Exam Description: The CKAD exam certifies individuals in designing, building, and deploying cloud-native applications for Kubernetes. It evaluates candidates through a performance-based test involving a set of problems to be solved in a command-line environment​​.

Who It's For: This certification is tailored for Kubernetes engineers, cloud engineers, and IT professionals involved in building, deploying, and configuring cloud-native applications with Kubernetes​​.

Certifying Bodies: Developed by The Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the CKAD program aims to broaden the Kubernetes ecosystem through standardized training and certification​.

Exam Format: The exam is online, proctored, and performance-based, requiring candidates to solve a series of tasks in a command line within 2 hours​ .

Domains Covered: The exam content is divided into five domains: Application Design and Build (20%), Application Deployment (20%), Application Observability and Maintenance (15%), Application Environment, Configuration and Security (25%), and Services and Networking (20%)​.

Preparation: CNCF has open-sourced the exam curriculum to guide candidates' preparation. Additionally, resources such as an exam simulator provided by Killer.sh, and training courses are available​.

Software Version: The exam aligns with Kubernetes v1.29 and updates quarterly to match Kubernetes releases​.