CKAD — Probes & Health Checks
Probes & Health Checks
Kubernetes needs to know if your application is healthy. Is it ready to receive traffic? Has it started properly? Is it still alive? Probes answer these questions automatically.
This chapter covers the Application Observability & Maintenance domain (15% of the CKAD exam). You need to understand the three types of probes and when to use each one.
| Topic | What You’ll Learn |
|---|---|
| Understanding Probes | Why health checks matter, three probe types, when to use each |
| Probe Mechanisms | HTTP GET, TCP Socket, Exec, gRPC checks, configuration parameters |
| Liveness Probes | Keep apps running — HTTP and Exec liveness probe examples |
| Readiness Probes | Control traffic flow — readiness probes with real-world patterns |
| Startup Probes | Handle slow apps, combine all three probes, debug failures |
| Hands-On Lab | Liveness & readiness labs, 5 practice questions |
