There is an new entry level certification announced in LOS ANGELES – KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America – October 13, 2021 for people who want to get Kubernetes certified but find Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) too much.

Honestly, Kubernetes for beginners is quite exhausting, its a huge ecosystem and it takes time, I'm hoping this exam will bridge that gap.

So this certification is still in beta, but it will be released by the end of the year.
Unfortunately the registrations for the beta are now closed.

So what will the exam consist of?
From the website itself.

KCNA will consist of a multiple-choice certification exam testing entry-level knowledge and skills in Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem. This exam is intended to demonstrate this knowledge, 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.

So this means that it won't only test you on the basis of Kubernetes but it will also touch base on other technologies of the cloud-native ecosystem.

The breakdown of this exam is also posted

• Kubernetes Fundamentals (46%)
  • Including resources, architecture, APIs, containers, and scheduling
• Container Orchestration (22%)
  • Including container orchestration fundamentals, runtime, security, networking, service mesh, and storage
• Cloud Native Architecture (16%)
  • Including cloud native architecture fundamentals, autoscaling, serverless, community & governance, personas, and open standards
• Cloud Native Observability (8%)
  • Telemetry & observability, Prometheus, and cost management
• Cloud Native Application Delivery (8%)
  • Application delivery fundamentals, GitOps, and CI/CD

The entire exam details can be found here

This exam is intended to prove that you have the following knowledge

This exam 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.

For further reading you can check out:

• The official announcement

• The official exam

• Twitter announcement by Katie Gamanji

I would love to discuss further about this, I'm also learning Kubernetes by watching tutorials by Techworld with Nana

The entire playlist can be found here on Youtube

I'm also on twitter now :p in case you would like to follow

As always stay safe and wear a mask!