A lot of Reddit users say that CKAD is easier than CKA. Personally, I agree—it does feel lighter if you attempt CKAD after completing CKA. The CKAD focuses more on scheduling tasks, while CKA involves administration of clusters. So, in CKAD, it’s more about speed and being quick with your typing to finish all the questions in time. 🏃‍♂️🕒

My Study Approach

After passing the CKA two weeks earlier, I had a pretty good idea of what the exam interface and questions would be like. I compared the CKA and CKAD certifications to see what additional topics I needed to cover for CKAD.

If you’re a CKA holder like me and looking to pursue CKAD, here’s what you’ll need to focus on for the 2024 exam:

  • Docker/Podman Basics
    Learn how to build, push, run, and inspect container images.

  • Observability
    Understand readiness and liveness probes, and cover logging and monitoring.

  • Pod Design
    Familiarize yourself with Blue/Green deployments, Canary deployments, and jobs like Cron Jobs.

  • Security
    Focus on admission controllers, API versions and deprecations, CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions), and custom controllers and operations frameworks.

  • Helm Fundamentals
    Practice installing/updating repositories and upgrading Helm charts.

But don’t worry, all these topics are thoroughly covered in the KodeKloud CKAD course. 😎

My Result

I received my CKAD result exactly 24 hours after the exam—no need to keep refreshing your email; it’ll arrive after 24 hours, I promise! 😅 I passed with an 89%, while the passing score was 66%. 🎉

result

Resources I Used

By staying focused on these key areas, CKAD will feel more manageable, especially after having passed CKA. Keep practicing, stay calm, and you’ll get there! 🚀