CKAD — Kubernetes Application Developer
This Is What the CKAD Exam Looks Like
In one line
CKAD is a hands-on exam, and you must score at least 66% within 120 minutes to pass.
Why you read this first
The most common failure in studying for a certification is not from not knowing the content but from going in without knowing the form of the exam. If you do not know what the passing score is, how tight the time is, and which domains have many questions, you cannot set your preparation priorities.
Official specifications
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | Hands-on exam |
| Time limit | 120 minutes |
| Passing score | 66% |
| Volume | 15–20 tasks |
| Exam fee | $445 (includes 1 retake) |
| Validity | 2 years |
These values come from the candidate documentation on docs.linuxfoundation.org. The certification introduction page does not list the passing score or the number of questions, so if you prepare from that page alone, you walk into the exam room without knowing the passing score.
Domain weighting
| Domain | Weight | | |---|---:|| | Application Design and Build | 20% | | | Application Deployment | 20% | | | Application Observability and Maintenance | 15% | | | Application Environment, Configuration and Security | 25% | | | Services and Networking | 20% | |
More questions come from the domains with larger weights. Use these ratios as the basis when allocating your study time. This practice exam also distributes its questions in the same ratios.
This is where answers diverge
When you grade a practice exam, the questions you get wrong cluster in one form. You get them wrong not because you do not know the content but because you missed which of two similar concepts was being asked. When you read a question and one of the pairs below comes to mind, separate them first by the criterion in the third column.
| This | That | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Job | CronJob | If there is a schedule, CronJob |
| readinessProbe | livenessProbe | If it decides whether to remove traffic, readiness |
| emptyDir | PVC | What disappears along with the Pod is emptyDir |
| env's valueFrom | envFrom | If you take it all in whole, envFrom |
| initContainer | sidecar | If it must finish before the main container, initContainer |
This does not mean to memorize the table. If you mark which pair each question you got wrong fell on, the place to study again becomes much narrower than a domain name.
What you can look at while solving
During the exam you can open the documents below. You view them in Firefox inside the remote desktop.
kubernetes.io/docskubernetes.io/bloghelm.sh/docs
There are three rules. Searching inside the documentation site is allowed, but you must not click external search results. You can also view the Korean translation, but the English version is the latest and is recommended. And a Quick Reference link is given separately for each question, and that link is added to the allowlist.
Being able to view and being able to find are different. Rather than memorizing content, getting familiar with the structure of the documentation saves time.
What you actually experience at the exam site
Many people know all the content and still lose time by panicking at the procedure.
The exam is taken with online proctoring on PSI's Bridge platform. The proctor's video verification procedure takes up to 30 minutes, during which the questions do not open and the time limit does not start. Even so, you should keep your schedule clear for 30 minutes of check-in plus the exam time.
There are four things confirmed at check-in. Agreeing to the non-disclosure agreement, a government-issued ID that exactly matches your registered name, showing the room by panning the webcam, and closing unapproved software. Because of the last item, turning off background programs such as Slack or cloud sync in advance saves time.
There are a few conditions that are easy to get caught on when taking the exam in Korea. The ID must have a signature, so a passport is the safest. You can use only one monitor; dual monitors are not supported. There must be nothing on the desk or under it, taking notes on paper is prohibited, and reading the questions aloud is not allowed either. On a company network or VPN, AWS S3 access is sometimes blocked and you get caught in the pre-check.
You can change a reservation only up to 24 hours before the start. And if you book and do not show up, you not only lose the exam fee but also lose your retake eligibility. Results arrive by email within 24 hours after the exam ends.
The exam fee includes 1 retake, and you must complete both the exam and the retake within 12 months of the original purchase date. There is no official waiting period, so you can take it again right after you get your result. Rather than postponing because you are not perfectly prepared, taking it once and checking which domain is weak is often better.
The certification is valid for 2 years. On top of this, the CARE program introduced in 2026 overlaps. If you pass CKA or CKAD, KCNA is renewed automatically, and if you pass CKS, KCSA and CKA are renewed automatically. However, you must earn the lower certifications first for this chain to work. If you earn CKA first and KCNA later, that CKA does not renew KCNA. If you are aiming for Golden Kubestronaut, this order decides your renewal burden over the following years.
How to use this practice exam
The time limit is set the same as the real exam. The remaining time is visible at the top of the screen, and when time runs out it is submitted automatically and questions you could not solve are treated as wrong. This is because the real exam also grades only what you have solved by that point.
It is important to sit and finish in one go. If you look things up while solving, the score goes up, but that score does not predict the real exam. What you want to confirm is not whether you know it but whether you clear the passing score within the time limit.
After reading the explanations of the questions you got wrong, study again the domain those questions belong to.