KCNA Kubernetes Fundamentals Practice Question
Which two components are part of the Kubernetes worker node? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap in this question is that candidates often confuse control plane components (like kube-scheduler, kube-apiserver, etcd) with worker node components. Remember that kubelet and kube-proxy run on each worker node, while the scheduler, API server, and etcd run on the control plane.
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
✓
kube-proxy
kube-proxy (A) is correct because it runs on every worker node and maintains the node's network rules (iptables/IPVS) that implement Kubernetes Service load balancing and ClusterIP/NodePort routing. kubelet (D) is correct because it is the primary node agent that registers the node with the API server, watches PodSpecs, and drives the container runtime (via CRI) to start, stop, and monitor containers and their volumes. The other components belong to the control plane: kube-scheduler (B) assigns Pods to nodes, etcd (C) is the cluster's distributed key-value datastore, and kube-apiserver (E) exposes the REST API and is the front end of the control plane, so none of them are worker node components.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
kube-proxy
Why this is correct
Kube-proxy runs on every worker node, implementing the Service abstraction by maintaining iptables or IPVS rules that route traffic to the correct pods. This satisfies the stem's requirement for a worker node component, since it handles node-local network programming rather than cluster-wide control-plane functions.
- ✗
kube-scheduler
Why it's wrong here
kube-scheduler is a control plane component that assigns unscheduled pods to nodes by evaluating resources and constraints; it does not run on worker nodes. It is tempting because scheduling decisions directly affect which node runs a pod, but the worker node only hosts kubelet, kube-proxy and the container runtime.
- ✗
etcd
Why it's wrong here
etcd is the control plane's distributed key-value store holding all cluster state; it runs alongside the API server on control plane nodes, not on workers. It is tempting because every worker depends on etcd indirectly through the API server, but worker nodes host only kubelet, kube-proxy and the container runtime.
- ✓
kubelet
Why this is correct
kubelet is the node agent that registers the node, watches PodSpecs from the API server, and starts containers via the container runtime. It satisfies the worker-node component requirement, unlike API server or etcd, which are control-plane.
- ✗
kube-apiserver
Why it's wrong here
kube-apiserver runs on control plane nodes, exposing the Kubernetes API that workers and clients call; it is never a worker node component. It is tempting because every node's kubelet communicates with it, but worker nodes host kubelet, kube-proxy and the container runtime, not the API server itself.
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.
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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.