Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

Background

I have not taken a single exam since completing my university degree in 2006. In my field, what degree you have is not as important as the experience you gain by solving real-life problems. Therefore, I have never been interested in certifications where the exams are multiple-choice and do not provide much value. When you are troubleshooting a slow SQL query, nobody presents you with a multiple-choice question to solve the problem; you have to get your hands dirty and debug the issue.

After spending some time deploying applications to Kubernetes, I came across forums discussing CNCF certifications. As soon as I saw that the CKAD exam is an interactive troubleshooting exam, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue. I decided to start with the CKAD exam, purchasing a course from Udemy in early May and began learning.

I made a quick plan to take three certifications in the next few months:

  1. Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
  2. Certified Kubernetes Application Administrator (CKA)
  3. Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)

Preparation

The first few weeks were all about going through the lectures from the Udemy course. It is presented by Mumshad Mannambeth, and I later found out he runs his own training platform, KodeKloud. After each lecture, there is a lab section that links directly to the KodeKloud platform. Having an interactive lab after each lecture made the learning process a lot more enjoyable. I would usually allocate an hour in the evening to cover a couple of lectures and lab sessions.

After finishing all the lectures, I completed all the mock exams provided by the course. I was very pleased with Mumshad's learning material and the KodeKloud platform, so I took the opportunity to buy a year subscription as I got a good deal on the website – I think it was 40% off if you purchase a year upfront. On KodeKloud, I had access to 8 mock exams, and I quickly went through 4 of them. They were very good, even though I noticed a couple of bugs in a few of the mock tests, but nothing serious.

When I felt confident with my skills in the mock tests, I purchased a CKAD/CKA/CKS bundle from the CNCF. Before booking the real test, I used their test simulator provided by Killer.sh. That environment is very similar to the real exam, basically a Linux desktop virtual machine with a terminal and a browser. The test was quite challenging, and I managed to complete it with a good score, even though I used all of the 2 hours and was still troubleshooting the last question when the time was up.

After doing well in the Killer.sh exam, I booked the real exam.

The exam

I found the exam to be very professional. Thankfully, I started the self-check-in process about 30 minutes before the exam began, which was good because it took about 30 minutes to complete. During the check-in, you have to prove that your test location is secure and that you are not cheating. Everything went smoothly, and I was able to start the exam on time.

The real exam was well designed and professional. It was not as hard as the Killer.sh exam since it had fewer tasks. I was able to finish it with a good score and still had a good amount of time left.

The exam results came 24 hours later. Here is the link to my certificate.

Conclusion and next steps

I highly recommend the CKAD exam and had great fun learning and taking it. Now, I will begin repeating the same process for the CKA exam, which is focused on administering Kubernetes.