🚢 Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
Free, independent CKAD exam-preparation with a signed certificate. Learn the modules, pass the exam.
Last updated: June 2026
An independent, free exam-preparation course that walks through the publicly published CNCF / Linux Foundation CKAD curriculum and its five competency domains — Application Environment, Configuration & Security (25%), Application Design & Build (20%), Application Deployment (20%), Services & Networking (20%) and Application Observability & Maintenance (15%). It uses visual lessons, worked kubectl examples, original self-check questions and a 45-question final exam to build exam-ready understanding of Pods, multi-container patterns, Jobs and CronJobs, Deployments and rolling updates, ConfigMaps and Secrets, resource requests/limits and probes, SecurityContext, ServiceAccounts, persistent storage, labels and selectors, Services, NetworkPolicies, Ingress, Helm/Kustomize and observability. It is awareness/prep only — not the official Linux Foundation course or the hands-on certification exam — and claims no CNCF or Linux Foundation affiliation or endorsement. The course is organized into 22 modules, ending with a final exam (pass mark 80%). It is independent, free exam-preparation training — not an official or accredited review course.
What you'll learn
- Kubernetes architecture & how it works
- kubectl fluency & imperative basics
- Pods: the smallest deployable unit
- Multi-container patterns: sidecar & init
- Jobs & CronJobs: batch workloads
- Deployments & ReplicaSets
- Rolling updates & rollbacks
- ConfigMaps: externalising configuration
- Secrets: handling sensitive data
- Resource requests & limits
- Probes: liveness, readiness & startup
- SecurityContext: privileges & users
- ServiceAccounts & in-cluster identity
- Volumes, PV, PVC & StorageClasses
- Labels, selectors & annotations
- Services & cluster networking
- NetworkPolicies: controlling traffic
- Ingress & HTTP routing
- Helm & Kustomize basics
- Observability: logs, events & debugging
- Namespaces, quotas & limit ranges
- Exam strategy: speed with imperative kubectl
Learning objectives
- Explain the Kubernetes control-plane and node architecture and drive the cluster confidently with kubectl
- Design and build Pods, including multi-container patterns such as sidecar and init containers
- Run batch workloads with Jobs and scheduled workloads with CronJobs
- Manage Deployments, perform rolling updates and roll back failed releases
- Inject configuration with ConfigMaps and Secrets and protect workloads with SecurityContext and ServiceAccounts
- Set resource requests/limits and configure liveness, readiness and startup probes
- Expose and connect applications using Services, Ingress and NetworkPolicies
- Attach persistent storage with PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims and StorageClasses
- Observe, debug and maintain applications using logs, events and kubectl debugging
- Pass a 45-question exam (80% to earn your certificate)