CNCF certification practice
Practise Certified Kubernetes Application Developer CKAD across all 5 official exam domains — Application Design and Build, Application Deployment, Application Environment, Configuration and Security, Application Observability and Maintenance, and more — with original exam-style questions, full explanations, and wrong-answer analysis. Courseiva helps you prepare with realistic practice questions, topic-based revision, explained answers and structured study routes.
Ways to study CKAD
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
New here? Start with this
Start with a 25-question practice test
Covers all 5 domains · takes ~5 min · no account needed · shows your weak areas immediately
Key facts for the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer CKAD exam.
Exam cost
$395 USD / ~£315
Duration
2 hours
Question count
15–20 performance-based tasks
Passing score
66%
Validity
3 years
Delivered by
The Linux Foundation (PSI Online)
Online proctored
Yes — available
Retake policy
One free retake included; subsequent retakes require repurchase
Question formats
The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) is a performance-based certification from the CNCF and The Linux Foundation aimed at developers who build and run applications on Kubernetes. Unlike the CKA, the CKAD focuses on the application lifecycle — designing multi-container pods, configuring resource limits, setting up health probes, managing ConfigMaps and Secrets, and working with services and ingress. Candidates complete real tasks in a live Kubernetes cluster during the exam. Passing the CKAD signals that you can take a containerised application from code to a running, observable workload on Kubernetes.
Official prerequisite
None — no formal prerequisites
Recommended experience
Familiarity with containerisation (Docker), basic Linux command line, and 3–6 months of experience writing Kubernetes YAML manifests
Developers who package and deploy applications to Kubernetes and want a vendor-neutral credential that proves application-layer Kubernetes skills
Should you skip this exam?
Infrastructure engineers primarily concerned with cluster provisioning and node management — consider the CKA instead
Courseiva study tip
Speed is the key challenge — practice generating resource manifests quickly with `kubectl run --dry-run=client -o yaml` and learn to use `kubectl explain` without leaving the terminal.
UK salary range
£55,000 – £85,000
US salary range
$100,000 – $150,000
Job roles that cite CKAD
What certification to take next
The CKAD costs $395 USD and includes one free retake. Linux Foundation discount codes (20–30% off) are regularly available during promotions.
You need 66% or higher to pass the CKAD. Results are typically emailed within 24 hours of your exam session.
The CKAD has 15–20 performance-based tasks. Each task is independently weighted, so completing harder tasks correctly gives more credit.
The CKAD covers application design and build (~20%), application deployment (~20%), application observability and maintenance (~15%), application environment, configuration, and security (~25%), and services and networking (~20%). All tasks are completed in a live cluster.
Most candidates find the CKAD slightly more approachable than the CKA because it focuses on application concerns rather than deep cluster administration. However, the time pressure is significant — the breadth of tasks in two hours requires fast, accurate kubectl usage.
The CKAD is valid for 3 years. You renew by passing the exam again before expiry.
If you are a developer who deploys to Kubernetes without managing the cluster, start with the CKAD. If you manage cluster infrastructure, start with the CKA. Many engineers pursue both, and the skills overlap significantly.
See how CKAD stacks up against related certifications.
100% free — no account required
Everything on Courseiva for CKAD is free — no subscription, no trial, no email wall.
Courseiva Exam Intelligence
Data confidence: BuildingDerived from Courseiva's continuously updated practice dataset: 953 exam-style questions. Updated 2 July 2026.
Question difficulty mix
Average time per question: 80s
5
Exam domains
official blueprint domains covered by the bank
953
Questions
exam-style questions in the CKAD bank
Practice modes
Choose a mode that matches your current study phase. Use topic practice early on and mock exams closer to your exam date.
All CKAD Questions
Browse the full question bank organised by domain and difficulty.
Practice Test
Start a 20-question session with a full explanation after each answer.
Mock Exam
Simulate the real exam with a timed, full-length question set.
Quick 25
A 25-question warm-up — ideal for a short daily study session.
Flashcards
Reinforce key terms, commands, and protocol facts with flashcards.
Domain Practice
Focus exclusively on one exam domain to target your weakest area.
50-Question Set
Mid-length practice set covering all domains.
Exam guide
Start with a short practice session, review each missed answer, then return to the topics that caused mistakes.
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer CKAD spans 5 official exam domains (Application Design and Build, Application Deployment, Application Environment, Configuration and Security, and more). Questions test whether you can apply each objective in a realistic scenario, not just recall a definition.
Related practice questions
Use these internal links to move from the exam guide into focused topic practice pages.
Practise CKAD questions linked to Application Design and Build.
Practise CKAD questions linked to Application Deployment.
Practise CKAD questions linked to Application Environment, Configuration and Security.
Practise CKAD questions linked to Application Observability and Maintenance.
Practise CKAD questions linked to Services and Networking.
Practise CKAD questions linked to CKAD fundamentals.
Practise CKAD questions linked to CKAD scenario.
Practise CKAD questions linked to CKAD troubleshooting.
Practice directory
Every practice set is a unique selection of questions — numbered tests, domain-focused sessions, and topic-specific quizzes.
Showing 8 of 62 tests. See all 62 CKAD practice tests →
Official blueprint
Target weak areas by practising questions from a single domain. Each domain page shows all questions, difficulty breakdown, and a focused practice session.
Practise CKAD questions in this domain →
Practise CKAD questions in this domain →
Practise CKAD questions in this domain →
Practise CKAD questions in this domain →
Practise CKAD questions in this domain →
Deep-dive questions
The most-searched CKAD questions — each with a detailed explanation, worked example, and full answer breakdown.
Term reference
These terms appear frequently in CKAD questions. Understanding them precisely reduces guessing and improves scores.
Pod Security Context
A Pod Security Context defines privilege and access control settings for a Pod or its containers in Kubernetes, such as which user ID to run as or which Linux capabilities to allow.
Init Containers
Init Containers are specialized containers that run and complete before the main containers in a Kubernetes Pod start, used for setup tasks like initializing data or waiting for dependencies.
Sidecar Containers
A sidecar container is a secondary container that runs alongside a primary application container in the same Kubernetes pod, providing supporting functionality without altering the main application.
Resource Requests and Limits
Resource Requests and Limits are Kubernetes settings that tell the system how much CPU and memory a container needs and how much it is allowed to use at most.
Liveness Probes
A liveness probe is a Kubernetes health check that tells the system whether a container is running properly and should be kept alive or restarted.
Readiness Probes
A Kubernetes mechanism that checks if a container is ready to start accepting traffic and serve requests.
Startup Probes
A Kubernetes mechanism that checks whether an application inside a container has started successfully, and delays other health checks until it is ready.
Environment Variables in Pods
Environment variables in pods are key-value pairs that pass configuration data into containerized applications running in Kubernetes, letting the app read settings without hardcoding them.
Learn the concepts
18 book-style chapters cover every CKAD objective in plain English. Read the theory here, then test it with practice questions.
Chapter 1
Kubernetes Core Concepts and Architecture
12 min read
Chapter 2
Pods and Basic Workload Management
12 min read
Chapter 3
Deployments, ReplicaSets, and Scaling Applications
12 min read
Chapter 4
Application Updates, Rollbacks, and Rollout Strategies
12 min read
Chapter 5
Designing and Using Helm Charts for Application Packaging
12 min read
Chapter 6
Custom Resource Definitions and Operators
12 min read
Chapter 7
Application Observability: Logs and Metrics
12 min read
Chapter 8
Health Checks: Readiness, Liveness, and Startup Probes
12 min read
Free study guide
The Courseiva CKAD study guide covers exam format, the official domain blueprint with weights, a structured study plan, and domain-specific tips for each section. Use it alongside practice questions to build both conceptual depth and exam confidence.
Sample questions
Original exam-style questions — not copied from any exam or dump site. Open a question for the full answer breakdown.
You have a Service that exposes a Deployment. Some pods are not receiving traffic. 'kubectl get endpoints my-service' shows only 2 out of 3 pod IPs. What is the most likely cause?
Which TWO of the following are valid uses of Kubernetes Annotations? (Select two.)
When performing a rolling update of a Deployment, which field in the Deployment spec controls the maximum number of Pods that can be created above the desired replicas during the u…
You run 'kubectl rollout undo deployment/app'. What happens?
A developer creates a Role and RoleBinding in the namespace 'development' to grant list pods permission to a service account. Which manifest snippet correctly defines the Role?
You are designing a Pod that must run a diagnostic tool to collect network logs before the main application starts. The diagnostic tool should run to completion, then the main appl…
Related certifications
Studying for CKAD? These related CNCF certifications share concepts and are common next steps.
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
CKS · 866 practice questions
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate
KCNA · 833 practice questions
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
CKA · 302 practice questions
Courseiva provides free Certified Kubernetes Application Developer CKAD (CKAD) practice questions with original exam-style questions, detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics. Courseiva is an independent platform and is not affiliated with CNCF.