Kubernetes Interview Questions and Answers for 5 years experience
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What is Kubernetes?
- Answer: Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform designed to automate deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery.
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Explain the core components of Kubernetes.
- Answer: Key components include the control plane (kube-apiserver, scheduler, controller-manager, etcd) and the node components (kubelet, kube-proxy, container runtime). The control plane manages the cluster state, while the node components run on each worker node and manage the containers.
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What are Pods in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Pods are the smallest and simplest units in the Kubernetes object model that you create or deploy. A Pod represents a running process in your cluster. It's a group of one or more containers, sharing storage and network resources.
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What are Deployments in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Deployments provide declarative updates for Pods and manage their lifecycle. They ensure the desired number of Pods is running, handling rollouts and rollbacks gracefully to minimize downtime.
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Explain Kubernetes Services.
- Answer: Kubernetes Services provide a stable IP address and DNS name for a set of Pods. They abstract away the underlying Pod IPs, allowing applications to communicate with each other regardless of Pod changes.
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What are Namespaces in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Namespaces provide a way to logically separate resources within a Kubernetes cluster. They allow multiple teams or projects to share the same cluster without interfering with each other.
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Describe Kubernetes Ingress.
- Answer: Ingress provides an external access point for your services, often using a reverse proxy. It routes external traffic to the appropriate services based on rules defined in the Ingress resource.
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What are ConfigMaps and Secrets in Kubernetes?
- Answer: ConfigMaps store configuration data for applications, while Secrets store sensitive information like passwords and API keys. Both allow you to manage configuration and secrets separately from your application code.
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Explain Persistent Volumes (PVs) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs).
- Answer: PVs represent storage that Kubernetes can provision, while PVCs are requests for storage by Pods. They provide a way to manage persistent storage independent of the Pods using it.
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What is a Kubernetes Node?
- Answer: A node is a worker machine in your Kubernetes cluster where containers are run. It's a physical or virtual machine that hosts Pods and interacts with the control plane.
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Explain the different types of Kubernetes Services (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer, ExternalName).
- Answer: ClusterIP creates a service accessible only within the cluster. NodePort exposes the service on each node's IP at a static port. LoadBalancer creates an external load balancer (cloud provider specific). ExternalName maps the service to an external DNS name.
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How do you scale a Deployment in Kubernetes?
- Answer: You can scale a Deployment using the `kubectl scale` command, specifying the desired number of replicas. Kubernetes will automatically create or delete Pods to match the desired state.
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What are different ways to update a Deployment in Kubernetes?
- Answer: You can update a Deployment using `kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml` with updated specifications. Kubernetes handles rolling updates, rolling back to previous versions if needed.
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Explain Kubernetes labels and selectors.
- Answer: Labels are key-value pairs attached to Kubernetes objects for organization and selection. Selectors are used to select objects based on their labels, enabling powerful filtering and grouping of resources.
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What are DaemonSets in Kubernetes?
- Answer: DaemonSets ensure that a specific Pod is running on every node in the cluster. This is useful for system-level daemons or agents.
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What are StatefulSets in Kubernetes?
- Answer: StatefulSets manage stateful applications that require persistent storage and stable network identities. They guarantee unique network identifiers and persistent storage for each Pod.
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What are Jobs and CronJobs in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Jobs run a finite number of Pods to completion, while CronJobs schedule Jobs to run periodically.
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Explain Kubernetes Resource Quotas.
- Answer: Resource Quotas limit the amount of resources (CPU, memory, etc.) that can be used by namespaces or users, preventing resource exhaustion.
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What are Limit Ranges in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Limit Ranges define minimum and maximum resource requests and limits for containers and Pods within a namespace.
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How do you troubleshoot a Pod that is not running?
- Answer: Check the Pod's logs using `kubectl logs
`. Inspect the events using `kubectl describe pod `. Verify resource limits and requests. Check the node's status and resource utilization.
- Answer: Check the Pod's logs using `kubectl logs
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Explain Kubernetes network policies.
- Answer: Network Policies control network traffic between Pods within a cluster. They allow you to define fine-grained rules for communication based on labels and namespaces.
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What are Pod Security Policies (PSPs) and their replacements?
- Answer: PSPs were used to enforce security policies on Pods. They are deprecated and replaced by Pod Security Admission (PSA) which uses Kubernetes Admission Controllers for enhanced security.
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What is the difference between a ReplicaSet and a Deployment?
- Answer: A ReplicaSet manages a set of Pods with the same labels. A Deployment builds on ReplicaSets by adding features like rollouts, rollbacks, and updates.
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Explain Kubernetes RBAC (Role-Based Access Control).
- Answer: RBAC controls access to Kubernetes resources by defining roles and binding them to users or groups. This enables fine-grained authorization within the cluster.
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How do you monitor a Kubernetes cluster?
- Answer: Use tools like Prometheus and Grafana for metrics monitoring. Use tools like Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK) for logging.
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What are some common Kubernetes best practices?
- Answer: Use namespaces, employ RBAC, define resource requests and limits, use persistent volumes, monitor your cluster, enable logging and alerting.
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Explain the concept of self-healing in Kubernetes.
- Answer: Kubernetes automatically restarts or replaces containers that fail, ensuring the desired state of your applications is maintained.
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What are some common Kubernetes troubleshooting techniques?
- Answer: Check logs, describe Pods, examine events, investigate the node status, analyze resource usage, and use kubectl debug.
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How do you handle secrets securely in Kubernetes?
- Answer: Use Secrets objects to store sensitive data. Consider using external secret management solutions like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager for enhanced security.
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Explain the different storage classes in Kubernetes.
- Answer: Storage classes define the characteristics of storage provisioners, allowing users to select appropriate storage types (e.g., SSD, HDD) based on their application needs.
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How do you manage the lifecycle of a Kubernetes cluster?
- Answer: Use tools like kubeadm, Rancher, or cloud provider-specific tools for cluster creation, upgrades, and maintenance.
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What are some common challenges when working with Kubernetes?
- Answer: Complexity, security concerns, troubleshooting issues, resource management, and understanding the underlying concepts.
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Describe your experience with Kubernetes networking.
- Answer: [This answer should be tailored to the candidate's specific experience, describing their work with services, ingress controllers, network policies, and any troubleshooting they've performed related to networking.]
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Explain your experience with Kubernetes security best practices.
- Answer: [This answer should detail their experience with RBAC, network policies, pod security contexts, secrets management, and any other relevant security measures implemented in their Kubernetes deployments.]
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How do you handle high availability and disaster recovery in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should describe their approach to HA and DR, including strategies like multi-zone deployments, replication, backups, and failover mechanisms.]
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What are your preferred tools for managing and monitoring Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should list the tools they prefer, explaining their rationale for choosing those tools.]
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Describe a complex Kubernetes problem you solved.
- Answer: [This requires a detailed narrative of a challenging situation, the steps taken to diagnose the problem, and the solution implemented.]
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Explain your experience with automating Kubernetes deployments using CI/CD.
- Answer: [This answer should outline their experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools used to automate deployments, including specific examples.]
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What is your experience with different Kubernetes distributions (e.g., EKS, GKE, AKS)?
- Answer: [This answer should describe their experience with various distributions, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.]
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How do you ensure the scalability and performance of applications running in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should describe strategies for optimizing resource utilization, managing autoscaling, load balancing, and other performance tuning techniques.]
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Explain your understanding of Kubernetes operators.
- Answer: [This answer should describe their understanding of operators, their purpose, and how they simplify managing complex applications in Kubernetes.]
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What is your experience with Helm and its use in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should explain their experience with Helm, including creating charts, managing releases, and using Helm repositories.]
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How do you approach debugging complex issues in a Kubernetes environment?
- Answer: [This should detail their systematic approach to debugging, including the tools and techniques they employ.]
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Explain your understanding of the Kubernetes API.
- Answer: [This answer should describe their familiarity with the Kubernetes API and its usage in interacting with the cluster programmatically.]
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How do you handle cost optimization in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should explain strategies for reducing costs, including right-sizing nodes, using spot instances, and optimizing resource utilization.]
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What is your experience with Istio or other service meshes?
- Answer: [This answer should detail experience with service meshes, including their benefits and how they improve application observability and security.]
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Describe your experience with different container runtimes (e.g., Docker, containerd, CRI-O).
- Answer: [This answer should describe their experience with different container runtimes and their interactions with Kubernetes.]
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How do you handle updates and rollbacks in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This should explain their approach to managing updates and rollbacks, including strategies for minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth transition.]
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What is your experience with different cloud providers and their Kubernetes offerings?
- Answer: [This answer should detail their experience with various cloud providers and their respective managed Kubernetes services.]
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Describe your experience with Kubernetes's authentication and authorization mechanisms.
- Answer: [This answer should explain their understanding and experience with authentication and authorization, including setting up and managing users and groups.]
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How do you handle logging and monitoring in a large Kubernetes cluster?
- Answer: [This answer should describe their approach to centralizing logs and metrics, including the tools and strategies used for efficient monitoring and alerting.]
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What are some of the emerging trends in Kubernetes?
- Answer: [This answer should discuss current trends such as serverless Kubernetes, edge computing, and advancements in security and observability.]
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