KCNA: Kubernetes and cloud native foundations

Objectives and progression

Six lessons, 25 questions, and three original cases with an internal 21-decision assessment. Mapped to the four domains currently published by Linux Foundation: 44/28/16/12%. Exact curriculum edition date was not confirmed. Fictional banking examples connect Kubernetes concepts to APS diagnosis, releases, and RUN handover. Introductory preparation without reproducing official questions or executing a Kubernetes lab.

Audience: IT professionals, APS teams, and technical managers beginning work with cloud native platforms.

Prerequisites: Basic Linux, networking, and application knowledge helps. The exam has no formal prerequisites; practice does not replace experience in an authorized environment.

185 estimated study minutes

• Distinguish desired state, scheduling, and execution.
• Interpret capacity, retries, and data lifecycle.
• Diagnose Services, DNS, and network policies.
• Apply RBAC scope and treat secrets as credentials.
• Coordinate GitOps, recovery, and service objectives.

Modules

1. Desired state, control, and containers
2. Capacity, scheduling, and workload types
3. Services, DNS, and network policies
4. Persistent data and proportionate access
5. Delivery, GitOps, and release diagnosis
6. Observability, objectives, and ecosystem

Continue learning

Kubernetes / Cloud Native

• CKA — Certified Kubernetes Administrator
• CKAD — Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Linux Administration

References and version

KCNA current four-domain curriculum; edition date unconfirmed

• KCNA certification and current domains · 2026-09-29
• KCNA program changes · 2026-09-29
• Multiple Choice Exams FAQ · 2026-09-29
• Certification languages · 2026-09-29
• CNCF KCNA · 2026-09-29
• Cluster architecture · 2026-09-29
• Controllers · 2026-09-29
• Container images · 2026-09-29
• Pods · 2026-09-29
• Namespaces · 2026-09-29
• Resource management · 2026-09-29
• Jobs · 2026-09-29
• DaemonSet · 2026-09-29
• kubeconfig context · 2026-09-29
• Services · 2026-09-29
• Service DNS · 2026-09-29
• NetworkPolicy · 2026-09-29
• Persistent volumes · 2026-09-29
• RBAC authorization · 2026-09-29
• Secrets · 2026-09-29
• Health probes · 2026-09-29
• Deployments · 2026-09-29
• kubectl logs · 2026-09-29
• OpenGitOps principles · 2026-09-29
• Telemetry signals · 2026-09-29
• CNCF project maturity · 2026-09-29
• Implementing SLOs · 2026-09-29