Kubernetes Assignments — Orchestrate. Resilience. Scale.

Go from first Pod to production-ready clusters. Each topic-wise set includes 20 Basic, 20 Intermediate, and 10 Advanced questions so learners can practice deliberately and level up fast.

Your seven attached assignments span: Core Concepts, Networking & Services, Storage & Config, Advanced Workloads & Scheduling, Kubernetes in DevOps, Security/Monitoring/Logging, and Best Practices.

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Why practice with these assignments?

  • Move beyond theory—create Pods/ReplicaSets/Deployments, roll forward/back, and manage namespaces & Services end-to-end.
  • Master networking (Service types, DNS, Ingress, CNI) with hands-on NodePort/LoadBalancer/TLS routing.
  • Build durable apps with PV/PVC/StorageClass, ConfigMaps, and Secrets—then validate persistence and config reloads.
  • Learn DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs, CronJobs, taints/tolerations, affinity/anti-affinity for real scheduling control.
  • Tie Kubernetes into CI/CD + Helm using blue-green/canary strategies.
  • Practice RBAC, NetworkPolicy, Prometheus/Grafana, and EFK for secure, observable clusters.
  • Apply HPA/VPA/Cluster Autoscaler, backups, HA patterns, probes, PDBs to run production-grade workloads.

How it works

  • Open any assignment and attempt questions in order: Basic → Intermediate → Advanced.
  • Use Minikube for local labs (enable tunnel/Ingress where required) or a managed cluster for cloud tasks.
  • Verify every step with kubectl get/describe/logs, Service reachability, and rollout status.
  • Keep a short “what I learned” note per task—syntax, behavior, and gotchas.

What you’ll achieve

  • Confident use of Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments, namespaces, Services, rolling updates & rollbacks.
  • Networking fluency: ClusterIP/NodePort/LoadBalancer, DNS/CoreDNS, Ingress (paths/hosts/TLS).
  • Reliable state with PV/PVC/StorageClass, plus ConfigMap/Secret injection via env/volumes.
  • Scheduling mastery: DaemonSet, StatefulSet, Job/CronJob, taints/tolerations, (anti)affinity.
  • DevOps integration: Helm, Jenkins/GitLab/GitHub Actions, blue-green & canary rollouts.
  • Secure & observable ops: RBAC, NetworkPolicy, Secrets at rest, Prometheus/Grafana, EFK.
  • Production best practices: HPA/VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, HA control planes, backups/restore, PDBs, probes.

Browse the Assignments

  • Assignment 1 — Kubernetes Core Concepts
    Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments, namespaces, scaling, rollout & rollback, ClusterIP/NodePort and verification with kubectl exec/curl.
  • Assignment 2 — Networking & Services
    CNI & flat networking, Service discovery (DNS/CoreDNS), ClusterIP/NodePort/LoadBalancer, Ingress (paths/hosts/TLS), and Minikube tunnel.
  • Assignment 3 — Storage & Config Management
    Volumes, PV/PVC/StorageClass (static + dynamic), ConfigMaps/Secrets (env & volume), and a MySQL + PVC persistence project.
  • Assignment 4 — Advanced Workloads & Scheduling
    DaemonSets, StatefulSets (stable identity), Jobs/CronJobs, taints/tolerations, node (anti)affinity, and headless Services.
  • Assignment 5 — Kubernetes in DevOps
    Jenkins/GitLab/GitHub Actions to kubectl/Helm, blue-green and canary strategies, chart packaging, upgrades & rollbacks.
  • Assignment 6 — Security, Monitoring & Logging
    RBAC (Roles/ClusterRoles/Bindings), NetworkPolicy, Secrets & encryption at rest, Prometheus/Grafana, EFK stack.
  • Assignment 7 — Kubernetes Best Practices
    HPA/VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, HA control plane, etcd backups/restore, PDBs, probes, and multi-cloud (EKS/AKS/GKE) exercises.

Tips for success

  • Use namespaces (-n) and labels consistently; selectors power Services, rollouts, and canaries.
  • For LoadBalancer on Minikube, run minikube tunnel and check external IPs; for Ingress, verify controller logs and DNS/hosts.
  • Confirm persistence: delete Pods and ensure data survives via PVCs; prefer dynamic provisioning with a StorageClass.
  • Spread and pin workloads with (anti)affinity and tolerations; verify with kubectl describe.
  • Ship safely: Helm for templating, helm upgrade –install and helm rollback for controlled releases.
  • Lock down access with RBAC; enforce traffic boundaries with NetworkPolicy; avoid printing secrets.
  • Right-size capacity: HPA for Pods, VPA for recommendations/auto, and Cluster Autoscaler for nodes.

Ready to build real confidence in Kubernetes? Pick a set below and start solving!

Assignment-1

Assignment-2

Assignment-3

Assignment-4

Assignment-5

Assignment-6

Assignment-7

FAQs

Q1. Which cluster should I use—Minikube or cloud?
Start with Minikube for local labs (enables NodePort/LoadBalancer via minikube tunnel and easy Ingress). Move to a managed cluster (EKS/AKS/GKE) for autoscaling/HA tasks.

Q2. What’s the difference between Pod, ReplicaSet, Deployment, StatefulSet, DaemonSet, Job/CronJob?
Pods are the unit of execution; ReplicaSets keep a count; Deployments manage ReplicaSets & rollouts; StatefulSets add stable identity/storage; DaemonSets run one per node; Jobs/CronJobs run to completion/on a schedule. You’ll practice each.

Q3. How do I expose my app?
Use ClusterIP for internal access, NodePort for node-level external access, LoadBalancer for cloud/external IPs, and Ingress for HTTP routing (host/path/TLS).

Q4. ConfigMap vs Secret—when to use which?
ConfigMaps hold non-sensitive config; Secrets hold credentials/keys (base64-encoded, enable encryption at rest). Both can be env vars or volumes.

Q5. How do I make data persistent?
Claim storage with PVCs bound to PVs (static or dynamic via StorageClass). Verify by recreating Pods and checking data remains.

Q6. What are taints, tolerations, and affinity for?
They steer scheduling: taints/tolerations keep workloads off certain nodes; affinity/anti-affinity attract/repel Pods based on labels to spread or pin workloads.

Q7. How do I integrate CI/CD?
Use Jenkins/GitLab/GitHub Actions to build/test, then kubectl or Helm to deploy. Apply blue-green or canary strategies for safe releases.

Q8. How do I monitor and collect logs?
Install Prometheus/Grafana for metrics and EFK (Elasticsearch/Fluentd/Kibana) for logs; expose dashboards via Ingress and add alerts.

Q9. What’s the difference between HPA, VPA, and Cluster Autoscaler?
HPA scales Pods based on metrics; VPA recommends/updates Pod resources; Cluster Autoscaler adds/removes nodes to fit workloads. You’ll use all three.

Q10. How much time should I allocate per assignment?
Plan 30–60 minutes per difficulty band. Ingress/Helm, storage/stateful, and autoscaling/HA sets may take longer—opt for correctness and observability first.