The high concentration of talented individuals in Samsung SDS is remarkable. I have worked alongside amazing colleagues who are not only friendly but also intelligent and dedicated to their work.
In July 2022, I had numerous discussions with my visionary and supportive seniors about the future of cloud computing. They eventually encouraged me to continue my cloud certification journey by taking the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification exam.
Before attempting the CKAD exam, I received advice on how demanding and challenging the assessment could be. Self-learning can also be daunting, particularly in a stressful work environment. However, I seized the opportunity to embark on my journey towards getting certified and committed myself to the process of kaizen, continuous improvement. It was a journey that required a lot of effort and dedication, but it was worth it.
August 2022: Learning Docker Fundamentals
To embark on a successful Kubernetes learning journey, I acknowledge the significance of first mastering the fundamentals of Docker.
Docker is a tool that helps developers build, package, and run applications in a consistent way across different environments. Docker allows us to package our app and its dependencies into a Docker container, and then run it on any computer that has Docker installed.
Docker serves as the foundation for many container-based technologies, including Kubernetes. Hence, understanding Docker fundamentals provides a solid groundwork for comprehending Kubernetes.
There is a learning path on Pluralsight specially designed for app developers who are new to Docker so that they can learn more about developing apps with Docker.
The learning path helps me gain essential knowledge and skills that are directly applicable to Kubernetes. For example, it shows me how the best practices of optimising Docker images by carefully placing the Docker instructions and making use of its caching mechanism.
In the learning path, we learnt about Docker Swarm. Docker Swarm is a tool that helps us manage and orchestrate multiple Docker containers across multiple machines or servers, making it easier to deploy and scale our apps.
After getting the basic understanding of Docker Swarm, we move on to learning Kubernetes. Kubernetes is similar to Docker Swarm because they are both tools for managing and orchestrating containerised apps. However, Kubernetes has a larger and more mature ecosystem, with more third-party tools and plugins available for tasks like monitoring, logging, and service discovery.
December 2022: Attending LXF Kubernetes Course
Kubernetes is a project that was originally developed by Google, but it is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which is a sub-foundation of the Linux Foundation.
The Linux Foundation provides a neutral and collaborative environment for open-source projects like Kubernetes to thrive, and the CNCF is able to leverage this environment to build a strong community of contributors and users around Kubernetes.
In addition, the Linux Foundation offers a variety of certification exams that allow individuals to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in various areas of open-source technology. CKAD is one of them.
The Linux Foundation also offers Kubernetes-related training courses.
The CKAD course is self-paced and can be completed online, making it accessible to learners around the world. It is designed for developers who have some experience with Kubernetes and want to deepen their knowledge and skills in preparation for the CKAD certification exam.
The CKAD course includes a combination of lectures, hands-on exercises, and quizzes to reinforce the concepts covered. It covers a wide range of topics related to Kubernetes, including:
- Kubernetes architecture;
- Build and design;
- Deployment configuration;
- App exposing;
- App troubleshooting;
- Security in Kubernetes;
- Helm.
January 2023: Going through CKAD Exercises and Killer Shell
Following approximately one month of dedicated effort, I successfully completed the online course and proudly received my course completion certificate on 7th of January 2023. So, throughout the remainder of January, I directed my attention towards exam preparation by diligently working through the various online exercises.
The initial series of exercises that I went through is the CKAD exercise thoughtfully curated by a skilled software developer, dgkanatsios, and made available on GitHub. The exercise covers the following areas:
- Core concepts;
- Multi-container pods;
- Pod design;
- Configuration;
- Observability;
- Services and networking;
- State persistence;
- Helm;
- Custom Resource Definitions.
The exercise comprises numerous questions, therefore, my suggestion would be to devote one week to thoroughly delve into them, by allocating an hour each day to tackle a subset of the questions.
Furthermore, upon purchasing the CKAD exam, we are entitled to receive two complementary simulator sessions for the exam on Killer Shell (killer.sh), both containing the same set of questions. Therefore, it is advisable to strategise and plan our approach towards making optimal utilisation of them.
After going through all the questions in the CKAD exercise mentioned above, I proceeded to undertake the initial killer.sh exam. The simulator features an interface that closely resembles the new remote desktop Exam UI, thereby providing me with invaluable insights on how the actual exam will be conducted.
The killer.sh session is allocated a total of 2 hours for the exam, encompassing a set of 22 questions. Similar to the actual exam, the session is to test our hands-on experience and practical knowledge of Kubernetes. Thus, we are expected to demonstrate our proficiency by completing a series of tasks in a given Kubernetes environment.
The simulator questions are comparatively more challenging than the actual exam. In my initial session, I was able to score only 50% out of 100%. Upon analysing and rectifying my errors, I resolved to invest an additional month’s time to study and prepare more comprehensively.
February 2023: Working on Cloud Migration Project
Upon my return from the Chinese New Year holiday, to my dismay, I discovered that I had been assigned to a cloud migration project at work.
The project presented me with an exceptional chance to deploy an ASP .NET solution on Kubernetes on Google Cloud Platform, allowing me to put into practice what I have learned and thereby fortify my knowledge of Kubernetes-related topics.
Furthermore, I am lucky to have had the opportunity to engage in a fruitful discussion with my fellow colleagues, through which I was able to learn more from them about Kubernetes by presenting my work.
March 2023: The Exam
In the early of March, I was assigned to visit Samsung SDS in Seoul until the end of the month. Therefore, I decided to seize the opportunity to complete my second kill.sh simulation session. This time, I managed to score more than the passing score, which is 66%.
After that, I dedicated an extra week to reviewing the questions in the CKAD exercises on GitHub before proceeding to take the actual CKAD exam.
The actual CKAD exam consists of 16 questions that need to be completed within 2 hours. Even though the exam is online and open book, we are not allowed to refer any resources other than the Kubernetes documentation and the Helm documentaion during the exam.
In addition, the exam has been updated to use the PSI Bridge where we get access to a remote desktop instead of just a remote terminal. There is an an article about it. This should not be unfamiliar to you if you have gone through the killer.sh exams.
The new exam UI now provides us access to a full remote XFCE desktop, enabling us to run the terminal application and Firefox to open the approved online documentations, unlike the previous exam UI. Thus, having multiple monitors and bookmarking the documentation pages on our personal Internet browser before the exam are no longer helpful.
Before taking the exam, there are a lot more key points mentioned in the Candidate Handbook, the Important Instructions, and the PSI Bridge System Requirements that can help ensure success. Please make sure you have gone through them and get your machine and environment ready for the exam.
Even though I am 30-minute early to the exam, I faced a technical issue with Chrome on my laptop that caused me to be 5 minutes late for the online exam. Fortunately, my exam time was not reduced due to the delay.
The issue was related to the need to end the “remoting_host.exe” application used by Chrome Remote Desktop in order to use a specific browser for the exam. Despite trying to locate it in task manager, I was unable to do so. After searching on Google, I found a solution for Windows users. We need to execute the command “net stop chromoting” to the “remoting_host.exe”.
CKAD certification exam is an online proctored exam. This means that it can be taken remotely but monitored by a proctor via webcam and microphone to ensure the integrity of the exam. Hence, to ensure a smooth online proctored exam experience, it is crucial to verify that our webcam is capable of capturing the text on our ID, such as our passport, and that we are using a stable, high-speed Internet connection.
During the exam, the first thing I did is to create a few aliases as listed below.
alias k="kubectl " alias kn="kubectl config set-context --current --namespace" export dry="--dry-run=client -o yaml" export now="--force --grace-period 0"
These aliases helped me to complete the commands quickier. In addition, if it’s possible, I also always use an imperative command to create a YAML file using kubectl.
By working on the solution based on the generated YAML file, I am able to save a significant amount of time as opposed to writing the entire YAML file from scratch.
I completed only 15 questions with 1 not answered. I chose to forgo a 9-mark question that I was not confident in answering correctly, in order to have more time to focus on other questions. In the end, I still managed to score 78% out of 100%.
Moving Forward: Beyond the Certification
In conclusion, obtaining certification in one’s chosen field can be a valuable asset for personal and professional development. In my experience, it has helped me feel more confident in my abilities and given me a sense of purpose in my career.
However, it is essential to remember that it is crucial to continue learning and growing, both through practical experience and ongoing education, in order to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field. The combination of certification, practical experience, and ongoing learning can help us to achieve our career goals and excel in our role as a software engineer.
Together, we learn better.
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