I have not taken a single exam since completing my university degree in 2006. In my field, what degree you have is not as important as the experience you gain by solving real-life problems. Therefore, I have never been interested in certifications where the exams are multiple-choice and do not provide much value. When you are troubleshooting a slow SQL query, nobody presents you with a multiple-choice question to solve the problem; you have to get your hands dirty and debug the issue.
After spending some time deploying applications to Kubernetes, I came across forums discussing CNCF certifications. As soon as I saw that the CKAD exam is an interactive troubleshooting exam, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue. I decided to start with the CKAD exam, purchasing a course from Udemy in early May and began learning.
I made a quick plan to take three certifications in the next few months:
The first few weeks were all about going through the lectures from the Udemy course. It is presented by Mumshad Mannambeth, and I later found out he runs his own training platform, KodeKloud. After each lecture, there is a lab section that links directly to the KodeKloud platform. Having an interactive lab after each lecture made the learning process a lot more enjoyable. I would usually allocate an hour in the evening to cover a couple of lectures and lab sessions.
After finishing all the lectures, I completed all the mock exams provided by the course. I was very pleased with Mumshad's learning material and the KodeKloud platform, so I took the opportunity to buy a year subscription as I got a good deal on the website – I think it was 40% off if you purchase a year upfront. On KodeKloud, I had access to 8 mock exams, and I quickly went through 4 of them. They were very good, even though I noticed a couple of bugs in a few of the mock tests, but nothing serious.
When I felt confident with my skills in the mock tests, I purchased a CKAD/CKA/CKS bundle from the CNCF. Before booking the real test, I used their test simulator provided by Killer.sh. That environment is very similar to the real exam, basically a Linux desktop virtual machine with a terminal and a browser. The test was quite challenging, and I managed to complete it with a good score, even though I used all of the 2 hours and was still troubleshooting the last question when the time was up.
After doing well in the Killer.sh exam, I booked the real exam.
I found the exam to be very professional. Thankfully, I started the self-check-in process about 30 minutes before the exam began, which was good because it took about 30 minutes to complete. During the check-in, you have to prove that your test location is secure and that you are not cheating. Everything went smoothly, and I was able to start the exam on time.
The real exam was well designed and professional. It was not as hard as the Killer.sh exam since it had fewer tasks. I was able to finish it with a good score and still had a good amount of time left.
The exam results came 24 hours later. Here is the link to my certificate.
I highly recommend the CKAD exam and had great fun learning and taking it. Now, I will begin repeating the same process for the CKA exam, which is focused on administering Kubernetes.