Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist practice exams
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
- $445 USD
- Questions
- 15 to 20 hands-on tasks
- Duration
- 120 minutes
- Passing score
- 67 percent
- Format
- Hands-on tasks against live clusters, open book against allowed documentation
Fail and the retake is another $445. Practicing until you are ready is the cheapest part of this. Full cost breakdown.
What the exam tests
Exam domains and official weightings
From the official published CNCF curriculum. Put your study time where the weight is.
- Cluster Setup15%
- Cluster Hardening15%
- System Hardening10%
- Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities20%
- Supply Chain Security20%
- Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security20%
Coverage by domain
0 verified- Cluster Setup0 / 15% of exam
- Cluster Hardening0 / 15% of exam
- System Hardening0 / 10% of exam
- Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities0 / 20% of exam
- Supply Chain Security0 / 20% of exam
- Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security0 / 20% of exam
Open now. Nothing is published for CKS yet. The bank is being written from the official objectives.
Opens next. The first practice exam opens at 15 verified questions, spread across all 6 domains.
Every question here is verified against vendor documentation 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.
- Performance-based
The highlighted formats are the ones you cannot answer from memory alone. Linux Foundation, CKS exam details ↗
CKS practice exams
No complete practice exam yet. A form is 15 questions apportioned to the official weightings, and a partial one would report a score that means nothing, so none is assembled until the questions are there.
- Open now
- Nothing is published for CKS yet. The bank is being written from the official objectives.
- Opens next
- The first practice exam opens at 15 verified questions, spread across all 6 domains.
Where CKS fits
An honest study plan
1. Read the official objectives first
Download the official objectives from Linux Foundation / CNCF and skim every line. The exam can only test what’s listed there, it’s the contract.
2. Weight your study toward Minimize Microservice Vulnerabilities and Supply Chain Security
Together the top two domains are 40% of the exam. Practice them until your accuracy is consistently above 80%.
3. Drill weak domains, then sit a numbered practice exam
Use Domain Drill on your weakest areas, then sit a full-length form under exam conditions: 15 questions in 120 minutes, scored against the published pass mark. Book the real exam when you are consistently clearing that, not before.
Official free resources
Study from the source. These are Linux Foundation / CNCF’s own materials:
Official CKS exam page & objectives ↗Keep reading
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.
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.
Ready to practice for CKS?
Nothing is published for this exam yet. Join the waitlist and we will tell you when the first questions ship, and nothing else.
CKS is not for sale yet. A certification goes on sale when it has a complete practice exam behind it, and this one does not, so there is nothing here worth charging for. Everything published is free to answer in the meantime.