KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Question
Which TWO of the following are essential components of a GitOps workflow? (Select two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
CNCF often tests the misconception that a CI/CD pipeline is the core of GitOps, but the trap here is that GitOps replaces manual or pipeline-driven deployments with an automated reconciliation loop driven by an operator and a Git repository as the source of truth.
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
✓
An operator that synchronizes the cluster state with the Git repository
A GitOps workflow relies on an operator (such as Argo CD or Flux) that continuously reconciles the actual cluster state with the desired state declared in a Git repository. This operator automatically detects drift and applies changes to ensure the cluster matches the Git source, which is the core feedback loop of GitOps.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A separate database for storing desired state
Why it's wrong here
Git repository is the source of truth.
- ✗
A monitoring dashboard for visualizations
Why it's wrong here
Monitoring is complementary but not essential to GitOps.
- ✗
A CI/CD pipeline that manually applies changes
Why it's wrong here
GitOps uses automated reconciliation, not manual apply.
- ✓
An operator that synchronizes the cluster state with the Git repository
Why this is correct
The operator continuously watches Git and applies changes.
- ✓
A Git repository storing declarative configurations
Why this is correct
Configurations are version-controlled in Git.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Cluster Architecture and Lifecycle Management
Key term
GitOps
GitOps is a way to manage and automate cloud infrastructure and applications by using a Git repository as the single source of truth, where all changes are made through pull requests and automatically applied by a software agent.
About these practice questions
This KCNA question is part of Courseiva's 930-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on KCNA
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company wants to manage its Kubernetes resources using Git as the single source of truth, with automated synchronization. Which approach should they use?
medium- A.Using Helm charts without version control
- B.Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
- C.Using kubectl apply -f with a CI/CD pipeline
- ✓ D.GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux
Why D: GitOps uses Git as the declarative source of truth for cluster state, with an in-cluster agent (ArgoCD or Flux) continuously reconciling the live cluster to match the repository. This provides automated synchronization, drift detection, and auditable change history via Git commits and pull requests. It is the canonical answer when the requirement is 'Git as single source of truth with automated sync.'
JA
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.