KCNA exam guide: format, domains, preparation

Who the exam is for

KCNA is the exam code for the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate certification, run by the Linux Foundation with a curriculum published by the CNCF. The exam page lists the level as Beginner and states that there are no prerequisites. It suits people who want to show a working understanding of Kubernetes and of the wider cloud native ecosystem: containers, orchestration, application delivery, observability and how the community is organised.

It is a knowledge exam, not a hands-on one. The CNCF does not publish a list of in-scope or out-of-scope tools for KCNA, and the curriculum does not name a specific Kubernetes version.

Exam format

The pass mark comes from the Linux Foundation multiple-choice exam FAQ, which covers its multiple-choice exams in general.

Domains and weights

The KCNA curriculum (a PDF dated 11 August 2025 in its metadata) defines four weighted domains. Each domain lists sub-topics; the sub-topics have no individual weight and no detailed objective text.

Kubernetes Fundamentals alone carries close to half of the weight. Because the curriculum gives only short sub-topic names, the official Kubernetes documentation and the documentation of CNCF projects are the natural reference to turn each name into concrete concepts.

Features in movement

Kubernetes and the CNCF projects evolve quickly, and older tutorials often describe features that have since been removed or deprecated. Some examples documented in current official pages:

• Dockershim was removed from Kubernetes with the v1.24 release. Migrating from dockershim
• PodSecurityPolicy (policy/v1beta1) and the batch/v1beta1 CronJob API are no longer served as of v1.25; Pod Security Admission replaces PodSecurityPolicy. Deprecated API migration guide
• Ingress is frozen, not removed: it is no longer being developed, and the Kubernetes project recommends Gateway instead. Ingress
• The EndpointSlice API is documented as the replacement for the older Endpoints API, which is deprecated. EndpointSlices
• cgroup v1 support is marked deprecated in Kubernetes v1.35. cgroups
• The gitRepo volume type is deprecated and disabled by default; several in-tree volume plugins have been deprecated or removed in favour of CSI drivers. Volumes
• Helm 3 removed Tiller, which Helm 2 relied on. Changes since Helm 2
• OpenTelemetry is the result of a merger of OpenTracing and OpenCensus. What is OpenTelemetry

How to prepare

1. Read the official exam page for registration, policies and the current format.
2. Download the KCNA curriculum and turn each sub-topic into a checklist.
3. For the Kubernetes domains, work through the concepts section of the official Kubernetes documentation: Pods, Deployments, Services, scheduling, storage, security and the API. Read the deprecation guide so that you recognise removed APIs.
4. For application delivery and observability, read the official documentation of CNCF projects such as Helm, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, focusing on what each project is for and its core vocabulary.
5. For the architecture domain, study cloud native principles and how CNCF projects and the community are organised.
6. The Linux Foundation also offers a paid preparation course, LFS250 (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Essentials).
7. Check your progress under time pressure with our KCNA practice exam, and revisit the topics you miss in the free study mode.

Spread your effort according to the weights, but do not skip the smaller domains: with a pass mark of 75 %, gaps in any area add up.