CKAD — ConfigMaps & Secrets
ConfigMaps & Secrets
Applications need configuration — database URLs, feature flags, API keys, passwords. Hard-coding these in container images is a bad practice. Instead, Kubernetes provides ConfigMaps for non-sensitive data and Secrets for sensitive data.
This chapter covers the Application Environment, Configuration & Security domain (25% of the CKAD exam — the highest-weighted domain).
| Topic | What You’ll Learn |
|---|---|
| ConfigMaps | Creating ConfigMaps from literals, files, env files, and YAML |
| Using ConfigMaps | Injecting ConfigMaps as environment variables and volume mounts |
| Secrets | Creating Secrets, Secret types, base64 encoding, stringData |
| Using Secrets | Injecting Secrets as environment variables and volume mounts |
| ConfigMap vs Secret | Comparison table, update behavior, when to use what |
| Hands-On Lab | ConfigMap and Secret labs with 5 practice questions |
