KCNA Cloud Native Application Delivery Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are deployment patterns that can be used to update applications with minimal downtime? (Choose two.)
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
✓
Blue-green deployment
Blue-green deployment (D) is correct because it runs two identical production environments and switches traffic from the old (blue) version to the new (green) version only after the new one is fully deployed and tested, so the cutover is near-instantaneous and downtime is minimal. Canary deployment (E) is correct because it releases the new version to a small subset of users or traffic first, then gradually shifts the remaining traffic once the canary proves healthy, allowing updates with minimal downtime and easy rollback. DaemonSet deployment (A) is not a deployment pattern for updating an application with minimal downtime; it is a Kubernetes workload that ensures one pod runs on every (or selected) node, typically for cluster-level agents. Sidecar deployment (B) is an architectural pattern where a helper container runs alongside the main application container in the same pod, not a strategy for rolling out new application versions. Recreate deployment (C) stops all old instances before starting new ones, which inherently causes downtime, so it does not meet the minimal-downtime requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
DaemonSet deployment
Why it's wrong here
A DaemonSet schedules one pod per node for cluster-wide agents, and its rolling update still takes nodes out of service; it does not orchestrate application version transitions. It tempts because it performs rolling updates, but that mechanism targets node-level daemons, not zero-downtime releases of a workload.
- ✗
Sidecar deployment
Why it's wrong here
A sidecar runs an auxiliary container alongside the main application container within the same pod, adding logging or proxy functions rather than transitioning traffic between application versions. It tempts because sidecars support service-mesh traffic shifting, but the pattern itself does not perform the deployment.
- ✗
Recreate deployment
Why it's wrong here
A recreate deployment terminates all existing pods before creating new ones, causing a period of total unavailability that violates the minimal-downtime requirement. It is tempting because it is the simplest method for ensuring a clean state, and would be correct when the application can tolerate a brief full outage, such as during a scheduled maintenance window.
- ✓
Blue-green deployment
Why this is correct
Blue-green deployment runs two identical environments, switching traffic from the old (blue) to the new (green) only after the new version is verified. This satisfies the stem's minimal-downtime constraint because the cutover is near-instantaneous and rollback is immediate.
- ✓
Canary deployment
Why this is correct
Canary deployment routes a small percentage of live traffic to the new version, then progressively increases it once metrics confirm health. This satisfies the stem's minimal-downtime constraint because the stable version keeps serving the remaining traffic throughout the rollout.
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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.