TLDR: I passed my KCNA and got it as reassurance I can pass the CKAD or
CKA
You might be thinking what is an entry cert for Kubenetes (k8s)? Well
it\'s the Kubenetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) certification.
Well actually let me back up and explain how I got here. October of last
year I was looking to make a move to devops and I was like \"Let me buy
this Kubernetes cert. I think this what I need next.\" You have a year
from purchase to set a date for the test. I never took the test I just
wasn\'t confident in my skills. I also had a lot of family stuff going
on and\...well yea\...that cert was irrelevant to me.
Anyway I recently attended KubeCon and I was feeling myself a bit when
it comes to my understanding of the basics. They gave us a coupon code
for attending but when it came time to make get the K8s Developer cert I
choked. I don\'t really understand what\'s needed to pass other than a
lot of lab time so I decided to pick something to boost my confidence. I
think this was the smartest thing my fear has made me do (I have stories
of me trying to face my fear of height. All kinda dumb lol).
What\'s needed for the Cert?
----------------------------
Honestly I bought the bundle for the class and cert from Linux
Foundation, but here is where things are a bit different for me\...I\'ve
used Kubernetes. I\'ve read code for other people\'s setups, I\'ve done
a few demos for my own knowledge, and I\'m still very much into cloud.
This cert covers the basics of K8s and it\'s use in the cloud.
All that being said I think you should do the following:
1. Get the class and cert bundle
2. Try a k8s demo of your own. I found [this
one](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tech-talks/getting-started-with-kubernetes-on-digitalocean)
by digital ocean to be nice.
3. Read some people\'s k8s code (just search on github)
4. Checkout some cheat sheets for k8s cli
5. Maybe watch [this](https://youtu.be/AplluksKvzI) video (I didn\'t
finish it)
Overview of Cert details
------------------------
Here is a short list of things to know about the cert:
- 90mins
- 60 questions
- all multiple choice
- online proctor by PSI
This test being multiple choice is 99% of the reason I picked it first.
Gives a nice confidence boost that you can move on to the cli and still
kill it.
How\'d I feel?
--------------
I\'m a pessimist unfortunately so I thought I failed. I was confident
that I knew the info, but in the middle of the test I kept hearing that
youtube video repeat \"you can miss 15 questions\". I didn\'t have 15
questions I was unsure about (I had about 7). I\'m not sure about others
but I get super nervous when I\'m calm/confident about things people
\"struggle\" with. But overall I was leaning on the side of \"I got
this\" because I google\'d questions that stumped me after the test and
I realized the way I was thinking was completely right.
How long did I study?
---------------------
Ah I forgot this because I usually don\'t like answering this question.
I studied for a week. Don\'t let my time determine your time. Take as
long as you need to feel confident. Like I previously said I was a bit
prepared before hand.
Worth It?
---------
I\'d say so. It\'s not going to get you pushed up on the list of
container exerts, BUT it will give you the boost to know that your on
the right track.