Certified Kubernetes Application Developer: exam-style tasks on a real kubeadm cluster on your own Mac, built and graded by the GoldenKube CLI. Each card shows the domain, the cluster topology it needs, the recommended time and its points; the scenario page has the full task text. Scenarios run on Kubernetes 1.37, the version the CKAD exam is based on.
The Linux Foundation describes CKAD as the certification that "certifies that candidates can design, build and deploy cloud-native applications for Kubernetes". The GoldenKube CKAD scenarios stay on that application side of the cluster: you work inside namespaces with kubectl, YAML, Helm and Kustomize, never on kubeadm, etcd or the nodes themselves.
The tasks follow the competencies the official page lists under each of the five domains: multi-container Pods with sidecar and init containers, Jobs and CronJobs (design and build); rolling updates, rollbacks, a canary release, a Helm chart and a Kustomize overlay (deployment); probes, logs and a Deployment that never becomes Ready (observability and maintenance); ConfigMaps, Secrets, SecurityContexts, requests and limits with quotas, ServiceAccounts with RBAC and a CustomResourceDefinition (environment, configuration and security); and Services, a NetworkPolicy and an Ingress with TLS (services and networking).
| Questions | 15-20 performance-based tasks source |
|---|---|
| Duration (minutes) | 120 source |
| Passing score | 66% source |
| Price (USD) | 445 source |
| Validity (years) | 2 source |
| Delivery | Online, proctored, performance-based (command line) source |
| Prerequisites | None source |
| Retake policy | One retake per exam purchase if a passing score is not achieved source |
| Curriculum version | Based on Kubernetes v1.37 source |
Published scenarios per official CKAD domain, next to the domain's exam weight (checked 2026-10-28 on the official page). 20 published scenarios today.
| Domain | Exam weight | Published scenarios |
|---|---|---|
| Application Design and Build | 20% | 4 |
| Application Deployment | 20% | 4 |
| Application Observability and Maintenance | 15% | 3 |
| Application Environment, Configuration and Security | 25% | 5 |
| Services and Networking | 20% | 4 |
goldenkube exam ckad draws a curriculum-weighted set: 15 tasks in 120 minutes, pass at 66%. Solutions and hints are hidden in exam mode.
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Use events, pod status and describe output to find and fix why a Deployment's pods never become Ready.
Single node · ~8 min · 8 points
goldenkube start ckad-obs-002
goldenkube doctor.goldenkube login (free account).goldenkube submit; the result appears on your dashboard.Grading happens on your machine and is practice feedback, not an official score. Tasks are public; hints, reference solutions and grader internals are not.
Not yet. The CKAD scenarios are published and readable here, but the first signed build of the CLI is not on the Homebrew tap, so the catalog is a preview. Running a scenario needs that release and a free account.
No. The Linux Foundation lists no prerequisite for CKAD. The two exams overlap (Pods, Deployments, Services, NetworkPolicies), so preparing for one helps with the other; the CKA catalog is listed next to this one.
Yes. The official CKAD domain Application Deployment names the Helm package manager and Kustomize, and the CKAD bank has one scenario for each: install a local chart with a value override, and build a production overlay.