KLCP study guide
KLCP · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) is an entry-level certification from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) that validates foundational knowledge of Kubernetes and the broader cloud native ecosystem. It suits developers, operations staff, students, and technical managers who need working literacy in containers and orchestration rather than deep hands-on cluster administration. The exam samples four areas: Kubernetes fundamentals (the largest share), container orchestration concepts, cloud native application delivery, and cloud native architecture. Expect conceptual multiple-choice and multiple-select items on pods, workloads, services, namespaces, scheduling basics, container runtimes, CI/CD and GitOps ideas, observability, and the CNCF project landscape. Topics on this exam: Kubernetes Fundamentals, Container Orchestration, Cloud Native Application Delivery, and Cloud Native Architecture. The KLCP study guide has 4 sections and about 1,350 words.
01Kubernetes Fundamentals
Every cluster splits into a control plane (API server, etcd, scheduler, controller manager) and worker nodes running the kubelet, container runtime, and kube-proxy. The API server is the single front door: every component reads and writes cluster state through it, and etcd is the only persistent store.
338 words, about 2 min02Container Orchestration
Orchestration is about placing workloads and keeping them healthy. The scheduler filters nodes (resources, taints/tolerations, node selectors, affinity) then scores survivors.
305 words, about 2 min03Cloud Native Application Delivery
Delivery is the pipeline from source to running workload. Containers are built as immutable images, tagged, pushed to a registry, and referenced by digest or tag.
368 words, about 2 min04Cloud Native Architecture
The CNCF model favors loosely coupled, independently deployable services communicating over well-defined APIs. Key ideas: the 12-factor app (config in environment, stateless processes, disposability, logs as event streams), microservices over monoliths where justified, and designing for failure - assume components die and build retries, timeouts, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation.
339 words, about 2 min