first off i didn't take the exam yet.

so i can't really tell you what's "good enough" or give you the verified stamp of approval. but i feel ready. i did the work. i built the muscle memory. and if not for a ridiculous bureaucratic plot twist at the end of this story, i’d probably have the certificate right now.

the obsession

it started during my internship at octo.

i used to chit-chat a lot with this one colleague, smart guy, knew his stuff. one day he mentioned he had the ckad and strongly recommended it. honestly? that was the spark. it wasn't just about the resume anymore; it became an obsession. i fell down the k8s rabbit hole and didn't want to come out until i had mastered it.

the roadmap

so here is the actual stack i used to get from "i know what a pod is" to "i can debug a crash loop in my sleep."

the only resource you actually need

mumshad mannambeth's udemy course.

that’s it. you're good to go.

more seriously, just with that, you are set. it is hands down one of the greatest courses i’ve ever taken, college included. if you really want to get the certificate and you only have time for one thing, ignore the rest of this article and go buy that course.

but in my specific case...

i didn't just stop there. i started with the tech with nana 3-hour course. i think that is a good first watch to get the basics down. it’s digestible. it’s clear.

every time i found myself stuck or needing a deep dive, i read stephane robert's blog (which is excellent documentation) and done a little chit chat with chat gippidy here and there about some concepts and that helped a lot to grasp the basics.

to be completely honest, i already had the basics because of that internship at octo, but you know how it is—if you don't use it, you lose it. i had to keep it fresh. i even used notebooklm to test my understanding, feeding it my notes and having it quiz me, which was surprisingly useful.

the addiction

then i began the udemy course.

the first parts were quite easy because i already knew about most of the things. but what’s really great with the course is that you have hands-on labs to challenge your understanding.

and the labs are so cool it felt like a game.

it literally kept me out of pokemon pocket for a good while (that game sucks anyway). there is something satisfying about seeing the green checkmarks appear after you fix a broken deployment. it’s the same dopamine hit, but actually productive.

another cool thing: i used this as an excuse to finally force myself to use vim motions anywhere. i use vim btw i use vim btw i use vim btw. navigating yaml files with a mouse is for suckers.

the "genius" idea

all that took me about 3 weeks. basically a month if you count all the other stuff i'm doing in parallel (sleeping, playing, watching sports, going on twitter, you know high cognitive load tasks like that).

after successfully finishing the course, i got an idea. i wanted to create a local lab where i could challenge my skills even more. i was going to build this whole scenario-based training ground.

but then i found out someone already done that.

it’s called k8squest (shoutout to manoj-engineer on github).

hey, ideas don't have value, execution does. so no problemo. it’s actually a great tool to sharpen your skills without having to spin up your own environment from scratch.

the boss fight

after that, i passed the killer.sh simulator exam.

i heard that it was more difficult than the actual exam, and yeah, it didn't lie. i didn't pass it with ease the first time. i got 60%.

it wasn't a knowledge issue; it was a time management issue. you think you have time until you realize you spent 15 minutes on a json path query for a question worth 2%.

but i nailed it the second time with 75%.

the rug pull

so after that, i was hyped. i bought the voucher. i tried to fix a date for the exam. i felt ready. i was in the zone.

and i found out i can't.

why? because you need to show your id before the exam.

and my new id is getting out in... about 3 months.

yuuuup.

sums up my 2025 year perfectly lol.

i have to wait for 3 extra months. but honestly? i don't think that ll be a problem. probably gonna take one more week to prepare it when the plastic finally arrives. until then, i guess i’ll just keep practicing my vim motions.