Lab 7: CKA Mock Sprint (Draft Skeleton)

Time: 120 minutes
Objective: Simulate exam-style pressure with mixed Kubernetes admin and troubleshooting tasks across all CKA domains.

The Story

This is your dress rehearsal: a compressed incident window where context switching, verification discipline, and calm execution matter more than memorizing one command. The goal is to simulate exam pressure while preserving production-style troubleshooting habits.

Background: Sprint Strategy Under Exam Constraints

CKA-style performance depends on triage and time management as much as technical depth. Fast passes secure high-confidence points first, then remaining time is used for heavier troubleshooting and control-plane tasks. Evidence capture for each task prevents false positives and mirrors incident-review expectations.

Status

This lab is a draft skeleton for instructor build-out. It defines structure, scoring, and task blueprint. Fault-injection scripts and full answer key are intentionally not included in this learner-facing file.

CKA Domains Covered

• Troubleshooting (30%)
• Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration (25%)
• Services and Networking (20%)
• Workloads and Scheduling (15%)
• Storage (10%)

Exam Rules (Mock)

1. You have 120 minutes total.
2. You may use kubectl, official Kubernetes docs, and local notes.
3. No AI tools, no internet search beyond official docs, no peer help.
4. Work in the target context only. Verify context before each task.
5. Skip and return if blocked. Do not tunnel on one task.
6. Record command evidence and verification output for each completed task.

Prerequisites

• kubectl, helm, jq available
• Local cluster ready (kind-lab or instructor-provided context)
• Baseline resources applied by instructor preflight

Preflight checks:

kubectl config current-context
kubectl get nodes
kubectl get ns

Sprint Blueprint (12 Tasks)

Use this blueprint to build final task manifests and checks.

Total points: 100

Time Budget Guidance

• First pass (0-70 min): complete easiest 8-9 tasks
• Second pass (70-105 min): complete heavy admin/troubleshooting tasks
• Final pass (105-120 min): verification, evidence capture, cleanup of partial changes

Required Evidence Per Task

For each task, capture in starter/mock-scorecard.md:

• Commands used
• Final verification command
• Verification output summary (1-2 lines)
• If incomplete, current blocker and next command

Passing target:

• CKA-ready threshold: >= 70 points
• Strong pass: >= 80 points

Verification Checklist

You are done when:

• Completed scorecard includes command evidence for each attempted task
• Final verification output is recorded for each completed task
• Total score is calculated and compared against pass thresholds
• Remaining blockers are documented with next command to run

Suggested Verification Commands Bank

kubectl get nodes
kubectl get pods -A
kubectl get events -A --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp
kubectl auth can-i --as=dev-user get pods -n team-a
kubectl get svc,endpoints -n <namespace>
kubectl describe pod <pod> -n <namespace>
kubectl logs <pod> -c <container> -n <namespace> --previous
kubectl get pvc,pv -A

Instructor Build Notes

To finalize this lab:

1. Create deterministic setup and fault injection scripts under instructor/.
2. Add starter manifests per task under starter/.
3. Add private answer key and grading rubric in container-course/instructor/docs/CKA_MOCK_GRADING_RUBRIC.md.
4. Add optional mapping to existing gymctl scenarios for remediation loops.

Reinforcement Scenarios

• jerry-rbac-denied
• jerry-kubeconfig-context-confusion
• jerry-coredns-loop
• 37-jerry-scheduler-missing
• jerry-node-notready-kubelet
• jerry-pvc-pending-storageclass
• jerry-etcd-snapshot-missing

Deliverable

Submit completed starter/mock-scorecard.md with task outcomes and verification evidence.