KCNA Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate [Updated 2026]

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the control plane and node components of a Kubernetes cluster, including kube-apiserver, etcd, kube-scheduler, kubelet, and kube-proxy.

After this lecture, you will be able to compare Kubernetes learning and production environment options, including kind, minikube, Docker Desktop, kubeadm, distributions, and managed cloud services.

After this lecture, you will have enabled Kubernetes in Docker Desktop and verified the cluster is running using kubectl commands.

After this lecture, you will be able to install kubectl and use common commands to inspect and manage Kubernetes cluster resources.

After this lecture, you will have cloned the course's GitHub repository so you can follow along with the hands-on demos.

After this lecture, you will have used kubectl to create, inspect, describe, and delete a Pod resource from a YAML manifest.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how the Kubernetes API processes requests through authentication, authorization, and admission control, and how API versioning and extension work.

After this lecture, you will have used kubectl api-resources to explore Kubernetes API objects, versions, and groups.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe container fundamentals, including namespaces, cgroups, container images, runtimes, registries, and the Open Container Initiative.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how the Kubernetes scheduler assigns Pods to Nodes using node selectors, affinity, taints, tolerations, and resource requests and limits.

After this lecture, you will be able to distinguish between the imperative and declarative approaches to managing Kubernetes objects and choose the right one for a given task.

After this lecture, you will be able to categorize Kubernetes resources into workload, network, security, cluster, configuration, storage, and custom resource types.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the purpose of Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs, and CronJobs in managing containerized workloads.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain the key differences between Deployments and StatefulSets and choose the right resource for stateless versus stateful applications.

After this lecture, you will have created Pods with sidecar and init containers using kubectl and observed how their statuses differ.

After this lecture, you will have created a Deployment, scaled it up and down, and deleted it along with its ReplicaSet and Pods using kubectl.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how Services, Endpoints, Ingress, and NetworkPolicy resources manage traffic and expose Pods within a Kubernetes cluster.

After this lecture, you will have created a Service to expose a Deployment's Pods and accessed it via its endpoints and a REST API call.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe how ServiceAccounts, Roles, RoleBindings, ClusterRoles, and ClusterRoleBindings control access within a Kubernetes cluster.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain the roles of Nodes and Namespaces in organizing and isolating resources within a Kubernetes cluster.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how ConfigMaps and Secrets store and expose configuration data and sensitive information to Pods.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how Volumes, PersistentVolumes, and PersistentVolumeClaims provide data persistence for Pods in Kubernetes.

After this lecture, you will have created a Secret, mounted it as a volume in a Pod, and verified the mounted configuration using kubectl.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain how CustomResourceDefinitions and the Aggregation Layer extend the Kubernetes API with new resource types.

After this lecture, you will be able to compare the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler, Cluster Autoscaler, Vertical Pod Autoscaler, and Addon Resizer and when to use each.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain why container orchestration is needed and describe the core features and components of an orchestrator.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain the role of the Container Runtime Interface, compare common runtimes like containerd and CRI-O, and describe how OCI standards relate to them.

After this lecture, you will have pulled, run, and managed a Docker container image using Docker Hub and Docker Desktop commands.

After this lecture, you will have written a Dockerfile and built a custom Docker image from the Nginx base image.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe Kubernetes security controls, including control plane protection, secrets, workload protection, auditing, and secure API access.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain Kubernetes networking requirements, communication types, network policies, and the role of the Container Network Interface.

After this lecture, you will have used kubectl explain to inspect the Service resource and created a Service to observe its ClusterIP type in action.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the data and control plane components of a service mesh and its load balancing, security, and observability capabilities.

After this lecture, you will be able to distinguish ephemeral and persistent volume types and explain the role of the Container Storage Interface in Kubernetes storage.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the pillars and characteristics of cloud-native architecture, including microservices, backing services, and automation.

After this lecture, you will be able to compare vertical scaling, horizontal autoscaling, and cluster autoscaling and identify which suits a given workload pattern.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe serverless computing benefits and identify serverless compute, storage, database, and DevOps solutions across cloud providers.

After this lecture, you will be able to identify the equivalent serverless compute, storage, database, and integration services offered by Azure and AWS.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain CNCF's governance model and describe the Sandbox, Incubation, and Graduation project maturity stages.

After this lecture, you will be able to navigate the CNCF Landscape and identify key projects in categories like application delivery, orchestration, service mesh, and observability.

After this lecture, you will be able to identify common cloud-native roles, such as SRE, Cloud Architect, DevOps Engineer, and FinOps Engineer, and their responsibilities.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the purpose of key open standards, including OCI, CRI, CNI, CSI, SMI, and CPI, in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain observability concepts, distinguish low-level and high-level observable signals, and compare Kubernetes logging approaches and tools.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain the role of traces and spans in microservices, and describe how OpenTelemetry and Jaeger support distributed tracing.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe how Prometheus collects and queries time-series metrics using PromQL, and distinguish counters, gauges, histograms, and summaries.

After this lecture, you will be able to differentiate liveness, readiness, and startup probes and explain how each contributes to application availability.

After this lecture, you will have added a liveness probe to a Deployment manifest and observed how Kubernetes responds when the probe fails.

After this lecture, you will be able to identify cloud cost optimization techniques, such as right-sizing, spot instances, and reserved instances, and the tools that support them.

After this lecture, you will be able to estimate the cost savings of Azure Reserved and Spot Instances compared to pay-as-you-go virtual machine pricing.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the stages of application delivery, from version control and build through testing, deployment, and infrastructure as code

After this lecture, you will be able to explain GitOps principles, its components, push- versus pull-based deployment approaches, and common GitOps toolkit tools.

After this lecture, you will have created the staging namespace required for the upcoming Kustomize demo.

After this lecture, you will have used Kustomize to define, render, and apply a Deployment and Service with a common namespace and label.

After this lecture, you will be able to explain the roles of continuous integration, continuous deployment, and pipelines, and name common CI/CD tools.

After this lecture, you will be able to know practical tips for scheduling your exam slot, taking the PSI tutorial test, and staying calm on exam day.

After this lecture, you will be able to know the recommended next steps after passing KCNA, including sharing your badge and preparing for CKAD or CKA.

After this lecture, you will be able to know how the CKAD certification builds on your KCNA knowledge and where to enroll to continue your Kubernetes learning journey.