create a Deployment with replicas: 3. You then scale the Deployment to 5 replicas. What is the order of operations that the Deployment controller follows?

Hard
277

Which Kubernetes control plane component acts as the entry point for all administrative tasks and provides the REST API?

Easy
278

You need to provide configuration data as environment variables to a pod, but the data is not sensitive. Which object should you use?

Medium
279

Which command creates a Deployment named 'nginx-deployment' from the image 'nginx:1.25' and exposes it on port 80?

Medium
280

Which THREE statements about Kubernetes Services are correct?

Hard
281

What is the purpose of a Service in Kubernetes?

Easy
282

Which two statements correctly describe etcd in a Kubernetes cluster?

Medium
283

You have a web application that needs to read configuration from a file and also access a database password. Which combination of resources should you use to manage these configurations securely?

Hard
284

Which of the following is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes?

Easy
285

Which API version is correct for a Deployment in modern Kubernetes (v1.29+)?

Medium
286

An administrator runs 'kubectl get pods' and sees that a pod is in 'Pending' state. 'kubectl describe pod' shows the event: '0/4 nodes are available: 1 node had taints that the pod didn't tolerate, 3 nodes had insufficient memory'. What is the most likely issue?

Medium
287

What is the primary purpose of the `kubectl apply` command?

Easy
288

You have a Pod that is running but not receiving traffic. You suspect the associated Service's selector does not match the Pod labels. Which kubectl command would you use to check the Service's selector?

Hard
289

You are asked to schedule a pod on a node that has SSD storage. Which mechanism should you use to achieve this?

Hard
290

Which TWO of the following are responsibilities of the kube-controller-manager? (Select 2)

Easy
291

You need to store a database password securely and make it available to a Pod as an environment variable. Which Kubernetes resource should you create?

Medium
292

Which kubectl command would you use to view detailed information about a pod named 'web-pod' in the 'default' namespace?

Easy
293

A pod is stuck in Pending state. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason?

Medium
294

Which Kubernetes control plane component is responsible for maintaining the desired state of the cluster by running controllers?

Easy
295

Which of the following is a way to provide configuration data to a pod without baking it into the container image?

Medium
296

A user reports that they cannot connect to a Service from within the cluster. The Service is of type ClusterIP. Running 'kubectl get endpoints service-name' shows no endpoints. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
297

You need to store a database password securely and expose it to a Pod as an environment variable. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
298

A developer needs to deploy a stateless application with three replicas and ensure that updates are rolled out with zero downtime. Which Kubernetes resource is most appropriate?

Medium
299

Which kubectl command would you use to view the detailed state of a pod named 'web-pod' in the 'default' namespace?

Easy
300

A developer creates a pod that needs to securely access a database password stored in the cluster. Which Kubernetes resource should be used to inject the password as an environment variable?

Easy
301

You have a Deployment named 'web-app' with 3 replicas. You need to scale it to 5 replicas. Which kubectl command should you use?

Medium
302

A Pod is in 'CrashLoopBackOff' state. You run 'kubectl logs <pod>' and see an error that the application cannot bind to port 8080 because the port is already in use. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
303

You have a pod that needs to securely access a database password. Which Kubernetes resource should you use to store the password?

Medium
304

Which three of the following are true about etcd in Kubernetes?

Hard
305

Which TWO statements about Kubernetes Services are correct?

Medium
306

What is the function of kube-proxy on a worker node?

Medium
307

A pod has resource requests set to 'cpu: 500m' and 'memory: 256Mi'. The node has 2 CPU cores and 4Gi memory. How many pods with the same resource requests can be scheduled on that node, assuming no other pods?

Hard
308

You need to securely store a database password for use by a Pod. Which Kubernetes resource should you use?

Medium
309

Which TWO of the following are characteristics of a Namespace in Kubernetes?

Medium
310

A pod in the 'default' namespace has the following YAML snippet: securityContext: runAsUser: 1000 runAsGroup: 3000 fsGroup: 2000 What is the effect of the fsGroup field?

Hard
311

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to assign a pod to a specific node?

Medium
312

Which two of the following are true about ConfigMaps? (Select TWO.)

Medium
313

You run 'kubectl logs my-pod' and see: "Error from server (BadRequest): container "my-container" in pod "my-pod" is waiting to start: PodInitializing". What does this mean?

Hard
314

A 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?

Medium
315

A 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?

Medium
316

Which of the following is NOT a responsibility of the kubelet on a worker node?

Medium
317

Which TWO components are part of a Kubernetes worker node?

Easy
318

A Pod has a container that needs to write logs to a file. The administrator wants the logs to persist even if the container restarts. What is the simplest solution?

Easy
319

A developer deploys a pod with the following resource specification: ```yaml resources: requests: memory: "256Mi" limits: memory: "512Mi" ``` The pod is killed with OOMKilled. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
320

Which Kubernetes control plane component is the primary entry point for all administrative tasks and serves the Kubernetes API?

Easy
321

Which TWO of the following are responsibilities of the kube-controller-manager?

Medium
322

A Deployment is configured with 'replicas: 4' and 'strategy.type: RollingUpdate'. You update the container image. What behavior does the Deployment exhibit?

Medium
323

You want to update a Deployment's container image to v2 and perform a rolling update using the simplest imperative command. Which kubectl command achieves this?

Medium
324

A Service of type ClusterIP is created to expose a set of pods. How does the Service achieve load balancing to the pods?

Medium
325

Which two of the following are Kubernetes controllers that run inside the kube-controller-manager? (Select TWO)

Medium
326

Which TWO of the following are valid methods for exposing a Service externally?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Kubernetes Fundamentals domain cover on the KCNA exam?
Kubernetes Fundamentals 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 326 Kubernetes Fundamentals 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 Kubernetes Fundamentals questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
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