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My Take on the Kubernetes CKAD Certification: Real Exam Experience and Lessons Learned

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My Experience and Feelings After Clearing the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

Last week I cleared the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification with a 95/100 score, and it was more difficult than it sounds even though this is the easiest of the Kubernetes certifications, the way the exam is designed and the skills that are evaluated on it make you unsure of your knowledge.

I have been using Kubernetes daily for more than three years now. Because of my work, it is required to deploy, define, troubleshoot Kubernetes-based workloads on different platforms (Openshift, EKS, AKS… anything), so you could think that I shouldn’t need to prepare for this kind of exam, and that could be the impression too. But this is far from reality.

I feel that there is no certification that you can clear without preparation because the certification does not measure how skilled you are on any other topic than the certification process itself. You can be the master of any technology, but if you go to a certification exam without any specific exam preparation, you have a lot of chances to fail.

Even in this case that we have shifted from the traditional theoretical test-case question to a more practical one, it is no different. Because yes, you don’t need to learn anything, and yes, it requires that you can really do things, not just know about a thing, but everything else is the same.

You will be asked about things you will never use in real life, you will need to use commands that you only are going to use in the exam, and you will need to do it in the specific way the expected too because this is how certification works. Is it bad? Probably… is there any other way to do it? We didn’t find it yet any better.

I have to admit that I think this process is much fairer than the test-case one, even though I prefer the test case just for a matter of timing during the process.

So, probably, you are asking if that is my view, why I try to clear the certification in the first place? There are several reasons to do it. First of all, I think certification is a great way to set a standard of knowledge for anyone. That doesn’t mean that people with the certification are more competent or better skilled than people without the certification. I don’t consider myself more qualified today than one month ago when I started to prepare for the certification, but at least it settled some foundation of what you can expect.

Additional to that is a challenge to yourself, to show you that you can do it, and it is always great to push your limits a bit beyond what is mandatory for work. And finally, it is something that looks good in your CV, that is for sure.

Do I learn something new? Yes, for sure, a lot of things. I even improved myself because I usually do some tasks, and just that alone made it worth it. Even if I failed, I think it was worth it because it always gives you something more to add to your toolchain, and that is always good.

Also, this exam doesn’t ensure that you are a good Kubernetes Application Developer. In my view, I think the exam approach is focused on showing that you are a fair Kubernetes Implementer. Why am I saying that? Let’s add some points:

  • You don’t get any points to provide the best solution for a problem. The ask is so specific that there is a matter of translating what is written in plain English to Kubernetes actions and objects.
  • There are troubleshooting questions, yes, but there are also quite basic ones that don’t ensure that your thought process is efficient. Again, efficiency is not evaluated on the process.

So, I am probably missing a Certified Kubernetes Architecture exam where you can have the definition of a problem, and you need to provide a solution. You will get evaluated based on that. Even with some way to justify the decision you are making and the thought process, I don’t think we ever see that. Why? Because, and that’s very important because any new certification exam we are going to face needs to be specific enough so it can be evaluated automatically.

📚 Want to dive deeper into Kubernetes? This article is part of our comprehensive Kubernetes Architecture Patterns guide, where you’ll find all fundamental and advanced concepts explained step by step.

Why Apache NetBeans Is Still a Great Java IDE in 2025 (Despite IntelliJ’s Popularity)

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Why Apache NetBeans Is Still a Great Java IDE in 2025 (Despite IntelliJ’s Popularity)

Discover what are the reasons why to me, Apache NetBeans is still the best Java IDE you can use

Let me start from the beginning. I always have been a Java Developer since my time at University. Even that I first learned another less-known programming (Modula-2), I quickly jump to Java to do all the different assignments and pretty much every task on my journey as a student and later as a software engineer.

I was always looking for the best IDE that I could find to speed up my programming tasks. The main choice was Eclipse at the university, but I have never been an Eclipse fan, and that has become a problem.

If you are in the Enterprise Software industry, you have noticed that pretty much every Developer-based tool is based on Eclipse because its licensing and its community behind make the best option. But I never thought that Eclipse was a great IDE, and it was too flexible but at the same time too complex.

So at that time is when I discover NetBeans. I think the first version I tried was in branch 3.x, and Sun Microsystem developed it at that time. It was quite much better than Eclipse. Indeed, the number of plugins available was not comparable with Eclipse, but the things that it did, it did it awesomely.

To me, if I need to declare why at that time Netbeans was better than Eclipse, probably the main things will be these:

  • Simplicity in the Run Configuration: Still, I think most Java IDE makes things too complex just to run the code. NetBeans simple Run without needed to create a Run Configuration and configure it (you can do it, but you are not mandated to do so)
  • Better Look & Feel: This is more based on a personal preference, but I prefer the default configuration from NetBeans compared with Eclipse.

So because of that, Netbeans become my default app to do my Java Programming, but Oracle came, and things change a little. With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems from Oracle, NetBeans was stalled like many other Open source projects. For years no many updates and progress.

It is not that they deprecated the product, but Oracle had a different IDE at the time JDeveloper, which was the main choice. This is easy to understand. I continued loyal to NetBeans even that we had another big guy in the competition: IntelliJ IDEA.

This is the fancy option, the one most developers used today for Java programming, and I can understand why. I’ve tried several times in my idea to try to feel the same feelings that others did, and I could read the different articles, and I acknowledge some of the advantages of the solution:

  • Better performance: It is clear that the response time from the IDE is better with IntelliJ IDEA than NetBeans because it doesn’t come from an almost 20-years journey, and it could start from scratch and use modern approaches for the GUI.
  • Fewer Memory Resources: Let’s be honest: All IDE consumes tons of memory. No one does great here (unless you are talking about text editors with Java compiler; that is a different story). NetBeans indeed requires more resources to run properly.

So, I did the switch and started using the solution from JetBrains, but it never stuck with me, because to me is still too complex. A lot of fancy things, but less focus on the ones that I need. Or, just because I was too used to how NetBeans do things, I could not do the mental switch that is required to adopt a new tool.

And then… when everything seems lost, something awesome happens: Netbeans was donated to the Apache Foundation and became Apache NetBeans. It seems like a new life for the tool providing simple things like Dark Mode and keeping the solution up-to-date to the progress in Java Development.

So, today, Apache NetBeans is still my preferred IDE, and I couldn’t voucher more for the usage of this awesome tool. And these are the main points I would like to raise here:

  • Better Maven Management: To me, the way and the simplicity you can manage your Maven project with NetBeans is out of this league. It is simple and focuses on performance, adding a new dependency without go to the pom.xml file, updating dependencies on the fly.
  • Run Configuration: Again, this still is a differentiator. When I’m coding something fast because of a new kind of utility, I don’t like to waste time creating run configuration or adding a maven exec plugin to my pom.xml to run the software I just coded. Instead, I need to click Run, a green button, and let the magic begins.
  • There is no need for everything else: Things evolve too fast in the Java programming world, but even today, I never feel that I was missing some capability or something in my NetBeans IDE that I could get if I move to a more modern alternative. So, no trade-offs here at this level.

So, I am aware that probably my choice is because I have a biased view of this situation. After all, this has been my main solution for more than a decade now, and I’m just used to it. But I consider myself an open person, and if I saw a clear difference, I wouldn’t have second thoughts of ditching NetBeans as I did with many other solutions in the past (Evernote, OneNote, Apple Mail, Gmail, KDE Basket, Things, Wunderstling.. )

So, if you have some curiosity about seeing how Apache NetBeans has progressed, please take a look at the latest version and give it a try. Or, if you feel that you don’t connect with the current tool, give it a try again. Maybe you have the same biased view as I have!!!