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Portal | Level: L1: Foundations | Topics: Kubernetes Core | Domain: Kubernetes

kubectl Drills

25 drills for Kubernetes CLI muscle memory. Each should take 1-3 minutes.

Difficulty: [E] Easy = single command | [I] Intermediate = flags or two commands | [H] Hard = multi-step or internal knowledge

Remember: The kubectl debugging trifecta: get (what exists), describe (detailed state + events), logs (application output). For any pod issue, run these three in order before anything else. Mnemonic: "GDL" — Get, Describe, Logs.

Gotcha: kubectl logs shows the current container's logs. If the container has crashed and restarted, use --previous to see the logs from the last terminated container. Without --previous, you may see an empty output or the new container's startup logs — missing the actual crash reason.

Drill 1: Find the failing pod [E]

Question: List all pods in grokdevops namespace. Identify any that are not Ready. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/crashloopbackoff.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 2: Get previous crash logs [E]

Question: A pod named grokdevops-xyz is in CrashLoopBackOff. Get the logs from the PREVIOUS container (before it crashed). 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/crashloopbackoff.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 3: Check pod events [E]

Question: Show the Events section for all pods in the grokdevops namespace that match the label app.kubernetes.io/name=grokdevops. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/readiness_probe_failed.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 4: Find the readiness probe configuration [I]

Question: Extract the readiness probe config for the grokdevops deployment as formatted JSON. 

# Your command here
Relevant lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-01-rollout-probe-failure/ Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 5: Check HPA status [E]

Question: Show HPA details for the grokdevops namespace, including current and target CPU utilization. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/hpa_not_scaling.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 6: Find the pod using the most CPU [I]

Question: Show CPU and memory usage for all pods in grokdevops namespace, sorted by CPU. 

# Your command here
Relevant lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-02-hpa-live-scaling/ Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 7: Check if a service has endpoints [E]

Question: List the endpoints for the grokdevops service. Determine if any pods are backing it. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/ingress_404.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 8: Check rollout status [E]

Question: Check whether the grokdevops deployment rollout is complete. Set a 30-second timeout. 

# Your command here
Relevant scenario: training/interview-scenarios/01-deployment-stuck-progressing.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 9: View rollout history [E]

Question: Show the revision history of the grokdevops deployment. 

# Your command here
Relevant lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-05-helm-upgrade-rollback/ Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 10: DNS resolution test [I]

Question: From inside the cluster, resolve the DNS name of the grokdevops service in the grokdevops namespace. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/dns_resolution.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 11: Check resource limits [I]

Question: Show the resource requests and limits for containers in the grokdevops deployment. 

# Your command here
Relevant lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-08-resource-limits-oom/ Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 12: Find OOMKilled pods [H]

Question: Find any pods that were terminated with reason OOMKilled in the grokdevops namespace. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/oomkilled.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 13: Check NetworkPolicy [I]

Question: List all NetworkPolicies in the grokdevops namespace and show their ingress/egress rules. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/networkpolicy_block.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 14: Port-forward to a pod [E]

Question: Forward local port 8080 to port 8000 on the grokdevops service. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 15: Check image version [I]

Question: Show which container image (with tag) is running in the grokdevops deployment. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/imagepullbackoff.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 16: View ConfigMap contents [E]

Question: Show the data in the ConfigMap used by the grokdevops deployment. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 17: Check ServiceMonitor [I]

Question: List ServiceMonitors in the monitoring namespace and show their label selectors. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/prometheus_target_down.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 18: Scale deployment [E]

Question: Scale the grokdevops deployment to 3 replicas and wait for rollout completion. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 19: Get pod YAML [E]

Question: Output the full YAML spec of a running grokdevops pod (pick the first one). 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 20: Check RBAC permissions [I]

Question: Check if the default service account in grokdevops namespace can list pods. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/rbac_forbidden.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 21: Watch events in real-time [E]

Question: Stream all events in the grokdevops namespace, showing new events as they happen. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 22: Get container restart count [H]

Question: Show restart counts for all containers in all pods in grokdevops namespace. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 23: Check ingress rules [I]

Question: List all Ingress resources in the grokdevops namespace and show their routing rules. 

# Your command here
Relevant runbook: training/library/runbooks/kubernetes/ingress_404.md Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 24: Exec into a pod [E]

Question: Open an interactive shell inside a running grokdevops pod. 

# Your command here
Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

Drill 25: Compare desired vs live state [H]

Question: Show the diff between the last-applied configuration and the live state of the grokdevops deployment. 

# Your command here
Relevant lab: training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-07-gitops-sync-and-drift/ Answer: answers/kubectl_answers.md

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Prerequisites

  • Kubernetes Exercises (Quest Ladder) (CLI) (Exercise Set, L1)

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