KCNA Certified: One Step Into the Cloud-Native World

So, this happened—I’m now KCNA certified! 🎉

For those unfamiliar, KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) is basically a stamp of approval that says, “Yep, this person understands Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies well enough to not completely brick production”

The Journey (And the Posts I Half-Finished)

A while back, I started writing about my deep dive into cloud-native concepts—Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4—you get the idea. The plan was to document the whole journey, but somewhere along the way, writing about it got way more tedious than just doing the work.

Did I finish the series? Nope. Did I still get the cert? Absolutely.

What I Learned

Studying for KCNA covered a lot of ground, some of which I was already familiar with, and some that filled in the gaps:

• Kubernetes basics (clusters, pods, nodes—things I now officially know)
• Cloud-native tooling (GitOps, networking, storage, service meshes—buzzwords that finally clicked)
• kubectl commands (I may not have them all memorized, but at least I know what I should be looking up)
• Cloud-native security (A friendly reminder that just because something works doesn’t mean it’s secure)

What’s Next?

KCNA is a great first step, but I know there’s still a lot more to explore. Kubernetes is huge, and while I wouldn’t call myself an admin just yet, this cert gives me a solid foundation to build on. Maybe CKAD or CKA is in the future—or maybe I’ll just keep messing around with containers until it all clicks.

Either way, this was a fun challenge, and I’m glad I did it. If you’re thinking about KCNA, I’d say go for it—it’s a great way to level up, even if you’re just starting to get into Kubernetes.