KCNA Kubernetes Fundamentals Practice Question
Which THREE of the following are required for a Kubernetes pod to be considered healthy and ready to serve traffic?
⚠ Common exam trap
The KCNA exam often tests the distinction between liveness and readiness probes, and the trap here is that candidates confuse a successful liveness probe (which only indicates the container is alive) with the readiness probe (which specifically controls traffic routing), leading them to incorrectly select option E.
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
✓
The startup probe has succeeded.
A startup probe must succeed before the kubelet considers the container started. Until the startup probe succeeds, the readiness and liveness probes are not active, so the pod cannot be marked healthy or ready. This is defined in the Kubernetes API for startup probes, which delay the start of other probes until the application has initialized.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The startup probe has succeeded.
Why this is correct
Startup probe indicates the application has started.
- ✓
The container is in the Running state.
Why this is correct
Container must be running to be ready.
- ✗
The pod has at least one endpoint in its Service's endpoints list.
Why it's wrong here
Endpoints are added after readiness, not a requirement for readiness.
- ✓
The readiness probe has succeeded.
Why this is correct
Readiness probe indicates readiness to serve traffic.
- ✗
The liveness probe has succeeded.
Why it's wrong here
Liveness probe determines if container is alive, not ready.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Overview and Core Components
Key term
Kubernetes API Primitives
Kubernetes API Primitives are the basic building blocks that the Kubernetes API uses to represent and manage the state of a cluster, such as Pods, Services, Deployments, and Namespaces.
Key term
ReplicaSet and Replication
A ReplicaSet ensures a specified number of identical pod instances are running at all times in Kubernetes, using replication to maintain availability and stability.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every KCNA question from scratch — 833 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This KCNA practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the KCNA exam.