KCNA Kubernetes Fundamentals Practice Question
You need to store a database password securely and make it available to a Pod as an environment variable. Which Kubernetes resource should you create?
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
✓
Secret
Secrets are designed to store sensitive data, such as passwords, and can be exposed to Pods via environment variables or volumes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Secret
Why this is correct
A Secret stores sensitive data such as passwords separately from pod specs, and it can be injected into a container as an environment variable via envFrom or valueFrom.secretKeyRef, satisfying the stem's secure storage and environment variable constraints.
- ✗
PersistentVolume
Why it's wrong here
A PersistentVolume provides durable block or file storage mounted into a Pod's filesystem; it cannot deliver a value as an environment variable. It is tempting because databases need persistent storage, but the requirement here is secret injection, not volume provisioning.
- ✗
ConfigMap
Why it's wrong here
ConfigMap data is stored unencrypted in etcd and readable by anyone with get access, so it fails the secure-storage requirement for a password. It is tempting because ConfigMaps do expose values as environment variables, and they are the correct choice for non-sensitive configuration such as feature flags.
- ✗
ServiceAccount
Why it's wrong here
A ServiceAccount supplies an identity token for API authentication, not arbitrary secret data, so it cannot inject a password into a container environment. It is tempting because ServiceAccounts are mounted into Pods automatically, but they suit granting workloads RBAC permissions, not storing credentials.
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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.