KCNA: Cloud Native Architecture
The provider lists this domain at 12% of the exam.
In plain English
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.
What the provider lists under it
- Observability
- Cloud Native Ecosystem and Principles
- Cloud Native Community and Collaboration
Terms worth knowing
- Observability: How well you can understand what is happening inside a system from the data it produces.
- Metrics, logs and traces: The three main kinds of telemetry: numbers over time, event records, and the path of a single request.
- OpenTelemetry Collector: A vendor-neutral service that receives telemetry, processes it and sends it on to one or more tools.
Quick answers
How much of the KCNA exam is Cloud Native Architecture?
The provider lists it at 12% of the exam, according to the CNCF KCNA curriculum.
What topics are in Cloud Native Architecture?
Observability; Cloud Native Ecosystem and Principles; Cloud Native Community and Collaboration.
The other KCNA domains
- Kubernetes Fundamentals (44% of the exam)
- Container Orchestration (28% of the exam)
- Cloud Native Application Delivery (16% of the exam)
Test yourself
Full-length KCNA practice tests with an explanation for every answer option.
Browse the KCNA practice testsAll domainsDomain 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.