How the CKA exam works

The format, the grading, the proctored environment, what you may open, how results and retakes work, and two study plans that map this course onto the five domains.

The CKA is a two-hour, hands-on exam on live clusters. Nobody fails it for not knowing what a Pod is; people fail it on time, on reading, and on surprises in the environment. This lesson removes the surprises. Every number below was checked against the Linux Foundation exam page and candidate handbook on the date in the file header; where the official pages are silent, this lesson says so instead of guessing.

The format and the grading

• —Performance-based. 15 to 20 tasks solved in a terminal against real clusters. No multiple choice.
• —2 hours. The clock starts after the short interface tour, shows alerts at 30, 15 and 5 minutes, and never pauses: not for a break, not for a disconnect.
• —Pass mark 66%. Each task shows its weight in percent. Your score is the weight you earned out of the total.
• —Scored automatically, on end state. The handbook says any path that produces the correct result is acceptable. The grader reads the objects in the cluster and the files you wrote; it cannot see which commands you typed, whether you used vim or kubectl edit, or how many times you got it wrong before you got it right.
• —Partial credit is not described in the official documentation. Work as if only the checks you complete count: a task half done may be worth nothing, so finish what you start or flag it and come back.
• —Kubernetes v1.37 is the exam version at the time of writing. The environment tracks the latest minor release within four to eight weeks of it shipping, so check the official page the week you book.
• —Languages: English, Simplified Chinese and Japanese for the questions. The terminal and the proctor chat stay in English.

The exam environment

The exam is proctored remotely through PSI's Bridge platform. At launch you install the PSI Secure Browser (Chrome-based), which checks for a second monitor and other disallowed software, and then shows a Linux remote desktop. On that desktop you get a terminal emulator, a Firefox window reserved for the allowed documentation, VSCodium (extensions disabled) and a virtual keyboard. Everything happens inside that one desktop: your own terminal, your own browser and your own notes are out. Each task opens with an infobox telling you which host to ssh into. You start on a base host that has no tools; the task hosts have kubectl with the k alias and bash completion already set up, plus yq, curl, wget and man pages. sudo -i gives you root. When a task is done, exit back to base before starting the next one; nested ssh is not supported, and you must never reboot the base host. The official instructions do not publish how many clusters there are. Expect more than one and treat the infobox as part of the question.

Results, retakes, validity and scheduling

• —Results: the score report is emailed within 24 hours of finishing, barring exceptions, and also appears in My Portal. The Linux Foundation does not report how you did on individual tasks. The formal certificate notice follows within three business days and a Credly digital badge is issued to everyone who passes.
• —Retake: one retake is listed with the registration. You claim it from the Exam Preparation Checklist after a No Pass, and it must be used inside your eligibility window. A no-show forfeits the fee and the retake.
• —Validity: 2 years from the pass date. Renewing means passing the exam again before it expires.
• —Scheduling: 12 months from registration to schedule and sit the exam. Slots open up to 90 days ahead with a 24-hour lead; you can reschedule or cancel up to 24 hours before the start, not later.
• —Launch window: the Take Exam button activates 30 minutes before your slot; start more than 30 minutes late and you are a no-show.
• —Simulator: standard registrations include two 36-hour sessions of the Killer.sh simulator. The exam-only SINGLE products do not.
• —Price: changes with promotions and bundles; see the official page for current pricing.

The five domains and where this course covers them

How the readiness meter on /cka works. Every task in this course belongs to one domain. For each domain the meter takes the share of that domain's tasks you have verified with a passing script, multiplies it by the domain's exam weight, and adds the five together. Verifying every troubleshooting task moves the needle by 30 points; every storage task by 10. The weights are the exam's, so the meter also tells you where an hour of study is worth most. Tasks in this foundations module count toward the domain they practice. The plans below are sized for the whole course: 40 lessons, a lightning lab and two mocks.