According to CNCF statistics , only 47% of the candidates cleared the CKAD exam as of January 2020. Even among the 47% passed candidates, I believe most of them passed in the second attempt from the conversations I see in various communities.The rationale for writing this article is to give some strategies to clear the exam on first attempt. This article talks about CKAD, but the same is applicable for CKA as well.
Most of the software certification exams are multiple choice questions. If you teach a four year old child on how to select one answer from a multiple choice question, even they can score some 20–30% by selecting the first option for all the questions. In that sense, the format of multiple choice questions for any exam is flawed by design.
Format of CKAD Exam is completely different where you have to solve real problems in real clusters by creating k8s resources or troubleshooting issues in the existing cluster. There are 19 questions with different weightage and you need to score 66% to pass the exam. The so called four year old will definitely get zero score in CKAD exam :) . In that sense CKAD exam format is less flawed and more reliable for a recruiter to consider this certification as a basis for hiring developers with kubernetes skills.
Resources to learn Kubernetes and Practice for Exam
- Udemy Course by Mumshad is the best course I have seen for Kubernetes Certification. Make sure you successfully complete lightning labs and mock tests before attempting the main exam.
- Most important thing is to do mock tests. killer.sh has a good mock test with real exam kind of software environment. I would recommend to buy this. It is a bit costly though.
Strategy for taking the exam
CKAD exam is a best example for anyone to understand how having right strategy can play a pivotal role in achieving something successfully. Preparing for the exam is one dimension of the challenge and having the right strategy during the exam is the other dimension.
Basic Strategy during exam
In the first attempt, only solve the questions with at least 5% weightage and skip all the questions with lower weightage. Also skip all the questions which you do not know or have some doubt, independent on what weightage they have. First attempt should be completed in the first 1 to 1.5 hours.So first attempt is all about searching for the low hanging fruits and eating them alone. You passing or not passing the exam depends on executing this step meticulously.
You will find some questions which I call as killer questions. These are the questions which have 1 or 2 % weightage and they will be very lengthy or difficult to solve. You should sense these type of questions and mark them as killer and stay away from solving them. If you solve them, you are creating your own trap.
In Second attempt, you should first solve questions which are easy and higher weightage, then easy and low weightage, then hard/lengthy with high weightage and finally hard/lengthy with low weightage(killer questions).
Simple Rules to keep in mind
- Do not focus on attempting 100%. Attempt only 80% and ensure you answer them perfectly. At the end of the day, you need 66% to pass the exam.
- Make sure, you validate each question after completing it by checking if the resource is created properly or the configuration is given properly. This is really important.
- You will get score for even partial correct answers. So even if you know a question partially, please do it.
- Be careful if a question involves namespace. Ensure resources are created in the correct namespace.
- In some questions, you might need to login to a node and do something. Ensure that you come out of the node after you perform the task.
- Make it a habit to copy and paste any thing in the question to the terminal rather than typing them. This ensure that you do not make mistakes while typing. You can practice this with killer.sh mock test which will give you real exam kind of experience.
- Run the context switching command given for every question.
- Bookmark the important sections in the documentation. Refer this bookmarks which I created and create your own customised version out of this.
- Always use -o yaml — dry-run for each question and save the yaml with question number. For example k create deploy nginx — image=nginx $do > 1.yaml
- At any point of time, you need to have data as to how much percentage you attempted. That helps you to manage your time and adjust strategy on the fly.
- In the notepad provided in the exam, list out all the questions in two sections. First section has the questions you skipped and the second section has the questions you attempted . Also categorise each question if they are easy or lengthy or difficult if you happened to skim through these questions quickly. The below hypothetical sample of 20 questions shows clearly why you should skip questions with less than 5% weightage in first attempt. Questions with different weightage is what makes this exam tricky.
skipped=================
1) 2 easy
3)3
4)4 easy
5)3
6) 2 lengthy
7) 4
8)4 easy
10)4
11)3 lengthy
14)4
17)4
19)3 ( The above 12 questions have a total score of 40)
attempted================
6)7
9)8 partial
12)10
13)7 partial
15)5
16)6
18)5
20)12 (8 questions, score — 60)
