Common Core

73 lessons
16 courses_modules
Level beginner

Your essential starting point for Kubernetes. This learning path walks you through every foundational concept , from understanding what Kubernetes is and how clusters are built, to deploying, exposing, and persisting real applications , all with hands-on practice in a live cluster.

What you’ll learn

  • Cluster fundamentals: What Kubernetes is, how it evolved, and how control plane and worker node components fit together
  • Objects and YAML: The Kubernetes object model, how to read and write manifests, and how spec and status drive the reconciliation loop
  • Core workloads: Pods, their lifecycle, restart policies, ReplicaSets, and Deployments with rolling updates and rollbacks
  • Networking: Services (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer), DNS-based service discovery, Ingress routing, and NetworkPolicies
  • Storage: Volumes (emptyDir, hostPath, ConfigMap/Secret mounts), PersistentVolumes and PersistentVolumeClaims
  • Observability: Container logging, Kubernetes events, and resource monitoring with Metrics Server

Why start here?

Every Kubernetes journey , whether you’re preparing for the KCNA, CKAD, or CKA , begins with the same foundation. This Common Core gives you the shared vocabulary, hands-on comfort with kubectl, and real cluster experience that all three certifications build on. Rather than repeating the same basics three times, this path covers them once, deeply and practically.

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Course content

Fundamentals

Onboarding 3 lessons
Welcome What Runs Here Overview of Kubernetes Certifications
Kubernetes Basics 4 lessons
What Is Kubernetes Cluster Architecture Overview Control Plane Components Node Components
Yaml And Objects 4 lessons
The Kubernetes Object Model Anatomy of a Manifest Generating Manifests from the CLI Object Names, UIDs, and DNS Rules
Pods 6 lessons
What Is a Pod Pod Structure Creating Your First Pod Pod Lifecycle and Phases Container Restart Policies Editing Pods
Kubectl Essentials 6 lessons
Imperative vs Declarative Viewing Resources Logs and Exec Creating and Editing Resources Delete and Cleanup Formatting Output and Tips
Namespaces 4 lessons
What Are Namespaces The Default Namespaces Working Across Namespaces When to Use Multiple Namespaces
Labels And Annotations 4 lessons
What Are Labels Label Selectors Annotations Recommended Labels

Workloads

Replicasets 4 lessons
Why ReplicaSets Creating a ReplicaSet Scaling and Self-Healing Limitations of ReplicaSets
Deployments 5 lessons
What Is a Deployment Creating a Deployment Rolling Updates Rollback and Revision History Update Strategies

Services & networking

Services 6 lessons
Why Services Services and Endpoints ClusterIP NodePort LoadBalancer Named Ports
Dns 4 lessons
DNS in Kubernetes Service DNS Records Pod DNS Records DNS Debugging
Gateway API and Envoy Gateway 5 lessons
What Is Kubernetes Gateway API? The Controller Behind the Gateway Routing Traffic with Gateway and HTTPRoute Securing Traffic with TLS Termination Portable Traffic Manipulation with HTTPRoute Filters
Network Policies 5 lessons
What Are Network Policies? NetworkPolicy Structure Ingress Rules Egress Rules Advanced NetworkPolicy Patterns

Storage

Volumes 4 lessons
Why Volumes? emptyDir hostPath ConfigMap and Secret Volumes
Persistent Storage 5 lessons
PersistentVolumes and PersistentVolumeClaims Creating a PersistentVolume Creating a PersistentVolumeClaim Using PVCs in Pods Access Modes and Reclaim Policies

Observability

Logging And Monitoring 4 lessons
Container Logging Basics Monitoring with Metrics Server Kubernetes Events Monitoring Cluster Component Logs