KCNA Container Orchestration Practice Question
What is the difference between a liveness probe and a readiness probe?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse the purpose of liveness and readiness probes, often thinking liveness controls traffic routing or that readiness triggers restarts, when in fact liveness governs restarts and readiness governs traffic inclusion.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Liveness probe indicates if the container is alive; if it fails, the container is restarted
A liveness probe determines if a container is still running (alive). If the liveness probe fails, Kubernetes restarts the container based on the `restartPolicy`. This is distinct from a readiness probe, which checks if a container is ready to accept traffic and removes it from Service endpoints if it fails.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Liveness probe checks if the container is ready to serve traffic
Why it's wrong here
That is the purpose of a readiness probe.
- ✗
Readiness probe indicates if the container is healthy; liveness indicates if it should be restarted
Why it's wrong here
The opposite: liveness indicates health, readiness indicates traffic readiness.
- ✓
Liveness probe indicates if the container is alive; if it fails, the container is restarted
Why this is correct
Liveness probes restart unhealthy containers; readiness probes control traffic routing.
- ✗
Both probes serve the same purpose but with different endpoints
Why it's wrong here
They have distinct purposes.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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