A curated and opinionated list of resources to help you ace Kubernetes certifications and achieve the title of (Golden) Kubestronaut. This list includes study materials, hands-on labs, and success stories to guide your journey.
- Introduction
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
- Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
- Certified GitOps Associate (CGOA)
- Certified Argo Project Associate (CAPA)
- Certified Backstage Associate (CBA)
- Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA)
- Cilium Certified Associate (CCA)
- Kyverno Certified Associate (KCA)
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA)
- Kubernetes and Cloud Security Associate (KCSA)
- OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA)
- Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA)
- Istio Certified Associate (ICA)
- Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer (CNPE)
- Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS)
Kubernetes is the de facto standard for container orchestration, and earning a Kubernetes certification can significantly boost your career. This repository is designed to help you navigate the learning path, prepare for certifications, and gain practical experience.
- CKA Certification Course – Certified Kubernetes Administrator on KodeKloud
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) with Practice Tests on Udemy
- killer.sh/cka mock exam
- killercoda.com/cka labs
- TBD
- TBD
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) on KodeKloud
- Kubernetes Certified Application Developer (CKAD) with Tests on Udemy
- killer.sh/ckad mock exam
- self-hosted CKAD-exercises
- killercoda.com/ckad labs
- TBD
- TBD
- Kubernetes Cheat Sheet
- Kubernetes Components
- PKI certificates and requirements
- Network Policies
- Using RBAC Authorization
- Docker. Best practices
- Auditing
- Restricting Container's Access to Resources with AppArmor
- Restricting a Container's Syscalls with seccomp
- Admission Control in Kubernetes
- TBD
- Kubernetes Certified (KCNA) + Hands On Labs + Practice Exams on Udemy
- Kubernetes and Cloud-Native Associate (KCNA) on KodeKloud
- Kubernetes Overview
- Kubernetes Architecture
- Kubernetes Objects
- Pods
- Deployments
- ReplicaSet
- StatefulSet
- DaemonSet
- Jobs and CronJobs
- Service
- Ingress
- Cluster Networking
- Volumes
- Persistent Volumes
- ConfigMaps
- Secrets
- Kubernetes Scheduler
- Taints and Tolerations
- Node Affinity/Anti-Affinity
- Security for Kubernetes
- RBAC
- Platform as a Product: Understanding the Personas
- Container Runtimes
- Cluster Networking
- Cloud Native Landscape
- Horizontal Pod Autoscaling
- CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC)
- Prometheus
- GitOps
- CNCF Glossary
- TBD
- TBD
- GitOps Certified Associate (CGOA) on KodeKloud
- Introduction to GitOps (LFS169) on Linux Foundation (free)
- DevOps and GitOps with Kubernetes on Udemy
- OpenGitOps Principles - the four GitOps principles are central to the exam
- CGOA Study Guide (community)
- Argo CD Documentation
- Flux Documentation
- GitOps Glossary
- CNCF GitOps Working Group
- The exam is conceptual - focus on the four GitOps principles (Declarative, Versioned & Immutable, Pulled Automatically, Continuously Reconciled) rather than tool syntax
- TBD
- How to Ace the CGOA Certified GitOps Associate Exam on CNCF blog
- How to Pass the Certified GitOps Associate (CGOA) on Medium
- How to Ace the CGOA Exam on Linux Foundation blog
- Get GitOps Fully Certified: A Practical Guide to Passing CAPA and CGOA on Medium
- Certified Argo Project Associate (CAPA) on KodeKloud
- DevOps and Workflow Management with Argo (LFS256) + CAPA Exam Bundle on Linux Foundation
- Argo CD Documentation
- Argo Workflows Documentation
- Argo Rollouts Documentation
- Argo Events Documentation
- CAPA Study Guide by DevOpsCube
- CAPA Study Guide by Ravikiran Srinivasulu
- The exam covers all four Argo projects - budget extra time for Argo Workflows (36%) and Argo CD (34%)
- TBD
- Certified Backstage Associate (CBA) on KodeKloud
- Introduction to Backstage: Developer Portals Made Easy (LFS142) on Linux Foundation (free)
- Backstage Getting Started
- Software Catalog Overview
- Catalog Entity Descriptor Format
- Well-Known Annotations
- Creating a Frontend Plugin
- Creating a Backend Plugin
- Configuring Backstage
- Deploying Backstage
- Backstage Architecture Overview
- Backstage Plugin Marketplace
- The exam is multiple-choice only - know
catalog-info.yamlentity kinds (Component, API, System, Domain, Group, User, Resource, Location) cold
- TBD
- Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA) on KodeKloud
- CNPA Certification Prep: Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate on TeKanAid (26+ hours)
- Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate Boot Camp on RX-M (2-day instructor-led)
- CNCF Platforms White Paper
- Platform Engineering on Kubernetes (CNCF TAG App Delivery)
- What is Platform Engineering?
- DORA Metrics
- OpenGitOps Principles
- Crossplane Documentation
- Backstage Documentation
- Kubernetes Operators
- Custom Resource Definitions
- OpenTelemetry Overview
- Platform Engineering on Kubernetes by Mauricio Salatino
- I Passed the CNPA Exam - Here's Everything You Need to Know on DEV Community
- How I Passed the CNPA Exam on Medium
- Complete Cilium Certified Associate (CCA) Exam Prep on Udemy
- Cilium Getting Started Labs on Isovalent (free interactive labs)
- Fundamentals for eBPF on Isovalent (free)
- CCA Official Study Guide (Isovalent)
- Cilium Documentation
- Cilium Network Policy
- Hubble Observability
- Cilium Service Mesh
- Cilium Cluster Mesh
- eBPF Introduction
- Cilium BGP Control Plane
- CKA-level Kubernetes knowledge is assumed - if you don't have CKA yet, get comfortable with Kubernetes networking first
- Practice reading CiliumNetworkPolicy YAML and reasoning about Layer 3/4/7 intent
- TBD
- Preparing for Cilium Certification on Solo.io
- The New CNCF Cilium Certified Associate (CCA) Certification on Isovalent blog
- Prepare for the CCA Exam on Medium
- CCA Exam Study Guide by Ravikiran Srinivasulu
- Kyverno Certified Associate (KCA) on KodeKloud
- Mastering Kubernetes Security with Kyverno (LFS255) on Linux Foundation
- Kyverno Documentation
- Writing Kyverno Policies
- Validation Rules
- Mutation Rules
- Generation Rules
- VerifyImage Rules
- Kyverno CLI
- Policy Reports
- Kyverno with Helm
- KCA Study Guide by Ravikiran Srinivasulu
- Writing Policies (32%) is the heaviest domain - focus on validate/mutate/generate rules and CEL expressions
- TBD
- OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA) on KodeKloud
- Introduction to OpenTelemetry (LFS148) on Linux Foundation (free)
- OpenTelemetry Documentation
- Observability Primer
- Signals: Traces, Metrics, Logs
- Context Propagation
- Semantic Conventions
- OpenTelemetry Collector
- Collector Configuration
- Auto-Instrumentation
- OpenTelemetry Operator for Kubernetes
- OTel Demo Application - reference app covering all signals in one deployable service
- OTCA Study Guide (community)
- The API and SDK domain is 46% of the exam - understand the difference between API (contracts) and SDK (implementations)
- Cloud Native Observability with OpenTelemetry by Alex Boten
- Learning OpenTelemetry by Ted Young & Austin Parker
- Is the OTCA Exam Right for You? on OpenTelemetry blog
- How I Passed the OTCA Exam in January 2026 on Medium
- Prepare for the OTCA exam on Medium
- How to pass OTCA - Tips on Medium
- Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) on KodeKloud
- Prometheus Training by PromLabs - PromQL-focused training by the creators of PromLabs
- Prometheus Documentation
- PromQL Basics
- PromQL Functions
- Prometheus Configuration
- Alerting Rules
- Alertmanager
- Prometheus Exporters
- Client Libraries
- Grafana Dashboards
- PromQL is 28% of the exam and the hardest part - practice
rate(),irate(),increase(), label matchers, and aggregation operators hands-on
- TBD
- How I Cleared the PCA Exam on Medium
- How to Score 93% in the PCA Exam on DEV Community
- Istio Certified Associate (ICA) on KodeKloud
- Introduction to Istio (LFS144) on Linux Foundation (free)
- killercoda.com Istio scenarios labs
- Istio Official Tasks - work through all tasks before exam day
- Istio Documentation
- Traffic Management
- VirtualService
- DestinationRule
- Gateway
- ServiceEntry
- Security: Authorization Policy
- Security: PeerAuthentication (mTLS)
- Security: RequestAuthentication (JWT)
- Fault Injection
- Circuit Breaking
- Ambient Mode Overview
- istioctl Reference
- ICA Exam Study Guide (KodeKloud)
- Important: ICA is a hands-on performance-based exam (2 hours, 15–20 tasks) with access to Istio and Kubernetes docs - practice in a real cluster, not just theory
- TBD
- Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate (CNPA) course on KodeKloud - CNPA course serves as strong CNPE foundation
- killercoda.com CNPE scenarios labs
- Practice with the full CNPE toolset in a real cluster: Argo CD, Flux, Crossplane, Kyverno, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Tekton, Grafana, Jaeger
- CNPE Exam Page - Linux Foundation
- CNPE Study Guide by Ravikiran Srinivasulu
- Argo CD Documentation
- Flux Documentation
- Crossplane Documentation
- Kyverno Documentation
- OpenTelemetry Collector
- Prometheus Documentation
- Tekton Documentation
- Grafana Documentation
- OpenCost Documentation
- OPA Gatekeeper
- Kubernetes Operators
- Custom Resource Definitions
- Important: CNPE is a hands-on performance-based exam (2 hours) using a remote Linux desktop - you are expected to complete real tasks using unfamiliar tools with access to documentation. CKA-level Kubernetes proficiency is assumed
- You will NOT be tested on deep tool-specific knowledge - breadth across the ecosystem matters more than mastery of any single tool
- Platform Engineering on Kubernetes by Mauricio Salatino
- How I Passed the CNPE Exam on Medium
The LFCS validates practical Linux system administration skills. It is a performance-based exam where you solve real tasks in a live Linux shell - no multiple choice. Covers five domains: Operations Deployment (25%), Networking (25%), Storage (20%), Essential Commands (20%), Users and Groups (10%). Passing score: 67%. Duration: 2 hours.
- Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) on KodeKloud - includes hands-on labs for every topic
- Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) on Coursera (Pearson) - covers Linux fundamentals through advanced system administration
- Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) on Pluralsight
- Killer.sh LFCS simulator - two 36-hour attempts included with exam purchase
- Practice LVM, systemd, networking, and storage in a real Linux shell daily - muscle memory matters more than theory on this exam
- LFCS Exam Page - Linux Foundation
- LFCS Exam Study Guide by Ravi Kiran
- GitHub notes by giulianopz - community exam notes
- GitHub notes by simonesavi - community exam notes
- Important: LFCS is a performance-based exam (2 hours) - you solve real tasks in a live Linux command line with a remote proctor. No multiple choice
- Time management is the biggest challenge - start with easier tasks first to build momentum
- Focus heavily on:
systemctl,lvm,ip/nmcli,useradd/usermod,chmod/setfacl,mount/fstab,iptables/nftables