CKAD

The path for developers who build and ship applications on Kubernetes. Built on top of the Common Core, this learning path takes you from running basic workloads to designing resilient, secure, and observable applications , everything the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer exam expects you to know.

What you’ll learn:

• Workloads & configuration: Commands and args, multi-container Pods (sidecar, init), Jobs and CronJobs, ConfigMaps, Secrets, resource requests and limits, liveness and readiness probes, and security contexts
• Deployment patterns: ReplicaSets, Deployments, advanced deployment strategies (blue/green, canary)
• Services & networking: Service types, DNS-based discovery, Ingress routing rules, and NetworkPolicies for traffic control
• Storage: Volumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, and StatefulSets for stateful applications
• Security & auth: Service accounts, authentication basics, kubeconfig, RBAC, and admission controllers
• Observability & extensibility: Application logging, the Kubernetes API and versioning, custom resources, and Helm for package management

Who is this for?

Backend developers, full-stack engineers, and DevOps practitioners who deploy and manage their own applications on Kubernetes. If your job involves writing Deployments, debugging failing Pods, and wiring up Services and Ingress, this is your path.

Prerequisites: Complete the Common Core path first , this path builds directly on those foundations.

Course structure:

6 sections across 25+ modules, covering every domain of the CKAD exam curriculum. Each lesson includes explanations, real YAML manifests, kubectl commands, and hands-on exercises in a live cluster.