My CKA Exam prep

I recently passed the CKA exam with a 90% score and forty minutes to spare. In this article, I’ll explain the prep process that got me there.

Intro

Before we begin, explaining why I sought the CKA certification in the first place is paramount, and there are a few reasons. First and foremost, the CKA exam is known to be tough, and therefore, the industry regards it to the highest standards. Second, I’ve been working with Kubernetes daily for quite some time now, and going through the exam objectives was also a great way to identify knowledge gaps (and fill them!).

Exam Prep

The learning journey

From the moment I decided to take the exam and the exam date, almost two months went by. I did this as a precaution. I figured I’d be ready in a month, but I wanted to give myself some headroom in case life got in the way (spoiler alert, it did). I studied an average of four hours a day. I dedicated the first twenty days to reviewing learning materials and taking notes (lots of them). That doesn’t mean I didn’t do any hands-on work. Au contraire, I worked on the Killer coda scenarios for the CKA exam as I progressed through each topic. After that, I started taking mock exams using a timer.

By the end of the first month, I could get through most mock exams within one hour and 30 minutes. That doesn’t mean I didn’t make any mistakes, though. I can type relatively fast, and since there are differences in how the clipboard works in the exam, I often type resource names instead of copy-pasting from the instructions. It was good that I made those mistakes in the mock exams, as I learned my lesson and used copy-pasting extensively throughout the exam.

Then, I took the first exam simulator (you get two free simulations when you buy the voucher for the exam). The simulator is meant to be more challenging than the actual exam and has more questions. I could not complete the simulator within two hours and made several mistakes. The result? A 60% score. I felt crushed. That means I should still pass the exam since the passing score is 66%, but the low grade messed with me. I decided to retake the simulator in two weeks. In the meantime, I will review all the weak spots unveiled in the first attempt.

Fast forward two weeks into the future, and I’m ready to retake the simulator. All the hard work going through Killer Coda scenarios and the Kubernetes documentation paid off. I couldn’t get through all of the simulator problems (again), but the score was higher, just above 70%. That gave me the confidence to take the actual exam, which would take place two weeks after that.

A minor setback

One week before the exam date, I got sick. I was in bed for nearly a week. I had scheduled my exam for a Saturday, and I only recovered on Friday. That gave me one day to get some of the rust out and practice some scenarios on Killer Coda.

The exam

Since I do most of my studying early in the morning, I scheduled my exam around that time. Before taking the exam, I worked on a few practice scenarios on Killer Coda to get me in the right mood. My experience with the PSI secure browser was pretty smooth, although I did have some issues killing processes on my machine before launching the exam. The online proctor was very polite, and I could quickly get through the check-in process. Looking back, I was very nervous and didn’t test some of my solutions properly, but preparing to get a passing score on the simulator gave me the confidence to hit the “end exam” button early.

Learning Resources

These were the resources that helped me prepare for the CKA exam:

• KodeKloud’s CKA course - Covers everything you need to know for the exam, although at a high level. The labs are great and will give you hands-on work early on your journey.
• KodeKloud’s CKA mock exams - These mocks try to mimic the experience you will have at the exam, including the timer that gives you a sense of urgency.
• Killer Coda - Practice scenarios for the CKA exam
• Kubecraft - Kubecraft is a Skool community run by Mischa van den Burg, a DevOps engineer from the Netherlands. This was key to my preparation. Immersing myself in the world of Kubernetes helped me stay motivated and focused on my journey.