Starting on April 1, our Kubernetes training and certification exams will move from a 36-month certification period to a 24-month certification period. This includes CKA, CKAD, KCNA, KCSA, PCA, ICA, CCA, CAPA, and CGOA CNCF exams.
Why the change?
We adjusted the certification window to ensure that the skills used to earn certifications remain relevant to the current state of Kubernetes, which has changed so much in three years.
In 2020, Kubernetes was at release 1.20 (compared with 1.29 today). What was going on in that release 3 years ago?
- Docker was deprecated as a container runtime
- You could run Beta API by default
- You couldn’t run user namespaces in Kubernetes
- PodSecurityPolicies were not deprecated (and thus not replaced by the Admision Controller Pod Security Control)
- Containers were not proposing a rootless mode
- You had to restart your pods when updating their resources and your persistent volumes were only accessible using 3 different modes
These are just some examples out of approximately 24,000 commits that took place during the 3 year period and that also impacted A LOT of the manifests you have to write to operate your clusters and applications. Clearly it’s challenging to stay on top of this level of velocity.
Also, the Kubernetes you learned about 3 years ago is not even supported anymore. The Kubernetes project maintains release branches for the most recent three minor releases (1.29, 1.28, 1.27). Kubernetes 1.19 and newer receive approximately 1 year of patch support.
Certification holders rely on our Training & Certification to ensure they have the most up-to-date skills and knowledge to advance their careers. Furthermore, we know Kubernetes moves quickly and we have releases throughout the year. Employers rely on us to verify that job candidates have the skills and knowledge to succeed in their roles. While we continuously update our exams, the rate of updates has notably increased resulting in an almost completely new exam every 24 months. This change helps you keep pace with the rate of change and it ensures the quality and integrity of our certifications.
Kubernetes is now such an integral part of organizations’ infrastructures and we look forward to making sure those who are certified have the most recent knowledge overall. Up-to-date certifications will mean they can continue to be the superheroes of their organizations with the most recent knowledge to feed their superpowers.
“When someone has a Linux certification I know exactly what that person should be able to bring to the table,” said Benjamin Cramer, Technical Director Joint Communications Unit, U.S. Department of Defense. “The CKA and CKAD exams are high quality because they are difficult to fake. Even if you are smart, you can’t just wing it. It is an excellent litmus test.”
Read more about Benjamin’s story here.