CKA vs CKAD: which Kubernetes exam should you take first?

By LearnSome.tech · Published 2026-11-04

TL;DR

Take the CKA first if you perform the responsibilities of a Kubernetes administrator or plan to take the CKS, which requires a passed CKA, and take the CKAD first if you design, build and deploy cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. Both are online exams of performance-based tasks solved on the command line, and candidates have 2 hours to complete each one. In our view, neither pass replaces production experience, so treat this only as a choice of which exam to take first.

What is the difference between CKA and CKAD?

The CKA certification is designed to ensure that holders have the skills, knowledge and competency to perform the responsibilities of Kubernetes administrators. A CKA holder has demonstrated the ability to do basic installation as well as configuring and managing production-grade Kubernetes clusters.

On the developer side, a CKAD can design, build and deploy cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. A CKAD can also define application resources and use Kubernetes core primitives to configure, expose and observe scalable applications. The CKAD exam assumes working knowledge of container runtimes and microservice architecture.

What does each exam weight most?

On the CKA, Troubleshooting carries 30% of the exam and Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration carries 25%. The other CKA domains are Services & Networking at 20%, Workloads & Scheduling at 15% and Storage at 10%.

On the CKAD, Application Environment, Configuration and Security carries 25% of the exam. Each of Application Design and Build, Application Deployment, and Services and Networking carries 20% of the CKAD. The CKAD gives Application Observability and Maintenance 15%.

Use the weights to decide where your study hours go, and give the heaviest domain of your chosen exam the most practice.

How much do CKA and CKAD overlap?

On the CKA, the Workloads & Scheduling domain asks you to understand application deployments and how to perform rolling update and rollbacks. The CKA Workloads & Scheduling domain also asks you to use ConfigMaps and Secrets to configure applications. For the CKAD, the Application Deployment domain asks you to understand Deployments and how to perform rolling updates. CKAD candidates also need to understand ConfigMaps and to create and consume Secrets.

On the CKA, the Cluster Architecture, Installation & Configuration domain asks you to create and manage Kubernetes clusters using kubeadm. Troubleshooting on the CKA covers clusters, nodes and cluster components. The CKAD domain Application Design and Build asks you to define, build and modify container images. CKAD candidates also implement probes and health checks under Application Observability and Maintenance.

Skill	CKA	CKAD
Rolling updates	Listed	Listed
ConfigMaps and Secrets	Listed	Listed
Cluster setup with kubeadm	Listed	Not listed
Troubleshooting clusters and nodes	Listed	Not listed
Building container images	Not listed	Listed
Probes and health checks	Not listed	Listed

Use the table to plan your second exam: refresh the shared rows, and put most of your new study into the rows your first exam did not cover.

What is the exam format, and what does a task look like?

The CKA and CKAD exams are delivered online and consist of 15-20 performance-based tasks solved on the command line running Linux. You must complete each CKA and CKAD task on a designated host. In the CKA and CKAD exam environment, all SSH hosts have kubectl pre-installed and pre-configured with the k alias and Bash autocompletion.

Here are two made-up tasks in the style of each exam, with the commands you would reach for and a comment on each step.

# CKA style: "worker-1 is NotReady. Make it Ready and keep it Ready after a reboot."
kubectl get nodes                          # confirm which node and since when
kubectl describe node worker-1             # read its conditions and taints
ssh worker-1
sudo journalctl -u kubelet -n 50           # why the kubelet is failing
sudo systemctl enable --now kubelet        # fix, then make it survive a reboot
exit
kubectl get nodes                          # verify before you move on

# CKAD style: "The web app in namespace shop is Running but gets no traffic. Fix it."
kubectl -n shop get pods,svc,endpoints     # Running pods, but no endpoints
kubectl -n shop describe pod -l app=web    # the readiness probe checks the wrong port
kubectl -n shop edit deployment web        # correct the probe port
kubectl -n shop rollout status deployment web
kubectl -n shop get endpoints web          # verify the Service now has endpoints

Start with the exam whose task looks more like your normal working day.

Should you take CKA or CKAD first?

The CKA page says there are no pre-requisites for this exam. For the CKAD, its page says the same: there are no pre-requisites for this exam. The CKS is different, because CKS candidates must have taken and passed the CKA exam before attempting the CKS exam. Our advice is to choose from the job you do today rather than the badge you want most, using the list below.

If you mostly ship apps to a cluster that someone else runs, start with the CKAD.
If you build container images and write manifests, start with the CKAD too.
If you upgrade or fix clusters and nodes, start with the CKA.
CKS candidates must have taken and passed the CKA exam prior to attempting the CKS exam, so start with the CKA if the CKS is next.
If you are not sure yet, start with the exam that matches the tickets on your desk.

Which is harder, CKA or CKAD?

Pass marks match: for the CKA exam and for the CKAD exam, a score of 66% or above must be earned to pass. Candidates are allowed 2 hours to complete the CKA and the CKAD exams. The CKA costs $445 and includes one free retake. CKAD candidates pay $445, which includes one free retake. Judge difficulty by which of the task examples above feels further from your daily work. In our view, neither exam replaces production experience, and this guide is only about which one to take first.

How should you plan CKA, CKAD and CKS together?

Book the second exam soon after the first, while the shared skills are fresh. CKA, CKAD and CKS certifications are valid for 2 years. Earning or recertifying the CKS on or after June 18, 2026, will automatically extend your CKA certification. The CKA, CKS and CKAD exam environment is aligned with the most recent Kubernetes minor version within approximately 4 to 8 weeks of its release.

Book the first exam for a date you can keep, then work backwards in weekly blocks.
Practise in a real cluster every week.
Learn to find answers fast in the official Kubernetes documentation.
After the first exam, mark the overlap rows you already know and spend your time on the rest.

Free official resources

CNCF has open sourced the curriculum around which the CKA exam has been created. It has done the same for the CKAD, to guide candidates through their exam preparation. During the exam, candidates may use the browser within the VM to access the Kubernetes Documentation. That makes the free official docs the best place to practise finding answers quickly.

Candidates who register for the CKA, CKAD and CKS exams get an exam simulator provided by Killer.sh, but it is not included in the single-exam registrations. You get two simulator attempts per exam registration, and each attempt grants 36 hours of access from activation. We suggest working through the curriculum and the docs first, then saving the simulator for the last weeks to check your timing.

From our labs

In our CKA course, you budget each task from its weight and run the exam in two passes. You switch host and namespace per task, and verify every answer before you leave it. A later lab has you trace a request from a Service to its pods and find the broken link among selector, readiness and target port.

Start the free lesson: A Node Goes NotReady Forty Minutes In (Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam Prep)

The course: Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam Prep

Terms in this guide

Sources

Written by the LearnSome.tech team with AI assistance; every fact checked against the cited source.