How did I pass my Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate exam

As a manager, I highly regard Certifications. I myself have taken a few certifications on my own. 

The KCNA exam is a foundational certification that gives you the knowledge of Kubernetes and various tools used for setting up the kubernetes cluster and managing them. As a manager and a developer i feel i must get the basic knowledge before i get more into the hands on part of it.

So here are the details how i prepared and cleared the KCNA exam (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate exam) 

I will go over the following:

  • Exam details and format
  • Cost and Study Materials
  • My Personal Tips and Materials
  • Conclusion

Exam Details and FormatPermalink

The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) exam is designed to test your foundational knowledge and skills in Kubernetes.

The test is broken out into different domains and competences. At the time of this writing (may 2023), this includes the following:

  • Kubernetes Fundamentals (46%)
  • Container Orchestration (22%)
  • Cloud Native Architecture (16%)
  • Cloud Native Observability (8%)
  • Cloud Native Application Delivery (8%)
Details can be found in the below link

https://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification/kubernetes-cloud-native-associate/

You have 90 minutes to complete a multiple choice exam with 60 questions. Don’t worry if you fail the first exam because you are given one retake. You have one year from the time you purchase the exam to take it.

My only concern / complaint is that, first time when i took the exam the launcher was not launching in my laptop. It requests a quick piece of software to be installed in your laptop and it runs immediately. When i took it did not install and i had to wait and try multiple times before its setup properly. Except that it was all good.

Cost and Study MaterialsPermalink

The cost of the exam itself is 250 US$s. I took the exam in sydney as i live here. It costed around 350AU$ for me. However, for just $49 more you can add the “Kubernetes and Cloud Native Essentials (LFS250) Course” provided by the Linux Foundation. I purchased this one too and was a very quick course with all the necessary details. But in general i wont advice you all to take this, and entirely upto you. 

The other study materials i used are ExamPro - ExamPro is a third-party exam preparation site. This is what I used to do all of my studying. I strongly recommend doing this. 

ExamPro - https://www.exampro.co/kcna

edX - https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-kubernetes

KodeKloud - https://kodekloud.com/courses/labs-kubernetes-for-the-absolute-beginners-hands-on/

My personal TipsPermalink

After going through this whole experience I want to give you some tips on what I did and some of the things I would have done differently knowing what I know now.

  1. Don't rely on dumps or spend your money on buying dumps. Instead take these extra courses or practice exams from these above websites which help you get real knowledge. The exam questions are rotated everytime and dont go blindly
  2. Take advantage of the Practice Tests if you purchase the ExamPro course. They are really helpful, if not same questions you get in the exam they are relevant and help you realize you can get questions around those areas
  3. I strongly recommend doing the edX one. It covers most of the part of the curriculum. Make sure not to miss any simple part of the course, as those areas are really test you in the exam
  4. Expect to wait a full 24 hours for your test results. I literally got my results 24 hours later. I started my test at 10:30AM in the morning and got my results exactly around 10 AM the next day
  5. Make sure you have prepared commands from Kubernetes cheat sheet - https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/cheatsheet/
  6. I have also attached my own study guide herewith in my git repo - https://github.com/ramanisriram/kcna_studyguide

ConclusionPermalink

After I took the exam, I was certain that I had failed it. I was not confident in my answers and there were several that I just had to make educated guesses on. In the end, I scored 80% out of the required 75% or above requirement. I hope this short little article gives you a successful strategy for passing your KCNA exam. Good luck!

Below is my linkedin page for connecting

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriramramani/

Cheers!!!

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