Part 2 Cumulative Quiz: Application Deployment

Time Limit: 25 minutes (simulating exam pressure)

Passing Score: 80% (8/10 questions)

This quiz tests your mastery of:

• Deployments and rolling updates/rollbacks
• Helm package manager
• Kustomize
• Deployment strategies (blue/green, canary)

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Instructions

1. Try each question without looking at answers
2. Time yourself—speed matters for CKAD
3. Use only kubectl and kubernetes.io/docs
4. Check answers after completing all questions

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Questions

Question 1: Rolling Update Configuration

[2 minutes]

Create a Deployment named webapp with 4 replicas using nginx:1.20 that:

• Uses RollingUpdate strategy
• Has maxSurge: 1
• Has maxUnavailable: 0

Answer

cat << 'EOF' | k apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: webapp
spec:
  replicas: 4
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 1
      maxUnavailable: 0
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: webapp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: webapp
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.20
EOF

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Question 2: Rollback

[2 minutes]

A Deployment named api was updated but is failing. Roll it back to revision 2.

# Verify current state
k rollout history deploy/api

Answer

# Check history
k rollout history deploy/api

# Rollback to revision 2
k rollout undo deploy/api --to-revision=2

# Verify
k rollout status deploy/api

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Question 3: Helm Install with Values

[2 minutes]

Install a chart from the bitnami repository:

• Release name: my-nginx
• Chart: bitnami/nginx
• Set replicaCount=3
• Namespace: web (create if doesn’t exist)

Answer

# Add repo if needed
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update

# Install with values
helm install my-nginx bitnami/nginx \
  --set replicaCount=3 \
  -n web --create-namespace

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Question 4: Helm Rollback

[1 minute]

A Helm release my-app was upgraded and is now broken. Roll it back to the previous version.

Answer

# Check history
helm history my-app

# Rollback to previous
helm rollback my-app

# Or to specific revision
helm rollback my-app 1

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Question 5: Kustomize Basic

[3 minutes]

Create a Kustomization that:

• Includes deployment.yaml
• Sets namespace to production
• Adds prefix prod- to all names

Then apply it.

Answer

# Create kustomization.yaml
cat << 'EOF' > kustomization.yaml
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

resources:
- deployment.yaml

namespace: production
namePrefix: prod-
EOF

# Preview
kubectl kustomize ./

# Apply
kubectl apply -k ./

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Question 6: Kustomize Image Override

[2 minutes]

Create a Kustomization that overrides the nginx image to use tag 1.22 instead of whatever is in the base manifests.

Answer

kustomization.yaml

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

resources:
- deployment.yaml

images:
- name: nginx
  newTag: "1.22"

kubectl kustomize ./

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Question 7: Blue/Green Switch

[3 minutes]

You have two deployments:

• app-blue with label version: blue
• app-green with label version: green

A Service app-svc currently points to blue. Switch it to green.

Answer

# Switch service selector to green
kubectl patch svc app-svc -p '{"spec":{"selector":{"version":"green"}}}'

# Verify
kubectl get ep app-svc
kubectl describe svc app-svc

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Question 8: Canary Setup

[3 minutes]

Set up a canary deployment where:

• Stable deployment stable-app has 9 replicas (90%)
• Canary deployment canary-app has 1 replica (10%)
• A single Service routes to both

Both deployments already exist with label app: myapp.

Answer

# Scale deployments for 10% canary
kubectl scale deploy stable-app --replicas=9
kubectl scale deploy canary-app --replicas=1

# Create service that matches both (using common label)
kubectl expose deploy stable-app --name=myapp-svc --port=80 --selector=app=myapp

# Verify endpoints include pods from both deployments
kubectl get ep myapp-svc

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Question 9: Deployment Strategy

[2 minutes]

A database application requires that only one version runs at a time (no concurrent versions). What Deployment strategy should you use, and how do you configure it?

Answer

Use the Recreate strategy:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: database
spec:
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  # ... rest of spec

The Recreate strategy terminates all existing pods before creating new ones, ensuring no two versions run simultaneously.

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Question 10: Helm Values

[2 minutes]

Get the currently applied values for a Helm release named production-app. Then upgrade it keeping existing values but adding service.type=LoadBalancer.

Answer

# Get current values
helm get values production-app

# Upgrade keeping existing values, adding new one
helm upgrade production-app CHART_NAME \
  --reuse-values \
  --set service.type=LoadBalancer

Key: --reuse-values keeps all existing custom values.

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Scoring

Questions Correct	Score	Status
10/10	100%	Excellent - Ready for exam
8-9/10	80-90%	Good - Minor review needed
6-7/10	60-70%	Review weak areas
<6/10	<60%	Revisit Part 2 modules

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Cleanup

k delete deploy webapp api stable-app canary-app 2>/dev/null
k delete svc app-svc myapp-svc 2>/dev/null
helm uninstall my-nginx -n web 2>/dev/null
helm uninstall my-app 2>/dev/null
helm uninstall production-app 2>/dev/null
k delete ns web 2>/dev/null

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Key Takeaways

If you scored less than 80%, review these areas:

• Missed Q1-2: Review Module 2.1 (Deployments) - rolling updates and rollbacks
• Missed Q3-4: Review Module 2.2 (Helm) - install, upgrade, rollback commands
• Missed Q5-6: Review Module 2.3 (Kustomize) - basic structure and transformations
• Missed Q7-8: Review Module 2.4 (Strategies) - blue/green and canary patterns
• Missed Q9-10: Review strategy types and Helm values management

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Next Part

Part 3: Application Observability and Maintenance - Probes, logging, debugging, and API deprecations.