# ckad-crash-course is a lab sheet for the CKAD exam, with the answers in the repo > The CKAD crash course from Benjamin Muschko is built as a set of numbered exercise directories rather than as prose lessons, each with its own instructions and a solution folder, so the repository is something you run rather than read. What it adds on top of the official CKAD curriculum is a practice environment and the habit of working under the kind of time pressure the real exam applies. **bmuschko/ckad-crash-course** — In-depth and hands-on practice for acing the exam. - Repository: https://github.com/bmuschko/ckad-crash-course - Stars: 982 · Forks: 662 - Language: JavaScript - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bmuschko-ckad-crash-course ## The exam is performance based, and the course is built around that The context the repository gives is the reason the format matters. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation developed the CKAD certification to give application developers credibility in the job market, and the documentation describes the exam as different from the typical multiple choice format of other certifications: it is completely performance based and requires deep knowledge of the tasks at hand under immense time pressure. That is the constraint the course is designed around. A repository of prose about pods and deployments would not address it, because the skill being tested is the sequence of commands and the speed of recall, and a practice environment is the only way to build that. The author, Benjamin Muschko, is listed with CKAD, CKA and CKS badges, and the pitch is that he shares his personal experience with preparing for all aspects of the exam rather than only the application developer track. ## Exercises are directories, and each one ships with its answer The structure is what makes this a lab sheet rather than a tutorial. Everything lives under an `exercises/` directory, the exercises are numbered, and each one has its own directory whose name starts with `exercise-`. Inside each folder you find the instructions for that exercise, and the solutions are available in a `solution` folder. The instruction to try to solve each exercise yourself before having a look at the solution is the whole pedagogical instruction of the repository, and it is a good one for this format, because the exercise itself is the method and the solution is the reference rather than the lesson. Every exercise practices a self-contained portion of the CKAD curriculum published by the CNCF, which is the anchor that keeps the material honest, since a course can be checked against the official topic list rather than against the author's memory of it. ## The environment is a separate document you have to set up first There is a `prerequisites/` directory with an `instructions.md` file inside it, and the documentation is explicit that you should follow those instructions for setting up your environment before joining the training. The split matters more than it sounds. A lab that runs against a real cluster needs that cluster to exist, with the right API versions and the right context configured, and the cost of that setup is high enough that it has to happen once, before any exercise, rather than being repeated in the instructions for each task. It also means the repository does not contain everything you need to get started, which is worth knowing before you clone it and find yourself reading the first exercise with nothing to run it against. There is no mention in the documentation of a scripted setup, a kind cluster configuration or a containerised test environment, so the prerequisite document is the only description of how the lab is meant to run, and it is the first thing to read. ## The course sits in a wider set of preparation resources The additional resources list is a map of the preparation landscape, and it is deliberately varied. The Kubernetes Slack channel for certifications is listed first, which is where questions get answered between attempts. There are three O'Reilly titles, the CKAD study guide in its second edition, the first edition of the same guide, and the CKA study guide, and a video course for the CKAD and a LinkedIn Learning course of exam tips. There is also the author's own blog post on crushing the exam. The practice environments come next and are the most directly useful part of the list, with the O'Reilly interactive practice labs, the Killer Shell CKAD simulator, and KillerCoda CKAD scenarios, and finally a link to another set of CKAD exercises by a different author. So the course is one node in a network rather than a closed package, and the sensible way to use it is alongside a simulator, since the course supplies structure and the simulators supply the pressure. ## The repository is a companion to a course, not the course itself The presentation is that of material for a live training event rather than a self-paced video course, and the artefacts reflect that. There is a `slides.pdf` at the root of the repository, which is what a trainer would project, and the repository's primary language is recorded as JavaScript, which points at the tooling that produced those slides rather than at any code you would run. The exercises, the solutions and the prerequisite instructions are the durable part. The distinction is worth holding on to when you decide how to spend your time, because a repository that assumes a trainer explaining the slides is a different artefact from one that explains everything in text, and this one is mostly the former. If you are studying alone, the exercises and the prerequisite document carry the weight, and the slides are useful mainly as a reference for what the session covered. ## What the repository does not tell you Three gaps are visible from the tree itself. The first is licensing, since no licence is stated for the repository, which for material you may want to redistribute or adapt for a class is a real question. The second is versioning, since there are no GitHub releases and the exercises do not say which revision of the official curriculum they were written against, so when the CNCF changes the exam objectives there is no marker in the repository telling you which exercises are stale. The third is the maintenance cadence, with the last push to the repository dated 2026-05-19 and a default branch of master, which leaves the question of whether the exercise set is being kept in step with the current exam open. None of that makes the exercises wrong, and the fact that the CNCF curriculum is the source means the topics are the real ones, but it does mean you should check the official topic list against the exercise directories before you sit the exam. ## Conclusion ckad-crash-course suits a developer preparing for the CKAD who already knows Kubernetes and needs reps rather than an introduction, and it suits a training provider who wants a lab sheet with answers they can hand out. It is a poor fit if you have never used Kubernetes, since the exercises assume the vocabulary, and it is a poor fit if you want a maintained curriculum, because the repository states no licence, publishes no releases and the last push was on 2026-05-19. Before you start, check three things: that you have a working local cluster, since the setup instructions live in a separate document and the exercises assume one, that you work through the exercises before opening the solution folder, and the version of the official curriculum the repository was written against, because the exam content moves and the exercises in the tree do not announce which release they track. ## FAQ ### What is in the ckad-crash-course repository? A prerequisites directory with environment setup instructions, and an exercises directory whose entries are numbered and live in folders named starting with `exercise-`. Each exercise folder holds its instructions, and the solutions are available in a `solution` folder. There is also a slides.pdf at the root of the repository. ### How should I work through the CKAD exercises? The documentation asks you to try to solve each exercise yourself before looking at the solution. Every exercise practices a self-contained portion of the official CKAD curriculum published by the CNCF, and you are asked to set up your environment using the instructions in the prerequisites directory before you start. ### What exam does this course prepare for? The Certified Kubernetes Application Developer certification from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The documentation notes the exam is entirely performance based rather than multiple choice, and requires deep knowledge of the tasks under heavy time pressure, which is why the course is built as hands-on exercises. ### Who teaches the CKAD crash course? Benjamin Muschko, who is listed with the CKAD, CKA and CKS credentials. The course also points to his O'Reilly CKAD study guides, an O'Reilly prep video course, and his own blog post on preparing for the exam. ### What practice simulators do the CKAD course materials recommend? The resources list points to the O'Reilly CKAD interactive practice labs, the Killer Shell CKAD simulator, KillerCoda CKAD scenarios, and a separate set of CKAD exercises by another author, alongside the Kubernetes Slack channel for certifications. ## Sources - [bmuschko/ckad-crash-course on GitHub](https://github.com/bmuschko/ckad-crash-course) - [Issues](https://github.com/bmuschko/ckad-crash-course/issues) - [README](https://github.com/bmuschko/ckad-crash-course/blob/master/README.md) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bmuschko-ckad-crash-course