Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Study Guide: In-Depth Guidance and Practice

by Benjamin Muschko

Developers with the ability to operate, troubleshoot, and monitor applications in Kubernetes are in high demand today. To meet this need, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation created a certification exam to establish a developer's credibility and value in the job market to work in a Kubernetes environment. The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam is different from the typical multiple-choice format of other certifications. Instead, the CKAD is a performance-based exam that requires deep knowledge of the tasks under immense time pressure. This study guide walks you through all the topics you need to fully prepare for the exam. Author Benjamin Muschko also shares his personal experience with preparing for all aspects of the exam.

Genres: Technology

188 pages, Paperback

Published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski]

No star rating. Why so? Well, it's a study guide - the best way to rate it is based on the fact whether I actually pass the exam or not, right? Unfortunately, there are always tons of other priorities, so I keep postponing it ...

Back to the guide:
1. it's surprisingly short - the author focuses only on what's relevant for CKAD and explicitly omits (mentions but doesn't dive into) stuff that is out-of-scope
2. the structure is very logical, the author is also quite good in presenting conceptual relationships between various entities (e.g. deployments and services, which may appear overlapping at the very first glance)
3. the author does not present full syntax and all the options to do something - e.g. at some point he mentions 'path', but generally always focuses on 1/2 simplest way to achieve the results
4. both summaries and sample problems (with answers at the end of the book) are really helpful
5. there's no 'when things go bad' chapter - and no, I don't mean production encounters (this is the book about certification, not a real-life), but situations when something went not according to your expectations and now you need to find out what has happened and how to fix it - w/o it the book feels like one big, "happy" path scenario

Yeah, I think it's worth re-emphasizing: this is not a good book if you want to learn k8s to use it in some practical scenario. This book is fit for one purpose: passing the CKAD exam. It gives you the basic tools, but you'll need to build up/acquire much more practical experience to get something running for real.

[pandapoo]

I liked the book and the fact that has questions and their answers.
Quality and information could be better, but definitely a nice resource.

[Łukasz Słonina]

Quick one, but very practical, concentrates around kubectl and aspects of developing with kubernetes. Not too much theory but that’s not the goal of this position.

[Maciej Pakulski]

Well, this book is a quite good source of knowledge required to pass CKAD.
In case anyone would like to take the exam, I can also recommend online courses (for example on KodeKloud).

[Sean Smith]

Covered everything I saw on the current CKAD.

[erjan avid reader]

short and good read for the exam, but practice is a must! this book is only complementary

[Linus]

Not the best resource for learning kubernetes, but did a good job giving an overview and giving hints about how to find more information.

[Kenny Shay]

learned things

One two threee four five six seven eight nine ten 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Stefan]

to the point, could offer a bit more guidance of further studies
not to fair, but should update to 5 if I actually pass ;-)

[wlena]

met my 2024 goal!

[Geferson]

Very good on introducing the basic constructs in Kubernetes. I'll recommend that will start working with it.