Quick reference
CKS: four-week field guide
Your job is now practice-to-proof, not course-to-course.
Operating rhythm
- 5 days/week: 60–90 minutes hands-on; begin with 10 minutes of closed-book recall.
- 1 day/week: a 90–120 minute mixed, timed set and an error review.
- 1 day/week: rest or 20-minute flash review. Do not turn every day into a mock exam.
Four-week sequence
- Week 1 — Workload security: Pod Security Admission, security contexts, capabilities, seccomp/AppArmor, service accounts, RBAC.
- Week 2 — Cluster and supply chain: API-server and kubelet hardening, encryption, audit policy, image provenance/scanning, admission controls.
- Week 3 — Network and runtime: NetworkPolicy (ingress + egress), mTLS concepts, Falco-style detection and incident triage.
- Week 4 — Performance: two full simulations, targeted re-drills from your error log, then light review and sleep protection.
Every task: the 5-step loop
- Read the exact requirement; identify the control plane, namespace, workload, or node scope.
- Inspect before changing:
kubectl get,describe,auth can-i, logs, or the relevant manifest. - Apply the smallest compliant change.
- Verify behavior, not only YAML syntax.
- Record one mistake or shortcut in an error log.
Confidence rule: confidence comes from completed, verified tasks. Track evidence: task, time used, first-try result, correction.
Use the official CKS curriculum to map each task, and the Linux Foundation exam page for current logistics.