Study Guides
Comprehensive preparation resources for every certification track covered by Cloud Native Exam Lab.
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA): 60 Concepts
Learn 60 practical CKA concepts covering cluster administration, workloads, networking, storage, and troubleshooting.
Organized around the five CKA domains: Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration; Workloads & Scheduling; Services & Networking; Storage; and Troubleshooting.
CKAD Study Guide: 60 Kubernetes Application Concepts
Learn 60 practical CKAD concepts covering application design, configuration, security, deployment, networking, and troubleshooting.
This guide follows the five Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) domains. The official overview lists Kubernetes v1.37; confirm the environment version and supported APIs in the current official exam resources.
CKS Study Guide: 60 Kubernetes Security Concepts
Learn 60 practical concepts for Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS), covering cluster security, workloads, supply chains and threat detection.
The official pages publish different domain weights. This guide covers their shared six domains without assigning exam percentages. Confirm the current curriculum and Kubernetes environment version in the official candidate resources before using version-specific settings.
KCNA Study Guide: 60 Core Concepts
Learn 60 foundational KCNA concepts through clear explanations, worked examples, and practical distinctions across the four published exam domains.
This guide follows KCNA’s four published domains. Storage is covered within Container Orchestration, and observability within Cloud Native Architecture. The explanations focus on foundational understanding and basic operational interpretation.
KCSA Study Guide: 60 Cloud Native Security Concepts
Build KCSA foundations with 60 practical concepts covering Kubernetes controls, threats, platform security, and compliance.
This guide covers the six KCSA curriculum domains at associate level, with conceptual examples for evaluating security controls and identifying risks.
Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA): 60 Concepts
Study 60 PCA concepts with worked examples covering observability, Prometheus fundamentals, instrumentation, PromQL, alerting, and dashboards.
The guide follows the five PCA subject domains, with the largest section devoted to PromQL. Examples teach foundational Prometheus behavior and use classic histogram notation where bucket calculations are involved.
Istio Certified Associate (ICA): 60 Core Concepts
Learn 60 practical ICA concepts covering Istio installation, traffic routing, resilience, workload security, and mesh troubleshooting.
The guide follows the published ICA domains, including sidecar and ambient installation, traffic management, workload security, and troubleshooting. Telemetry is covered as a tool for diagnosing mesh behavior.
Cilium Certified Associate (CCA): 60 Concepts
Study 60 CCA concepts across architecture, eBPF, network policy, service mesh, Hubble, installation, Cluster Mesh and external networking.
The guide covers the eight CCA domains at a foundational level. Examples illustrate networking behavior and configuration decisions; exact settings depend on the Cilium release and environment being used.
Certified Argo Project Associate (CAPA) Study Guide
Study 60 practical concepts across Argo Workflows, Argo CD, Argo Rollouts, and Argo Events, with worked examples and common mistakes.
The guide follows the CAPA domains: Argo Workflows 36%, Argo CD 34%, Argo Rollouts 18%, and Argo Events 12%. Examples teach durable Kubernetes and Argo principles; configuration details depend on the installed components and their documented settings.
GitOps Certified Associate (CGOA): 60 Concepts
Learn 60 practical CGOA concepts covering GitOps terminology, principles, related practices, delivery patterns, and tooling.
The guide follows the five published CGOA domains. Kubernetes, Argo CD, and Flux illustrate broader GitOps concepts; operational settings and tool behavior should be confirmed in the documentation for the system being used.
OTCA Study Guide: 60 Core Concepts
Study 60 practical concepts for the OpenTelemetry Certified Associate, covering observability, instrumentation, signals, Collectors and troubleshooting.
This guide covers the four published OTCA domains. Other CNCF certifications are separate credentials and are outside its scope.