My Ckad Experience

January 30, 2025 - 2 mins read

Earlier this month, I took the CKAD exam and passed with a 94% score and almost a full hour left on the clock. In this blog post, I go over my experience with the exam and my prep process.

Some background

Before we begin, it’s important to highlight that I prepared for and obtained the CKA certification two weeks before taking the CKAD exam, so bear that in mind when I talk about the difficulty level and the time it took me to study for the exam.

The exam prep

As mentioned earlier in this post, I took the CKAD exam approximately two weeks after the CKA one. I wanted to go through this quickly, as I felt I was on a roll. I went through the CKAD course on KodeKloud at twice the speed, but I didn’t feel I needed that. I also took several mock exams from KodeKloud and did the two free simulator sessions on Killer Shell (the ones you get when you sign up for the exam). I scored very high on both sessions (in the 90th percentile), so I was confident for the exam.

The exam

The CKAD and CKA exams overlap. The CKA exam asked many more in-depth questions on the overlapping areas than the CKAD. The non-overlapping regions, e.g., building containers, readiness probes, etc., were also relatively easy on the CKAD. Now that I have both certifications, I’d recommend anyone looking for their first Kubernetes cert to take the CKAD exam first, especially if you come from a software development background.

Part of the CKAD exam domain requires you to know about building containers using Docker/Podman and working with Helm. You might feel like you need to know Docker/Helm commands off the top of your head, but I beg to differ. Our time is valuable and limited, so focus on kubectl instead. During the exam, you will have plenty of time to inspect the available commands, e.g., docker --help | less and helm --help | less. Focus on understanding Docker and Helm instead of memorizing the commands, and you’ll be able to identify the commands quickly during the exam.

Recommended Resources

If you’re interested in taking the exam, I can recommend the following resources to help you prepare for it: