My journey to master Kubernetes and Cloud Native

I have been actively in contact with kubernetes since 2019.

At first, I found it very appealing, but it quickly became kind of daunting.

It is a combination of very compelling and efficient solutions to real life dev, ops and security related problems that have been diagnosed for years. But at the same time, there is a steep learning curve: so many moving parts, complex behaviors, a broad set of concepts and notions ranging from almost every aspect of IT, and almost endless possibilities.

One can have the impression to be at ease with kubernetes after learning the basic kubernetes building blocks. But without a strong grasp of kubernetes fundamentals, struggle and trouble await at almost every corner when confronted with a real life meaningful project.

That has been my experience for some time. At times, I felt intimidated and overwhelmed with all these moving parts, endless possibilities, and seemingly never ending mysteries that kept showing up.

I had a chance to work with a few people that seemed to have a deep understanding of Kubernetes. Many times, what they were pulling off left me in awe. It was like wizardry. I realized two things from these experiences. One: the gap I had to fill so I would be confident working with kubernetes and be proficient at it. The second thing I realized is that it was possible to be very good at Kubernetes, and that being very good at it was rewarding, and that reward was worth seeking.

So I decided to embark on a quest to become proficient at Kubernetes.

Turning to the CNCF

I turned to the CNCF to help me fulfill that quest. CNCF is known to be the GoTo body for a whole lot of open source projects. Kubernetes occupies a special place in the open-source ecosystem as it has asserted itself as the cornerstone of modern IT infrastructure. The CNCF plays a crucial dual role by first, making sure the technology continues to evolve to meet the needs of modern IT systems, and second, helping bridge the knowledge gap of IT professionals with top quality courses and certifications. The reputation of the CNCF makes it a highly regarded body and so it was a natural choice for me.

The decision to turn to the CNCF was not without apprehension. Their certifications are known to be tough and realistic. Many of them consist of a set of real life challenges that one must solve in 2 hours. But that was the very reason for my choice to go to them. I wanted to crack this kubernetes thing once and for all. And successfully solving enterprise grade use cases under pressure seems like a good way to go.

Shoot for the stars

Before going heads down, I took some time to define my goals and settle on a strategy to achieve it. I have always been fascinated by the Kubernetes administrator role so I wanted to be one. CKA then seemed like an obvious target. But I decided to set a higher goal. As the saying goes, “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”. I settled on achieving Kubestronaut status as my goal and kickstarted the process in May 2025.

Kubestronaut status has 5 required certifications: entry level KCNA and KCSA, and intermediary level CKAD, CKA, CKS. KCNA and KCSA are multiple choice exams. KCNA demonstrates a user’s foundational knowledge and skills in Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem, while KCSA demonstrates a user’s understanding of foundational knowledge and skills of security technologies in the cloud native ecosystem.

CKAD, CKA and CKS are performance-based tests. For any of these three, the candidate must connect to an exam simulator to solve a set of realistic scenarios in a 2 hour timeframe.

CKAD

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer — demonstrates the ability to deploy applications on Kubernetes.

CKA

Certified Kubernetes Administrator — demonstrates the ability to set up and administer the kubernetes cluster itself.

CKS

Certified Kubernetes Security specialist — demonstrates the ability to secure the Kubernetes cluster and its workloads.

I subscribed to thrive-one, the one year plan of CNCF that grants access to all CNCF courses. Then I started the learning journey with an introduction to linux, then container fundamentals.

KCNA and KCSA were easy enough for me as I have been around the cloud native and kubernetes ecosystem for some time already. I had also already worked on security related roles. I felt at home. Then for some reason, I was convinced that CCA (Cilium Certified Associate) was part of the requirement for achieving Kubestronaut status (it wasn’t). So I took and passed that one too.

The first attempt, and a miss

After these initial uplifting successes, the logical next step would have been to tackle the CKAD. I have been deploying applications on kubernetes for some time and I was familiar with most of the concepts tested by this exam. And it was the easiest one out of the three. But I chose to go for the CKA instead. The calling was just too strong to ignore any longer.

After completing the learning path suggested in the CKA exam page, I decided to give it a shot. And missed. 53% score VS 66% required.

As soon as the exam ended, I knew it didn’t go well. Too much pressure. I almost froze at the first question. During the first 15 minutes, I couldn’t think, I didn’t move. To make things worse, the terminal seemed to have an issue: whenever I tried to create a resource, I systematically got an “object already exists” error. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure it out. I was disheartened to fail miserably to solve what I perceived as being a simple task. It was the worst start I could have thought of. I should have skipped the question, but for some reason, I didn’t. And it was a bad choice not to skip: lack of judgment, misplaced stubbornness, you name it.

I wasn’t surprised when the result came out. But it reinforced the daunting feeling I had about kubernetes. So I paused. For 4 months, I made no attempt to advance on this matter.

The comeback

Until late November 2025 when I decided to resume my quest. The trigger was the end of my consulting contract. I knew it would be more challenging than usual to log a contract. AI was here and was already disrupting the IT job market. Fewer job postings, lower rates, and more applicants. A negative cocktail for job applicants. So this time, I chose to focus first on capitalizing on my SRE and security experiences by taking the SRE and security related exams first. Also, in the meantime, I followed some Golden Kubestronauts on LinkedIn. Their stories about their journey, the satisfaction and pride associated with Golden Kubestronaut status were contagious. So I decided to revise my own goal. Kubestronaut status did not seem high enough to make me land on CKA. I needed to shoot for Golden Kubestronaut status. So I went for it.

By the end of 2025, I landed two more exams: CGOA and PCA. I started 2026 by tackling the KCA exam that I earned in mid January. Then the calling came back again. I couldn’t stop thinking about CKA! So I decided to give it another shot. But this time, I chose to increase my odds by subscribing to a kodekloud Pro plan at kodekloud.com. It turned out to be a good move.

kodekloud got many things right when it comes to learning kubernetes: focused and practical courses, hands-on labs with concrete problems to solve, realistic mock exams, and some well chosen inspirational quotes to steer people up (to mention a few).

After 14 days of full focus, I took the CKA exam again. This time, I passed. With a 79% score. I was very proud of myself, so proud that I literally rolled on the floor shouting “I AM A CERTIFIED KUBERNETES ADMINISTRATOR”. It was a very joyful moment for me.

I turned to CKAD next and cleared it a week later with an 83% score.

CKS, the crown jewel

It was then time to face CKS, the ultimate challenge for aspiring Kubestronauts. The CKS exam had a certain kingly aura surrounding it. It was viewed as the crown jewel for kubernetes professionals and had the reputation to be the hardest CNCF exam at the time.

Armed with my recent success, I planned the CKS a week after I passed CKAD. But it was soon obvious to me I wasn’t ready, so I gave it one more week. Then I took it…. And missed it by 1%. I scored 66%, the passing score was 67%. I was pissed. Again, I made the same mistake as my first CKA attempt: spent too much time on questions I was having trouble with, instead of flagging them for later and moving on. At the end I rushed to the last question when there were 2 minutes remaining. It was about creating a secret with certificate files. I knew how to do it, but did not have time to type the solution. Solving that question would have definitely given me the extra score to pass the exam.

An anecdote about this first CKS attempt. I took the exam on February, Friday 13th 2026. When I told my 8-year-old on Saturday 14th that I missed the exam by 1%, his reaction was:

“Dad, this was to be expected. Friday 13th is a bad luck day. You should have known.”My 8-year-old

I burst out laughing. To be fair, this thought crossed my mind when I was booking the exam, but I dismissed it and moved ahead. A Kubestronaut wouldn’t be superstitious!

Unlike the last time where failure to pass CKA turned me away for months, this time I decided to charge again immediately. I booked another attempt for 4 days later and went back to work. I went back to complete some of the Kodekloud mock exams I had skipped (wrongly) and bought one more killer.sh session to rehearse. Then I took the CKS again. This time, success was the result. I scored 91%. One of my highest scores. Another proud moment. I was officially a Kubestronaut.

Nine months in, the reward

Nine months after I kickstarted the process, the reward was here. And I thought it was totally worth it. I learnt tons and tons of things about kubernetes. I was now able to set up a cluster from scratch using kubeadm, troubleshoot various cluster issues, deploy applications by following best practices, and use various security tools to protect Kubernetes cluster and workloads. I learnt many hows and had answers to many why. When it comes to kubernetes, confidence has replaced apprehension. Confidence rooted in a deep understanding of the internals of the tools, backed with the ability to solve elaborate concrete use cases. It was a journey worth taking.

Riding the momentum

Then I moved on to capitalize on my momentum. I earned CNPA, OTCA, CAPA, one after the other. Then came ICA: Istio Certified Associate. This one I approached with apprehension. I had known about istio almost as long as kubernetes, but I had never really used it in practice, and I had heard scary stories about it. But as I progressed in my preparation, the fear started to dissipate. For some reason, it just resonated with me. I learnt my way into the doc, and by the time I took the exam, I knew where to look for any question. 98%. The highest score I ever had. Another proud moment.

Then came LFCS and CBA. LFCS took me back under the hood of linux, which I had used since engineering school. It was a chance to refresh and go deeper on many aspects that matter for modern cloud native tools. CBA introduced me to Backstage, a tool I ended up wishing every company I had worked for had used. I cleared both without much trouble.

By March 29, 2026, I was holding 15 CNCF certificates. One exam away from Golden Kubestronaut status. The stars were in sight!

The remaining cert was CNPE: Certified Cloud Native Platform Engineer. Before I took on this one, I decided to consolidate and validate everything I learnt so far by building a fully fledged Cloud native platform from scratch. So I rented some VPS from a cloud provider and embarked on this quest. Still on it more than 5 months later.

The most productive stretch of my life

What I retain of this period is how productive I was between mid-December 2025 and mid-March 2026 when I was effectively jobless. These days all looked the same: I would wake up around six o’clock, meditate for a few minutes, do some physical exercise for another few minutes, before the kids woke up. Then I would go back to it once the kids left for school with the goal to learn something new, which essentially consisted in making as much progress as I could on whatever exam I was studying for at the moment. Then I would go out for a walk so I wouldn’t be locked in 24 hours a day. I tried to journal every day, mostly about the progress I was making, and go to bed by 10:30 PM. Although I was looking for a new job, I was very happy with how my days were organized. I used an excel file to track my days so I could see progress taking hold and not rely on gut feeling. Soon enough, what started as a skill-consolidation pet project morphed into an application named Klatos, an extension of that excel file, so to speak. I will write about that at some time.