Already at the end of October, I decided to take the CKA exam to underline my Kubernetes knowledge. When I started preparing for it, I received a phone call telling me that a potential customer might be interested in Azure skills. Because of this, I postponed my CKA plans and decided to take the Azure exams first, which helped me refresh some knowledge and document my expertise. After I was done with my Azure Certs, I took a short break and then started with my CKA preparations. It didn’t take long until I realized that I wanted to become a Kubestronaut.

The Kubestronaut title consists of five certifications:

The first three are performance‑based exams, which means you have to solve tasks on actual Kubernetes clusters. The KCNA and KCSA exams are classic multiple‑choice exams.
The CNCF publishes the curriculum for all exams on GitHub.

Performance-based exams

For the performance‑based exams, there is a list of documentation you are allowed to use. This usually includes all man pages and documentation available with the distribution (you can also install software on the system), as well as the Kubernetes documentation. You can see the allowed resources for all exams here.

In several tasks, there are links to specific documentation pages, which help you proceed quickly. They also provide a link to the allowed resources page.

For all performance‑based exams, it takes up to 24 hours after you finish the exam to receive the results. They will tell you the same for the multiple‑choice exams, but in general you get the results right after you finish.
When I say you will receive the results within 24 hours, it basically means you can hope for 22 hours but should expect them to use every minute they have. Some reports even state that it took longer than 24 hours. I personally had all results within the time frame.

During the exam

When you enter the online exam, a proctor will say hello, remind you it’s your last chance to go to the toilet, ask if you are ready, might check your passport again, and then proceed with the environment check. Even if it’s your fifth exam, don’t try to provide all answers before they ask – they follow a strict procedure with the same text for all exams.

• you might be allowed to go to the toilet; this decision is taken by the proctor, so you can ask politely and request a break
• you may NOT have other people or ANIMALS in the same room

Please be aware that the rules are strict in order to maintain the reputation of the certification and to ensure an exam experience without interruptions. This is something every exam taker should be interested in, too.

A full list of the rules can be found here.

The exams

The CKA exam checks skills across most parts of Kubernetes. For me, the CKA exam was the most difficult one. As a non‑native speaker with decent English, it was still hard to understand all questions in detail. Furthermore, it was my first hands‑on exam. Luckily, I found this Udemy course, which has a lot of labs (tasks you solve in a test environment). You get free access to the lab environments with the course. This course actually introduced me to KodeKloud. KodeKloud is a platform you will hear about in several of my certification‑related blog posts. It offers high‑quality courses, often with many quizzes or labs. Even for certifications with multiple‑choice exams, they usually include labs to improve understanding. Listening to the courses at 2x speed, the trainers seem quite enthusiastic (only works at 2x speed for me).

I personally believe that the CKA is the best exam to prove Kubernetes knowledge. Even if most people say that the CKS is harder, the CKA gives a firm overview of all areas of Kubernetes and is most useful for anyone who wants to work with a Kubernetes cluster. I almost ran out of time during the exam. I can only recommend using the “Quick Reference” box in the task description for fastest documentation access and using:

1    kubectl create --dry-run=client -o yaml

as well as:

1    kubectl edit ...
2    kubectl replace --force -f /tmp/....yaml

Even if the resource cannot be edited in the required way, it will provide a file in /tmp/ which you can use to replace the resources in question.

For the CKAD exam, I had already switched to a KodeKloud subscription. There is an entire Kubestronaut learning path, which includes the previously mentioned CKA course on the KodeKloud platform itself, as well as all other exams for the Kubestronaut certification. After the intense preparation for the CKA exam, this one was really easy. I think it took me less than an hour to finish all tasks, and then I checked everything in detail for another 30 minutes.

For the CKS exam, I was warned that it would be the hardest of the three. I personally don’t think so. The courses were a good match, and it was quite manageable. As in all exams, I sometimes wasn’t confident that my solution matched their expected results, but I solved all tasks within about an hour plus another 30 minutes for checking.

The previous exams prepare you really well for KCNA and KCSA. You just need a bit more theory on topics like Service Mesh, CNCF, Observability, and GitOps. I also played around with Copilot and ChatGPT to create some mock exams – just like I described in my Azure post.

Exam tip

Please make sure, for each task, that you perform it on the correct system. In the real exam, you will have a separate cluster for each task. In my CKA exam, I accidentally tried to solve a task on the wrong environment, which wasn’t sized for the large task I attempted, and I lost points due to an unresponsive system.

And most importantly: if you get stuck on a task, flag it and proceed! You can see all flagged tasks in a drop‑down menu and return to them later. Later tasks might be more time‑consuming or more complex. If you notice that you took the wrong turn and are not sure how to resolve the issue, move on and check again once you’re done with the rest. Otherwise, you might run out of time, which makes it harder or even impossible to solve the remaining tasks.

Discounts

Several course providers offer discount codes for the exams. Furthermore, there are huge discounts during Cyber Monday and other occasions. If you already took the CKA (or CKAD), there are upgrade bundles at a lower price than taking the single exams. If you are close to the Cyber Monday sale (end of November, beginning of December), this offers the highest discount rates.

Killer.sh

For each exam, there is a killer.sh simulator. With each exam, you receive two sessions for the simulator for free. The CKAD only has one version, while the CKS and CKA simulators have two different versions available. You will have a timer for 120 minutes, which is exclusively for you to measure your own performance. You will have 36 hours of access to the test environment once a session has started. After the two hours, or if you stop the exam, you will also receive access to a very detailed solution and explanation of each task, while still being able to compare your results in the environment. During the 36 hours, you can also reset the environment and start over. Read the solutions carefully, as they contain valuable information on how to quickly solve tasks in a reliable way.

How long I prepared

If you take several courses with the same training provider: many providers reuse the same videos across different courses. Personally, I usually avoided skipping those videos – simply to refresh the knowledge and keep it present. But if you want to move faster, you can of course skip them.

It took me a bit more than two weeks to prepare for all of the exams. KodeKloud states that it takes 4–5 months to prepare if you spend 6 hours per day. Others say it takes 40 days. I personally think it mainly depends on how much you want to achieve and what other duties you have during the day.

What happens next

Once you have completed the final exam, you will receive an e‑mail with further instructions within a week. You will be asked to fill out a form with your personal data. Usually within another week, your name will appear on the Kubestronaut page.

As of today, you will receive the following perks for becoming a Kubestronaut:

• a Kubestronaut jacket (typically delivered within 4 months)
• access to a dedicated Kubestronaut Slack channel and mailing list
• five coupons for 50% off certifications each year
• 20% off three CNCF events per year

And of course: