KCNA exam domains explained

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The Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) exam is split into 4 domains. Here is what each one covers, how much of the exam the provider says it is worth, and where to practise it.

• Kubernetes Fundamentals (44% of the exam)
  The biggest domain. It covers what Kubernetes is made of (pods, deployments, services), how the cluster is run, how the scheduler decides where a pod goes, and how container images fit in. If you only have time to master one area, this is the one.
• Container Orchestration (28% of the exam)
  How containers are kept running and connected: how traffic reaches pods, how access is limited, how data survives a restart, and how to work out why something is not running.
• Cloud Native Application Delivery (16% of the exam)
  How new versions of an application get from code to a running cluster safely and repeatably, and how to find faults when a release goes wrong.
• Cloud Native Architecture (12% of the exam)
  The big-picture ideas: how cloud native systems are designed, how you watch them in production, and how the open source community around them works.

Domain names, weights and topic lists come from the CNCF KCNA curriculum, checked 2 November 2026. Providers change their outlines, so confirm the current version before you book. The plain-English explanations are ours, not the provider’s. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any certification vendor or exam body. Certification names, exam codes and product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify the exam a practice product prepares for. Our questions are original and are not actual exam questions.