The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) exam demonstrates a user’s foundational knowledge and skills in Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem.
The KCNA is a pre-professional certification designed for candidates interested in advancing to the professional level through a demonstrated understanding of kubernetes foundational knowledge and skills. This certification is ideal for students learning about or candidates interested in working with cloud native technologies.
A certified KCNA will confirm conceptual knowledge of the entire cloud native ecosystem, particularly focusing on Kubernetes. The KCNA exam is intended to prepare candidates to work with cloud native technologies and pursue further CNCF credentials, including CKA, CKAD, and CKS.
KCNA will demonstrate a candidate’s basic knowledge of Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies, including how to deploy an application using basic kubectl commands, the architecture of Kubernetes (containers, pods, nodes, clusters), understanding the cloud-native landscape and projects (storage, networking, GitOps, service mesh), and understanding the principles of cloud-native security.
Cost $250 | Online Exam
About the program
The KCNA exam is ideal for those looking to validate their foundational skills and start their journey in the Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystem as the certification will:
- Prove your understanding of Kubernetes and cloud-native principles to employers looking for cloud-native knowledge.
- Test your knowledge of Cloud Native Orchestration, Architecture, Telemetry and Observability, Prometheus, and much more.
- Builds a strong vendor-neutral foundation for the most career flexibility and growth.
The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) certification demonstrates foundational knowledge of Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies.
The KCNA certification validates:
- Foundational understanding of Kubernetes architecture, components, and basic concepts, including pods, nodes, clusters, namespaces, and the control plane.
- Familiarity with the purpose and function of key Kubernetes resources like Deployments, Services, and ConfigMaps.
- Familiarity with core cloud-native concepts such as containerization, microservices, and immutable infrastructure and how Kubernetes enables scalability, reliability, and portability for cloud-native applications.
- Knowledge of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) landscape and its key projects beyond Kubernetes, such as Prometheus, Envoy, and Fluentd and how Kubernetes fits within the broader cloud-native ecosystem.
- Understanding of concepts like scheduling, orchestration, and service discovery, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices
- Awareness of security best practices in Kubernetes
- Basic understanding of Kubernetes networking and storage concepts
Earning the KCNA demonstrates readiness to work with Kubernetes and cloud-native tools and allows candidates to showcase their foundational expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies, laying the groundwork for entry-level roles in the Kubernetes ecosystem.
CNCF has open sourced the curriculum around which the KCNA exam has been created to guide candidates’ exam preparation.CNCF offers wholesale pricing on our exams to training companies purchasing in bulk. For more information, please contact trainingpartners@cncf.io.
Exam details
This exam is an online, proctored, multiple-choice exam.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes Fundamentals | 46% |
| Container Orchestration | 22% |
| Cloud Native Architecture | 16% |
| Cloud Native Observability | 8% |
| Cloud Native Application Delivery | 8% |
The cost is $250 and includes one free retake. For questions on the exam, please reach out.