The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification is designed for individuals who want to demonstrate their skills in designing, building, configuring, and exposing cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. The CKAD exam tests the ability to use Kubernetes to manage applications, ensuring that candidates understand how to deploy applications, monitor operations, and maintain desired state through Kubernetes’ orchestration capabilities. This certification is widely recognized in the industry and is beneficial for those looking to prove their expertise in Kubernetes, enhancing their potential for career advancement in cloud and application development.
The cost to take the CKAD exam is approximately $375. This may include one free retake depending on the purchase option.
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Developers who want to validate their Kubernetes skills in designing, developing, configuring, and deploying cloud-native applications.
The CKAD focuses on application development within Kubernetes, whereas the CKA focuses on the administration and operation of Kubernetes clusters.
While there are no mandatory prerequisites, having a strong understanding of Kubernetes fundamentals and hands-on experience with Kubernetes is highly recommended.
Candidates can prepare by reviewing the exam curriculum, engaging in hands-on practice with Kubernetes, and taking training courses designed for the CKAD.
The CKAD certification is valid for three years from the date of certification. Certified individuals must undertake recertification after this period to maintain their status.
Understanding the key terms related to the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification is essential for anyone aiming to specialize in Kubernetes, particularly developers looking to design, build, configure, and expose cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. The CKAD certification focuses on practical, hands-on skills required to effectively develop and maintain applications on Kubernetes. Familiarity with these terms not only helps in preparing for the certification but also in applying Kubernetes concepts and practices in real-world scenarios. Here’s a list of key terms that are fundamental to mastering the CKAD curriculum.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes | An open-source platform designed to automate deploying, scaling, and operating application containers. |
| Pod | The smallest, most basic deployable objects in Kubernetes that can create and manage one or more containers. |
| ReplicaSet | Ensures that a specified number of pod replicas are running at any given time. |
| Deployment | Manages the deployment and scaling of a set of Pods and provides updates to Pods along with rollback functionality. |
| Service | An abstract way to expose an application running on a set of Pods as a network service. |
| Ingress | Provides HTTP and HTTPS routing to services within a cluster from external sources. |
| ConfigMap | Used to store non-confidential data in key-value pairs. Pods can consume ConfigMaps as environment variables, command-line arguments, or as configuration files in a volume. |
| Secret | Used to store and manage sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, and ssh keys, providing a greater flexibility over how and when to use them. |
| Namespace | Supports multiple virtual clusters backed by the same physical cluster, helping to divide cluster resources between multiple users. |
| Volume | A directory containing data, accessible to the containers in a pod, which persists beyond the life of a pod. |
| Persistent Volume (PV) | A piece of storage in the cluster that has been provisioned by an administrator or dynamically provisioned using Storage Classes. |
| Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) | A request for storage by a user that can be fulfilled by a Persistent Volume. |
| StatefulSet | Manages the deployment and scaling of a set of Pods, and provides guarantees about the ordering and uniqueness of these Pods. |
| Job | A finite or batch task that runs to completion. |
| CronJob | Manages time-based Jobs, for example, scheduling a Job to run at a particular time or interval. |
| Node | A worker machine in Kubernetes, either virtual or physical, depending on the cluster. |
| Master | The controlling unit in a Kubernetes cluster, managing its workload and directing communication across the system. |
| kubectl | A command-line tool for interacting with the Kubernetes API server. |
| Helm | A tool for managing Kubernetes charts (packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources). |
| Label | Key/value pairs attached to objects, such as Pods, which are used to organize and select subsets of objects. |
| Selector | Used to identify a set of objects based on their labels. |
| Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) | Automatically scales the number of Pods in a replication controller, deployment, replica set, or stateful set based on observed CPU utilization. |
| Rolling Update | A method of updating the Pods in a Deployment with zero downtime by incrementally updating Pods instances with new ones. |
| Manifest | A YAML or JSON object describing how a resource should be created and configured. |
| API Group | A set of related functionalities in the Kubernetes API that are grouped together to make management and versioning easier. |
| RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) | A method for regulating access to computer or network resources based on the roles of individual users within an enterprise. |
| Service Account | Provides an identity for processes that run in a Pod, allowing those processes to access the Kubernetes API. |
| Taints and Tolerations | A way to ensure that Pods are not scheduled onto inappropriate Nodes. Taints are applied to a Node, and Tolerations are applied to Pods. |
| Affinity and Anti-affinity | Rules that allow you to constrain which nodes your pod can be scheduled on, based on labels on Pods that are already running on the node rather than based on labels on nodes. |
| Custom Resource Definition (CRD) | Enables users to add their own/custom objects to the Kubernetes API, extending its functionality. |
| Aggregated Layer | Allows installing additional Kubernetes-style APIs in your cluster. |
| etcd | A distributed key-value store used by Kubernetes to store all data used to manage the cluster. |
| Scheduler | A component of Kubernetes that selects which node a pod should run on, based on resource availability and other scheduling constraints. |
| Liveness Probe | Checks if a container in a Pod is still running. If the liveness probe fails, the kubelet kills the container, which will be restarted. |
| Readiness Probe | Determines if a container is ready to start accepting traffic. A failed readiness probe means that the container should be removed from service load balancers. |
| Namespace Quota | A mechanism for limiting the resources consumed by a namespace in a Kubernetes cluster. |
| Network Policy | A specification of how groups of Pods are allowed to communicate with each other and other network endpoints. |
These terms provide a foundational understanding for Kubernetes application development and are critical for anyone preparing for the CKAD certification or working with Kubernetes in any capacity.
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