About this practice test
The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) is the second pillar of the Kubernetes certification arc — issued by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and administered by the Linux Foundation. While CKA focuses on the cluster operator, CKAD focuses on the application developer: designing, building, deploying, configuring, and observing applications running on Kubernetes.
This practice test gives you 250 scenario-style multiple-choice questions with detailed, multi-sentence explanations. Questions reference real kubectl commands, container patterns, YAML manifests, and the day-to-day workflow of shipping apps to Kubernetes. The bank follows the latest CKAD curriculum and matches the exam blueprint's domain weighting.
What the CKAD exam covers
- Application Design and Build (20%) — defining and building container images, understanding Jobs and CronJobs, multi-container pod design patterns (sidecar, init, ambassador, adapter), persistent and ephemeral volumes, ConfigMap and Secret consumption for applications.
- Application Deployment (20%) — Deployments and rolling updates, blue/green and canary patterns at the cluster level, Helm packaging and templating, Kustomize overlays for environment-specific config, working with custom resources (CRDs).
- Application Observability and Maintenance (15%) — API discovery and deprecation, liveness/readiness/startup probes, application monitoring with metrics endpoints, application logging strategies, debugging running pods with
kubectl exec / logs / describe / debug, the full app troubleshooting flow. - Application Environment, Configuration and Security (25% — largest domain) — understanding authentication, authorization, and admission control as they affect workloads; ServiceAccounts and securityContext for pods; resource requests and limits; ConfigMap and Secret design; Pod Security Standards; OWASP Top 10 in the container context.
- Services and Networking (20%) — demonstrating basic understanding of NetworkPolicies, providing and troubleshooting access to applications via Services, using Ingress resources to expose applications externally.
Exam format on the Linux Foundation
The live CKAD is a 2-hour performance-based exam — you work in real Linux terminals on multiple Kubernetes clusters and solve hands-on tasks. The passing score is 66%. The exam is open-book against the official Kubernetes documentation (kubernetes.io and kubernetes.io/blog only) plus the official Helm documentation. Recertification is required every 2 years.
Our 250-question MCQ bank is the knowledge layer — covers every concept, command, and YAML structure you need to be fluent with, so your hands-on practice focuses on the operational muscle memory the live exam demands. Pair this bank with practice in killer.sh simulators, kind, or any cluster where you can deploy real apps.
Who should take this?
Application developers building services that run on Kubernetes, full-stack engineers transitioning to cloud-native delivery, DevOps engineers covering the developer side of the workflow, and anyone preparing for the live CKAD exam. CNCF recommends at least 6 months of practical Kubernetes experience and comfort with at least one programming language and YAML. CKAD pairs naturally with CKA (operator) and CKS (security) to complete the Kubernetes certification arc.
Free to attempt with a TestsWorld account. No card required.