AssociateVendor-neutralCloud Native Computing Foundation· issued from US

CKAD

Cloud Native Computing Foundation Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

Official page at Cloud Native Computing Foundation ↔ Compare with another cert

Exam fee

$395

Ongoing

—

Study time

—

Delivery

—

Validity

—

› Quality score

36.0 / 40

Four-axis SecProve rubric, each 0–10. SecProve editorial assessment — each axis carries a written justification so you can push back on any single call without dismissing the whole score.

Blueprint rigor

How well-defined and rigorous the exam blueprint is.

Blueprint covers K8s app development tasks (deployments, configuration, observability). Tight scoping.

9.0/10

Practical evidence

Hands-on labs / written reports vs pure MCQ.

Fully hands-on 2-hour lab exam, kubectl + manifest authoring.

9.5/10

Currency & upkeep

How aggressively content is kept current with the field.

Tracks K8s release cycle; objectives refreshed regularly.

9.0/10

Market recognition

How often this signal actually moves a hiring decision.

Strong recognition for K8s app-developer roles; pairs naturally with CKA for full-stack K8s skill signal.

8.5/10

› NICE Framework work roles

The NIST NICE work-role IDs this cert maps to. NICCS lookup.

DD-WRL-003DD-WRL-001

Recognition

Global

Exam languages

› Core domains covered

The 1 domain this cert is centrally about. Passing the exam demonstrates working knowledge of each.

A5Cloud Security

AWS/Azure/GCP security controls, IAM policies, CSPM, container security, shared responsibility model.

› Prerequisites

Experience

Working knowledge of Kubernetes resources and YAML manifests; container experience.

› Progression

requiredrecommended

Where this cert fits in the typical learning path. Required edges are vendor-gated; recommended edges reflect de facto industry progression.

Required prereqs (0)

No vendor-gated prereqs.

Recommended priors (1)

LFCSLinux Foundation

CKAD

Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Required by (0)

No certs require this one.

Recommended next (0)

No follow-on certs reference this one yet.

› Common exam traps to study

Cybersecurity cert exams reuse the same 25 distractor patterns over and over — category confusion, RTO vs RPO, IDS vs IPS, MD5 vs SHA-256, and more. Once you can name the trap, you stop falling for it. Each archetype page covers what it is, the specific pairs candidates confuse, and how to avoid it.

Browse all 25 cert-exam traps Start with: BEST vs correct

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