On the night of 14th January, I completed my first goal of the year after I passed CKS. This was a little tougher than the previous 2 certs CKA and CKAD along with the fact that it was also fun to learn new tools while preparing for the exam.

The exam will test your skills about how you secure your container orchestration architecture which is why it becomes so important that you should know this. For me, I learn a lot many new tools and concepts which will certainly help me in my cloud-native journey.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is the most evolved and feature-rich Container Orchestration system out there, and it keeps getting better.

It has an enormous community to support, and it’s always building new features and resolving issues. Kubernetes is certainly evolving at a breakneck pace, and it becomes a challenge to keep up with its pace of development. This makes it the best bet for a container orchestration solution.

What Are The Prerequisites For CKS Certification?

You should have attempted & cleared the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam prior to attempting the CKS exam.

What Are The CKS Exam Topics?

The best source of this information is the cncf official link. Please go through this before you start your preparation such that it gives you the basic understanding of the exam as well as the topics which will come in the exam.

Resources for CKS preparation

As there is a famous saying “Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know” the same applies to Kubernetes and this exam. The more you practice the better you become.

CKS is not just like any other certificate but a platform where you can learn a lot of new things. I was not confident that I will clear the exam but honestly, I had enough practice which made me clear the exam on the very first attempt.


I did enjoy preparing for the exam as it really helped me to learn new concepts and then practice accordingly.

I can refer to these resources which can help you practice and learn in a quick time to appear for the exam:

Killer Shell — CKS CKA CKAD Simulator: This is a very good simulator which will give you exam feeling and enough of time also to practice. You can get two simulators for free when you take the course on Udemy.

Even though I referred a lot many articles and my self-study but I genuinely think that the course on Udemy from #Kim is enough to clear the exam.

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist 2021 | Udemy: This is also a new course launched by #Zeal on Udemy.

Kubernetes Security Essentials (LFS260) — Linux Foundation — Training This course from Linux Foundation is there which you can buy as this has good exercises which will also help you while you prepare for the exam.

CKS Exam Tips & Tricks

As with any other exam of Kubernetes, you have to be fast enough. The exam duration is 2 hours. I got 15 questions in the exam.

There will be weightage on each question starting from 4% to 11%. Please read the questions completely before you attempt them.

For me, some questions were straightforward while for some I had to spend some time to understand them. Do not spend too much time on one question, remember, you just need 67% to pass the exam :). Also, Ensure that you are in the right context before you start solving the questions.

There are a few questions on which we will have to modify the files as per the ask. I would strongly advise you to take a backup of the file before you start changing so that in case of a mistake you have the back up to refer to.

I am not of the opinion to make too many aliases, but I would advise making at least one alias which is k=kubectl. If you are comfortable creating aliases then go ahead and create as per your likings like kd=kubectl describe or kg=kubectl get , etc.

I hope this will help you while you prepare for the exam. Feel free to reach out to me one one-on-one in case you need any help. 

Author: Shubhasis Mathur is a Kubernetes expert. You can contact him on LinkedIn.

Related Blogs on Kubernetes on ReviewNPrep

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  2. Important Tips for CKAD
  3. Preparation Tips for CKA
  4. CKA Exam Tips From Shubhasis Mathur

Conclusion:

This is the ultimate guide to the Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist exam (CKS). I have covered the most important resources required to ace the CKS exam

If you plan to do the CKS certification, you should not aim to pass the certification with practice exams and exam dumps.

It would really help if you focused on learning all the core Kubernetes Security-related concepts, industry use cases, and best practices.

I will constantly be updating this CKS exam guide with useful resources and tips to pass the CKS exam. Also, most of the CKS topics are covered in the Kubernetes learning roadmap.