Sharing CKA 2026 Exam Experience

It’s hard to condense several months of exam prep into a single post. I’ve been writing this one for almost 3 weeks, and I hope next time it won’t take that long.

As someone who studied for and passed the CKA 2026 exam with a score of 77%, I’d like to share my preparation experience with everyone.

I’d like to thank my family and loved ones for helping me stay focused.

Thanks to my colleagues and everyone at the company for supporting and encouraged me during my prep, hands-on experience, everyone is just lovely.

Finally, thanks to my university friends and our adventures together for keeping my motivation up.

1. Timeline

1. I’m studying from Udemy, but the curriculum is messy and takes very long → what should I do?

→ The Udemy material mostly covers the basics, and you’ll lose a lot of time in the KodeKloud hands-on labs because of environment delays.

→ My advice: the Udemy course should only take about 15–20 days, so set a timebox for each section → prioritize theory, and if you can’t finish a lab or it’s delayed, skip it to stay on target.

You’ll get plenty of hands-on time in the mock exam phase, which stays close to the real exam.

2. Should I spend a lot of time preparing for the CKA?

→ No. Based on my experience as someone who has taken the exam, I believe 2 months is more than enough for this roadmap.

• 1 month (15–20 days to study theory on KodeKloud).
• Don’t spend too much time on theory. Put it in a timebox, and if you can’t finish, let it go, as long as you’ve read through it. Don’t be OCD about finishing everything on Udemy.
• Use the remaining time to become fluent with the prep question sets. This is the core of the whole plan, so practice until you feel confident enough to take the exam.

3. Which period did you find the most effective?

→ The period when I took practice exams. I learned the most from the CKA Prep v2 question set (CKA-PREP-2025-v2). If you master this set, the real exam will feel much easier.

2. Preparation

1. What do I need to prepare before entering the exam?

I took the exam online at home and learned a few things:

• Make sure your room and desk are tidy, the space is quiet, your internet is stable, and you have a bottle of water with no label.
• Log in about 30–45 minutes before the exam to set up the environment.
• The exam lasts about 2 hours, so use the bathroom beforehand. During the exam you can press break up to 3 times if the proctor approves, but the clock keeps running while you’re away.

2. Things to remember (ordered by how common they are; some commands can be completed with Tab)

• alias kn='k config set-context --current --namespace' → a shortcut to switch between namespaces
• k explain → extremely useful for looking up fields/structure such as memory/cpu…
• e.g. k explain deployment.spec.template.spec.containers
• k explain deployment(.spec) --recursive → shows an overview as a tree
• k describe → extremely useful for patch tasks where you're not allowed to use edit → outputs the resource's structure
• Shortcuts for cut/delete line and search in nano/vim, since you may need them.
• k get all -A / api-resources / get pods,svc,deploy,cm,secret,ingress -A
• systemctl status → to check the state of kubelet/CNI

Other commands you’ll run into during the exam:

• k rollout status/restart deployment
• ssh node
• k apply/create -f <file_path>
• k patch -f '<json path {}>'
• sysctl.d / system → for network config tasks when applying a CNI
• helm repo add/search/template

There are probably only 2 directories worth remembering:

• /etc/kubernetes/manifests → where static resources run
• /etc/sysctl.d → where network config is applied (CNI lab)

3. An effective practice environment

1. What’s the optimal environment for practice?

I used a combo of a Kubernetes VM and Antigravity (since I already had a Gemini subscription).

(If you don’t have an environment yet, you can ask an AI to build one for you via this link: https://github.com/mahersavara/CKA_Revising/tree/main)

Since the exam allows Codium, I made use of this tool as an effective exam environment.

• Loop question area: where you switch between questions while practicing.
• Temp area: where you create a temp.txt file to jot down useful notes such as shortcuts, resource structures, etc. → you can think of it as a clipboard area.
• Terminal area: where you can open multiple terminal sessions and move back and forth between each question’s host.
• Agent area: where you ask and get answers while practicing (not available during the exam).

With an optimized question set and well-set-up scenarios, preparation is just a matter of time!

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2. What about other environments?

• ck-x-simulator: recreates the exam environment on your local machine → downside: the environment is outdated → not recommended.
• Killer.sh → gives you 2 mock attempts in an environment identical to the real exam → the questions are hard → only use it to get a feel for the exam environment; don’t spend too much time solving the questions in there.
• https://killercoda.com/playgrounds/scenario/kubernetes ($9.99/month) → a ready-made CKA environment in the cloud → you can use it to practice online. It has AI support and allows 4 hours/day, and together with the prep question set it’s a reasonably good option.

4. Common exam tips

Here are some tips you’ll often come across while taking the exam, plus 1–2 familiar question types.

While working, you’ll have some common docs available → you can click the link to open the docs at “https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/", and usually the question already has the link attached.

To copy in the exam environment, use Ctrl + Shift + C. You can copy into a temp file to edit it more easily.

For some question types such as TLS, you need to run k rollout restart deployment for the changes to take effect.

For resource limit questions, from personal experience I usually set cpu request around 130m with a limit of 200m, and memory request 150Mi with a limit of 200Mi. If it’s for a real workload, you’ll have to calculate it properly.

Note: don’t use rollout restart deployment in this case.

For high-weight question types like Troubleshooting:

I usually run into 2 main types related to etcd: a wrong IP (≠ 127.0.0.1) or a wrong port (≠ 2379).

The remaining types, ordered by how common they are:

• Command → an extra, unnecessary command deliberately placed in the file structure
• Node not ready → daemon-reload, enable kubelet, start kubelet
• Wrong cert path (e.g. k8s/manifest instead of kubernetes/manifest)
• Ports → fix incorrect ports

The kubelet needs some time to apply the new config. During my exam, I didn’t see the kubelet status change and thought I had done it wrong, but when I came back to the question 5 minutes later, it had already been fixed =)))) So for this type, after fixing it I wait for the system to re-apply (of course, I still tried restarting the kubelet and checking its status over and over).

I’d study the types shown in the video and practice until fluent. You can also ask an AI to generate cases, or modify your own system to practice.

5. How to register for the CKA exam

1. Can I take the exam at home?

→ Yes. As long as your home internet is generally stable, you’re fine. During my exam I had 1–2 seconds of lag and it wasn’t a big deal.

2. Do I need to register in advance?

Candidates can register for an exam at least 1 day ahead.

e.g. if you feel confident today → you can absolutely book the exam for tomorrow.

I finished studying on Saturday → registered Sunday evening and took the exam right away :D

Notes:

• A registration cannot be canceled within 24 hours before the exam.
• Weekend slots tend to fill up, so if you want one, check and book a week ahead. You can still cancel/reschedule unlimited times as long as it’s more than 24 hours before the exam.

3. Are there discount vouchers for the exam?

Yes. Keep an eye out for promotions, as vouchers can go up to 48% off. I bought mine during last year’s Christmas sale. If you fail, you get 1 free retake, valid for 1 year from the purchase date.

In addition, the exam ticket includes 2 mock attempts on killer.sh, so you can try them out.

6. References

Materials I used during my prep:

• https://learn.kodekloud.com/learn/courses/udemy-labs-certified-kubernetes-administrator-with-practice-tests
• Summary GitHub repo: https://github.com/mahersavara/CKA_Revising/tree/main
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwv0Fh7clUI— for the troubleshooting section.
• And of course, https://kubernetes.io/docs.

A bit rushed :’) It’s already the end of the first week of October 2026, and I hope to publish this blog by this weekend, which I should have done 3 weeks ago. But reorganizing things took quite a lot of time, as you can see from how late it’s finished.

If you have any questions about this topic, please contact me via:

Gmail: elkd.su@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suralinhkhuat/

I’ll be listening.

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