This is mostly a note for my future self.

These exams are performed on a remote desktop which has a browser and a terminal. On the left, there is a side panel with the tasks to perform. Each task contains links at the top to various documentations related to the task itself. Just click on the link and it will open a tab in the browser in the virtual desktop. You don’t need to remember all the URLs for each docs.

Those links aren’t just to kubernetes.io/docs and the like, but to specific pages in those websites that are relevant to the tasks. You can get some hints on how to solve a task just by checking what documentation is linked. For example, if you need to investigate syscalls performed by suspicious containers and there is a link to some falco documentation, you probably need to use falco to solve this task.

In terms of preparing for the exams, it’s just a fine to not pay for an online course, and instead to study on your own. The CKA/CKAD/CKS come with simulators you can use for 36 hours. Just use them, identify your weaknesses and work on them. The simulators score your answers and also provide solutions to the tasks. I think that’s good enough in term of preparation.

Please note the CKS is harder than the CKA and CKAD, mostly because it involves more tools, such as:

  • bom
  • falco
  • Istio
  • Cilium
  • AppArmor
  • Seccomp
  • trivy
  • kube-bench
  • General Linux system administration

It seems that there are a few constants in all the CKA/CKAD/CKS exams and simulators:

  • Kubernetes clusters are built using kubeadm
  • The underlying OS use apt as the package maanger
  • OS services are managed using systemd

That’s it for now, good luck!