Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Study Guide, 2nd Edition

Preface

Microservices architecture is one of the hottest areas of application development today, particularly for cloud-based, enterprise-scale applications. The benefits of building applications using small, single-purpose services are well documented. But managing what can be enormous numbers of containerized services is no easy task and requires the addition of an “orchestrator” to keep it all together. Kubernetes is among the most popular and broadly used tools for this job, so it’s no surprise that the ability to use, troubleshoot, and monitor Kubernetes as an application developer is in high demand. To provide job seekers and employers a standard means to demonstrate and evaluate proficiency in developing with a Kubernetes environment, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) developed the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) program. To achieve this certification, you need to pass an exam.

The CKAD is not to be confused with the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA). While there is some topic overlap, the CKA focuses mostly on Kubernetes cluster administration tasks rather than developing applications operated in a cluster.

In this study guide, I will explore the topics covered in the CKAD exam to fully prepare you to pass the certification exam. We’ll look at determining when and how you should apply the core concepts of Kubernetes to manage an application. We’ll also examine the kubectl command-line tool, a mainstay of the Kubernetes engineer. I will ...