Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist practice questions
CKS is graded on what you do, not what you recognize.
Entirely hands-on: tasks in a terminal against live clusters, open book against allowed documentation. No multiple choice at all.
What is below is a concepts check: CKS questions that teach the facts the exam assumes you already hold. It is preparation for the exam, and it is not a simulation of it. We do not sell a practice exam for CKS, and we will not until we can grade a task the way the real exam does.
Original questions written from the published objectives and cited to official documentation, never recalled exam content. How we verify, why not dumps.
- Exam code
- CKS
- Cost
- $445USD
- Questions
- 15 to 20hands-on tasks
- Duration
- 120minutes
- Passing score
- 67percent
- Level
- Advanced
- Study guide
- How to prepare
- Sources
- 6official pages
- Format
- Hands-on tasks against live clusters, open book against allowed documentation
An engineer tries to project a Secret held in a shared namespace into a Pod that runs elsewhere, and the volume never resolves. What rule applies to projected sources?
The answer
Every source must live in the Pod's namespace
Checked against
kubernetes.io, checked August 2026All sources are required to be in the same namespace as the Pod. For more details, see the all-in-one volume design document.
What the exam tests
Exam domains and official weightings
The percentage is the exam weighting; the bar is how many verified questions we hold there, so a short bar is where our bank is thin.
- Cluster Setup15%4 verified
- Cluster Hardening15%4 verified
- System Hardening10%4 verified
- Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities20%6 verified
- Supply Chain Security20%6 verified
- Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security20%6 verified
Open now. Quick Practice on all 30 verified questions.
Opens next. Domain Drill opens when every domain holds 12 verified questions. Still short: Cluster Setup, Cluster Hardening, System Hardening, Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities, Supply Chain Security and Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security.
Every question here is checked against the official page it cites before it serves, which is why the count grows slowly.
What the exam actually asks you to do
Entirely hands-on: tasks in a terminal against live clusters, open book against allowed documentation. No multiple choice at all.
Item formats
- Performance-based
The highlighted formats are the ones you cannot answer from memory alone. Linux Foundation, CKS exam details ↗
Between sittings
The same bank the numbered forms are assembled from.
Quick Practice
Open now
All 30 verified questions, untimed, with the explanation after each answer.
Domain Drill
Opens later
Opens when every domain holds 12 verified questions. Still short: Cluster Setup, Cluster Hardening, System Hardening, Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities, Supply Chain Security, Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security.
Review Missed
Fills as you go
Re-asks the questions you got wrong. Nothing to review until you miss something.
Linux Foundation / CNCF’s free resources
Study from the source. The page below is free to read, and it is what our own questions are written from.
Official CKS exam page & objectives ↗Keep reading
- Free CKS practice test
10 original questions, playable now. No account, no card.
- CKS exam format
How many questions, how long, what the items look like, and how long it stays valid.
- CKS passing score
The exact cut score, what kind of number it is, and the retake terms.
- How hard is CKS?
An honest difficulty read from the format, the clock and the weights.
- What CKS costs
The voucher price, the retake, and what renewal costs across the cycle.
- CKS guide
Who it is for, study plans by experience level, and whether it is worth it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need CKA before CKS?
Yes, and formally: sitting CKS requires a current, non-expired CKA certification. That prerequisite is the Linux Foundation's rule rather than advice, so plan the pair in order.
How does CKS differ in difficulty from CKA?
Same terminal format, narrower and deeper content. Expect AppArmor and seccomp profiles, admission control, NetworkPolicies, image scanning and runtime detection with tools like Falco, all under the same clock pressure.
Which CKS domains carry the most weight?
Three tie at 20 percent: minimizing microservice vulnerabilities, supply chain security, and monitoring with runtime security. Together with hardening they are the exam; pure cluster setup is only 15 percent.