walidshaari/Kubernetes-Certified-Administrator: a CKA study repo built around method, not links
Online resources that will help you prepare for taking the CNCF CKA 2020 "Kubernetes Certified Administrator" Certification exam. with time, This is not likely the comprehensive up to date list - please make a pull request if there something that should be added here.
At a glance
- What is it?
- The repository collects a CKA curriculum map plus its own troubleshooting, exam-day and study-method guides. It is a reading and practice plan for the v1.35 exam, not a course and not a simulator.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt this repository if you already have a practice cluster and want a curriculum map plus a diagnosis-first study method; skip it if you expect runnable labs, video lessons or exam questions, because the top level holds README.md, README-ckad.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, docs/, images/, labs/, templates/ and license.txt, and the README itself says it is not a comprehensive list.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes, with credit. CC-BY-SA-4.0 allows commercial use as long as you credit the authors and indicate what you changed. It is written for creative content, so check how it applies to any code.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 12 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Shell, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 30, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
What the CKA repository is for, and who it is not for
This is a study index with opinions attached. The README states the goal plainly: online resources that help you prepare for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam, with the admission that it is "not likely a comprehensive list" and that pull requests are welcome when something is wrong, missing or stale. The cross-references are deliberately restricted to kubernetes.io documentation; YouTube videos and blog posts are marked optional in the README even though the author says they were useful.
The intended reader is someone who has already decided to sit the CKA and needs a map of the objectives plus a way to practise against them. The repository is not a course: there is no video, no graded lab environment and no question bank. It is also not a substitute for the CNCF curriculum, which the README calls the authoritative source and links as CKA_Curriculum_v1.35.pdf. If you want guided instruction, the LF ACE path document is the closest thing here, and it is a mapping exercise rather than teaching material.
How the repository is organised: curriculum table plus four method documents
The top level holds README.md, README-ckad.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, docs/, images/, labs/, templates/ and license.txt. The README carries the exam facts and the domain-by-domain objective list. Everything else is method: TROUBLESHOOTING.md covers the 30% Troubleshooting domain with what the README calls a first-moves reflex, a break-and-fix scenario bank, a symptom table and practice questions; docs/ holds MISCONCEPTIONS.md, EXAM-DAY-TACTICS.md, STUDY-METHOD.md and LF-ACE-PATH.md.
The README's exam table is the part most people will use first. It lists the exam environment as Kubernetes v1.35, duration 2 hours, passing score 66%, 2 exam attempts and 2 Killer.sh simulator sessions included, and validity of 2 years. Domain weights are given as Troubleshooting 30%, Cluster Architecture 25%, Services and Networking 20%, Workloads and Scheduling 15% and Storage 10%.
The README also documents what changed from the older curriculum, which is more useful than a bare objective list. Helm and Kustomize move from an awareness bullet under Workloads to an explicit hands-on Cluster Architecture item. CRDs and operators, extension interfaces (CNI, CSI, CRI), Gateway API, network policies under Services and Networking, and workload autoscaling are all marked new. Pod admission and scheduling replaces the narrower resource-limits bullet. On the dropped side, "provision underlying infrastructure" becomes "prepare underlying infrastructure", host networking configuration on cluster nodes is gone, and the standalone scale-applications bullet folded into autoscaling. If you studied from an older README or an older course, that diff is the reason to re-read this one.
Cloning the repository and using the objective list as a checklist
There is no installer, no package and no build step. Getting the content means cloning the repository and reading the Markdown files. The README gives no clone command, so the command below is the ordinary git form for the repository path.
git clone https://github.com/walidshaari/Kubernetes-Certified-Administrator.git
cd Kubernetes-Certified-Administrator
lsYou should see the entries listed in the repository: README.md, README-ckad.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, docs/, images/, labs/, templates/ and license.txt. From there, the first real use is opening README.md and walking the objective list against your own cluster. The README's own closing advice is short: "practice practice practice", and it tells you to select the right version of the Kubernetes documentation, v1.35 as of the September 2026 exam environment, especially for API objects and annotations.
The method documents are the second pass. docs/STUDY-METHOD.md describes a learn, break, fix, log loop with note templates in templates/, and TROUBLESHOOTING.md supplies the scenario bank and symptom table for that loop. If you want to follow the LF ACE path, docs/LF-ACE-PATH.md maps LFS158, LFS253 and LFS258 onto the CKA domains. Note that labs/ exists in the tree, but the README does not describe its contents, so treat it as unverified until you open it.
The version trap: v1.35, the moving exam environment and stale study material
The most concrete limitation is version drift, and the repository says so itself. The README warns that the exam environment is aligned with the most recent Kubernetes minor release within roughly 4 to 8 weeks of that release, and tells you to confirm the version in the CKA/CKAD/CKS FAQ and on the CKA certification page before you sit the exam. A study list that was accurate for v1.18, the version on the only tagged release, cka-initial-release, is not automatically accurate now.
That matters most for API objects and annotations, which the README singles out. If you memorise a manifest shape from an old blog post or an old course, the exam environment may reject it. The repository's answer is to restrict cross-references to kubernetes.io, which is a sensible editorial rule, but it does not fix the underlying problem: the objective list is prose, and prose cannot tell you whether a specific field still exists in v1.35.
The second limitation is scope. The README is explicit that it is not comprehensive and asks for pull requests. There is no practice exam, no scoring and no timed simulator inside the repository; the simulator sessions come with the exam purchase, not from here. If your failure mode is knowing what to study but not being able to do it under time pressure, this repository will not close that gap on its own.
Where it sits against the CNCF curriculum and a paid course
The nearest alternative is not another GitHub list, it is the CNCF curriculum repository itself. The README points at it as the authoritative source and links the current file, CKA_Curriculum_v1.35.pdf. The difference in approach is editorial versus canonical. The curriculum PDF tells you what is examinable; this repository tells you what changed between versions, which objectives are new, and how to rehearse troubleshooting, with TROUBLESHOOTING.md splitting the 30% domain into a first-moves reflex, a scenario bank and a symptom table.
A paid course is the other comparison, and here the repository is honest about its role: docs/LF-ACE-PATH.md exists specifically to map LFS158, LFS253 and LFS258 onto the CKA domains, which implies the courses are where the teaching happens. The repository supplies the checklist and the method loop, not the instruction. For someone who already runs a cluster and learns by breaking it, that division is fine. For someone starting from zero, the LF ACE path document is a pointer to the courses, not a replacement for them.
Maintenance, licensing and what an upgrade costs you
The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-18, which is recent enough that the curriculum notes reflect the current exam environment. The only tagged release is cka-initial-release, dated 2020-08-20 and labelled CKA-v1.18, so the release history is not how this project tracks change; the README and the docs/ files are.
Upgrading means re-reading, not migrating. There is no dependency graph and no version pinning to manage. Your cost is the time to diff the objective list against the CNCF curriculum PDF and to check the version table in the README against the CKA/CKAD/CKS FAQ before booking. Because the README carries the exam facts, a stale clone is a real risk: pull before you plan a study week.
The licence is CC-BY-SA-4.0, shown in the README badge and in license.txt. For a reader that means you can share and adapt the text with attribution, and derivative works carry the same licence. It does not grant anything about the Kubernetes documentation the repository links to, which lives under its own terms. That is a description of the licence file, not legal advice; if you plan to republish the material commercially, read the licence text and the upstream terms yourself.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt this repository if you already have a practice cluster and want a curriculum map plus a diagnosis-first study method; skip it if you expect runnable labs, video lessons or exam questions, because the top level holds README.md, README-ckad.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, docs/, images/, labs/, templates/ and license.txt, and the README itself says it is not a comprehensive list. Before relying on it, open docs/LF-ACE-PATH.md and confirm which LFS158, LFS253 and LFS258 modules map to the domains you are weakest in, then check the CNCF curriculum PDF for CKA_Curriculum_v1.35 against the version table in the README.
Frequently asked questions
What is a certified Kubernetes administrator, according to this repository?
The repository treats it as the CNCF certification whose exam objectives it lists, with the exam environment on Kubernetes v1.35, a 2 hour duration, a 66% passing score and 2 years of validity. It points to the CNCF curriculum repository as the authoritative source for the objectives.
Is the CKA hard to pass?
The repository does not rate difficulty, but its structure implies where the effort goes: Troubleshooting carries 30% of the weight and gets its own TROUBLESHOOTING.md with a first-moves reflex, a scenario bank and practice questions. The README's closing advice is to practise repeatedly.
Is a certified Kubernetes administrator worth it?
The repository does not make a value argument; it lists the exam facts, including 2 included exam attempts, 2 Killer.sh simulator sessions and 2 years of validity, and leaves the judgement to the reader. It also states that it is not a comprehensive list.
How much does the CKA exam cost?
The repository does not state a price. It lists the exam environment, duration, passing score, included attempts and simulator sessions, and validity, and directs readers to the CKA certification page and the CKA/CKAD/CKS FAQ for current details.
Official sources
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