CKA Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CKA facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the typical cost of the Certified Kubernetes Associate (CKA) exam? → $300.
2. What Kubernetes object enables dynamic provisioning of PersistentVolumes? → StorageClass
3. Who is the target audience for the Certified Kubernetes Associate (CKA) certification? → Professionals new to Kubernetes or seeking foundational understanding.
4. What is the minimum RBAC permission needed for a user to view their own CertificateSigningRequests? → get on certificatesigningrequests cluster-scoped resource
5. What is the purpose of the --client-ca-file flag on the kube-apiserver? → Specifies the CA used to verify client certificates presented during authentication
6. What is a ConfigMap? → An object storing non-confidential configuration data as key-value pairs
7. What is a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)? → A controller that automatically scales Pod replicas based on metrics
8. What is the purpose of a taint applied to a Kubernetes node? → To repel Pods from being scheduled on that node unless they have a matching toleration
9. How is the Certified Kubernetes Associate (CKA) exam conducted? → Online proctored exam with performance-based tasks.
10. Which of the following is a recommended prerequisite for the CKA exam? → Basic familiarity with Linux, YAML, and containerization.
11. Which command quickly shows all API resources available in a cluster, useful for referencing short names during the CKA exam? → kubectl api-resources
12. Which workload type provides stable network identities and ordered, graceful deployment for stateful applications? → StatefulSet
13. A pod is stuck in the 'Pending' state. Which command provides the most useful diagnostic information? → kubectl describe pod
14. What is a key focus area of the Certified Kubernetes Associate certification? → Foundational Kubernetes architecture and object management.
15. Which hands-on platform is most commonly recommended for CKA exam practice due to its browser-based Kubernetes terminal environment? → Katacoda (O'Reilly Labs)
16. What is the primary benefit of containerization over virtual machines? → Containers share the host OS kernel and are lighter weight
17. A user authenticates via OIDC but the API server rejects the token with 'token not yet valid'. What is the most likely cause? → The API server and OIDC provider clocks are out of sync
18. What does the abbreviation 'imperative command' mean in the context of CKA exam strategy? → kubectl commands that create resources directly without YAML files
19. Why is reading the question carefully important? → To avoid misinterpreting what is being asked
20. You need a temporary interactive debug pod to troubleshoot network connectivity in the cluster. Which command is most appropriate? → kubectl run debug --image=busybox --restart=Never --rm -it -- /bin/sh
21. Which field in a kubeconfig file specifies the cluster's API server address? → server
22. What tool can you use to practice Kubernetes tasks before the CKA exam? → All of the above.
23. Where are bootstrap token Secrets stored in a Kubernetes cluster? → In the kube-system namespace
24. How do you view logs for a specific container named 'nginx' in a multi-container pod named 'mypod'? → kubectl logs mypod -c nginx
25. How do you roll back a Deployment to its previous revision in Kubernetes? → kubectl rollout undo deployment/
26. What port does Kubernetes API server listen on by default? → 6443
27. Which field in a PVC spec specifies the minimum storage size required? → resources.requests.storage
28. Which kubeconfig context field links a user credential to a cluster? → context
29. What is a LoadBalancer service type? → A service that provisions an external load balancer in cloud environments
30. What is the function of bootstrap tokens in Kubernetes? → They are used to authenticate nodes during the cluster join process