Mock Interview Guide - Kubernetes
🗃️ Instructions for Interviewer:
● You are playing the role of interviewer. Use this guide as a script.
● Ask each question one at a time. Follow the steps: Definition → Details → Scenario
→ Follow-up.
● If the interviewee struggles, use the hint.
● The goal is to keep it conversational and practical. Help the interviewee think and
express their learning.
● colors assigned: Questions Answers Hint
Freshers - Level
Kubernetes (10 Easy DevOps Interview Questions)
1. Ask: 🗣️ "What is Kubernetes and what problem does it solve?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Kubernetes is an open-source platform that
automates container deployment, scaling, and management. It
solves the problem of managing large-scale containerized
applications."
💡 Hint: "Think of it as a container orchestration system."
2. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a Pod in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A Pod is the smallest deployable unit in
Kubernetes. It can hold one or more containers that share storage,
network, and context."
💡 Hint: "Think of a Pod as a wrapper around containers."
3. Ask: 🗣️ "What is the role of kubelet?"
✅ Expected Answer: "The kubelet is an agent that runs on each
node and ensures containers are running in a Pod."
💡 Hint: "It's the component that communicates between the control
plane and the node."
4. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a Deployment in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A Deployment provides declarative updates
to Pods and ReplicaSets."
💡 Hint: "It helps in scaling and rolling updates."
5. Ask: 🗣️ "What command is used to view running Pods?"
✅ Expected Answer: "kubectl get pods"
💡 Hint: "It starts with 'kubectl get ...'’
6. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a Service in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A Service exposes an application running
on a set of Pods as a network service."
💡 Hint: "Think of it as a stable endpoint for accessing Pods."
7. Ask: 🗣️ "What types of Services are there in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer,
ExternalName."
💡 Hint: "Think about how services can be exposed inside or outside
the cluster."
8. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a ConfigMap used for?"
✅ Expected Answer: "ConfigMap is used to store non-sensitive
configuration data such as key-value pairs."
💡 Hint: "Used to pass environment-specific values into Pods."
9. Ask: 🗣️ "What is the function of a namespace in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Namespaces allow you to divide cluster
resources between users or teams."
💡 Hint: "Useful for managing multi-tenant clusters."
10. Ask: 🗣️ "How do you scale a Deployment?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Use 'kubectl scale deployment --replicas='
or update the YAML file."
💡 Hint: "Scaling means increasing or decreasing the number of Pod
replicas."
Scenario-Based Questions
🗣️
1️. Ask: “You want to run your app in Kubernetes. What’s the first thing
you need to create?”
✅ Expected: “A Pod or a Deployment using a YAML file.”
💡 Hint: “What object actually runs the container?”
2.🗣️ Ask: “Your container keeps restarting again and again. What would
you check?”
✅ Expected: “Check pod status using kubectl describe or logs to
find crash loop reason.”
💡 Hint: “Use kubectl get pods and then describe/logs.”
🗣️
3️. Ask: “You want to expose your pod so it can be accessed from
outside. What would you use?”
✅ Expected: “Use a Service (type NodePort or LoadBalancer).”
💡 Hint: “Think about networking in Kubernetes.”
🗣️
4️. Ask: “You made a change to your container image. How can you
make Kubernetes pull the new version?”
✅ Expected: “Update the image version in the deployment and do
a rollout.”
💡 Hint: “Use kubectl set image or edit the deployment.”
Project-Based Questions
🗣️
5️. Ask: “Suppose you built a simple Python Flask app. How would
you run it on Kubernetes?”
✅ Expected: “Create a Docker image, push to Docker Hub, write a
Deployment YAML, and apply it.”
💡 Hint: “Think: Docker + YAML + kubectl apply.”
🗣️
6️. Ask: “You want to deploy a static website using NGINX. How would
you do that in Kubernetes?”
✅ Expected: “Use an NGINX image in a pod or deployment and
expose it via a Service.”
💡 Hint: “Use official NGINX image + NodePort service.”
Medium-Level
( DevOps Interview Questions - 1 to 2 Years Experience)
1. Ask: 🗣️"What are the main components of the Kubernetes control
plane?"
✅ Expected Answer: "API Server, Scheduler, Controller Manager,
and etcd are the key components."
💡 Hint: "These components manage the state and desired behavior of
the cluster."
2. Ask: 🗣️ "What is the role of kube-proxy in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "kube-proxy maintains network rules and
enables communication between pods across nodes."
💡 Hint: "It handles routing of traffic inside the cluster."
3. Ask: 🗣️"How does Kubernetes handle container restarts when a
pod fails?"
✅ Expected Answer: "The kubelet on the node restarts the
container based on the pod's restart policy."
💡 Hint: "Check the restartPolicy in the pod spec (Always, OnFailure,
Never)."
4. Ask: 🗣️
"What is a ReplicaSet and how is it related to
Deployments?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A ReplicaSet ensures the desired number of
pod replicas. Deployments manage ReplicaSets."
💡 Hint: "Deployment is a higher-level object managing ReplicaSets."
5. Ask: 🗣️
"How would you update a running application in
Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Use 'kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml' or
update image with 'kubectl set image'."
💡 Hint: "Think rolling updates using Deployments."
6. Ask: 🗣️
"What is the difference between ConfigMap and Secret in
Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Both store configuration, but Secrets are
used for sensitive data and are base64 encoded."
💡 Hint: "Use Secret for passwords or tokens."
7. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a StatefulSet and when would you use it?"
✅ Expected Answer: "StatefulSet is used for stateful applications
requiring stable identities and storage."
💡 Hint: "Databases like MongoDB, Cassandra use StatefulSets."
8. Ask: 🗣️
"What is the difference between a DaemonSet and a
Deployment?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A DaemonSet runs one pod per node, while
a Deployment manages replicas of pods."
💡 Hint: "DaemonSet is for background services like monitoring
agents."
9. Ask: 🗣️
"What is a namespace in Kubernetes and why is it
useful?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Namespaces help organize cluster
resources and isolate teams/projects."
💡 Hint: "Useful in multi-tenant clusters."
10. Ask: 🗣️ "What is the use of liveness and readiness probes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Liveness checks if app is running;
readiness checks if app is ready to serve traffic."
💡 Hint: "Helps Kubernetes restart or route traffic based on app state."
Scenario-Based Questions
🗣️
1️. Ask: “You need to make your deployment scale automatically when
traffic increases. What would you use?”
✅ Expected: “Use a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler based on CPU or
custom metrics.”
💡 Hint: “Think metrics + replicas.”
🗣️
2️ . Ask: “One of your pods isn’t scheduling on any node. What do you
check first?”
✅ Expected: “Check node resources, taints, tolerations, or pod
affinity rules.”
💡 Hint: “Describe the pod and check events.”
🗣️
3️. Ask: “You want to give a pod access to secrets or config. How
would you do that?”
✅ Expected: “Use ConfigMaps and Secrets mounted as env vars
or volumes.”
💡 Hint: “Which object stores environment-specific values?”
🗣️
4️. Ask: “Your app needs to persist data even if the pod restarts. What
would you use?”
✅ Expected: “Use Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume
Claims.”
💡 Hint: “Ephemeral vs Persistent storage?”
Project-Based Questions
🗣️
5️. Ask: “You want to deploy a web app and a database together that
talk to each other. How would you design it in Kubernetes?”
✅ Expected: “Use 2 deployments (e.g., Node.js + MySQL), expose
using internal services, configure using env variables or secrets.”
💡 Hint: “Think of multi-container design + Services.”
🗣️
6. Ask: “How would you create a reusable setup for development and
testing environments using Kubernetes?”
✅ Expected: “Use Helm charts or Kustomize to manage configs
for each environment.”
💡 Hint: “Templating and configuration management tools?”
Advanced-Level
( DevOps Interview Questions - 3+ Years Experience)
1. Ask: 🗣️
"How does Kubernetes handle high availability in the
control plane?"
✅ Expected Answer: "By running multiple control plane nodes
with leader election and etcd clustering."
💡 Hint: "Look into how etcd and kube-API-server achieve HA."
2. Ask: 🗣️ "Explain the role of etcd in Kubernetes."
✅ Expected Answer: "etcd is a distributed key-value store used
for storing all cluster configuration data."
💡 Hint: "It's the source of truth for the cluster state."
3. Ask: 🗣️ "How do network plugins (CNI) work in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "CNI plugins configure network interfaces in
pods and manage IP addresses."
💡 Hint: "Examples include Calico, Flannel, Cilium."
4. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a sidecar container and where is it used?"
✅ Expected Answer: "A sidecar runs alongside the main container
to provide additional features like logging or proxy."
💡 Hint: "Used in service mesh or log collectors."
5. Ask: 🗣️ "How would you debug a node issue in Kubernetes?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Use kubectl describe node, journalctl for
kubelet logs, and check resource utilization."
💡 Hint: "Start with kubectl describe and check node taints."
6. Ask: 🗣️ "How does Kubernetes perform a rolling update?"
✅ Expected Answer: "It gradually replaces pods with new ones,
ensuring availability during updates."
💡 Hint: "Check strategy in Deployment: RollingUpdate."
7. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a Custom Resource Definition (CRD)?"
✅ Expected Answer: "CRDs allow users to define their own
resource types in Kubernetes."
💡 Hint: "Used to extend Kubernetes API."
8. Ask: 🗣️ "What is a Pod Disruption Budget (PDB)?"
✅ Expected Answer: "PDB ensures a minimum number of pods
are always running during voluntary disruptions."
💡 Hint: "Used for high availability during upgrades or maintenance."
9. Ask: 🗣️ "How do you secure Kubernetes clusters?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Use RBAC, TLS encryption, network
policies, and restrict access to API server."
💡 Hint: "Start with RBAC and secrets management."
10. Ask: 🗣️
"What tools can you use to monitor a Kubernetes
cluster?"
✅ Expected Answer: "Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, and tools
like kube-state-metrics."
💡 Hint: "Look into open-source observability stacks."
Scenario-Based Questions
🗣️
1️. Ask: “You notice a memory leak in a container. How can
Kubernetes help you recover automatically?”
✅ Expected: “Set resource limits and liveness probes to restart
unhealthy containers.”
💡 Hint: “How does Kubernetes detect unhealthy states?”
🗣️
2️. Ask: “You need to schedule pods only on specific nodes. How
would you achieve that?”
✅ Expected: “Use node selectors, affinity/anti-affinity, or taints
and tolerations.”
💡 Hint: “Think node-specific rules.”
🗣️
3️. Ask: “A rollout failed in production. How do you roll back your
deployment safely?”
✅ Expected: “Use kubectl rollout undo deployment <name>.”
💡 Hint: “Kubernetes tracks past versions of deployments.”
🗣️
4️. Ask: “Your app needs to scale during peak hours and also reduce
costs at night. How would you automate this?”
✅ Expected: “Use scheduled jobs or CronJob + autoscaler +
possibly custom controller.”
💡 Hint: “Combine time-based triggers + HPA.”
Project-Based Questions
🗣️
5️. Ask: “You are tasked to build a production-grade cluster for a
microservices app. What components would you include?”
✅ Expected: “Use Ingress, ConfigMaps, Secrets, resource limits,
monitoring (Prometheus), and centralized logging.”
💡 Hint: “Think full stack – not just pods.”
🗣️
6️. Ask: “You want to migrate a legacy app to Kubernetes without
downtime. How would you plan it?”
✅ Expected: “Use blue-green or canary deployments, health
checks, and readiness probes.”
💡 Hint: “Safe rollout techniques?”
