105 of the 147 CKA reference solutions had you type what nobody types
in the exam: heredoc manifests, sed, JSON patches, kubectl wait, loops,
command substitution, jsonpath into files. Each is rewritten as the
lessons are: a generator and the lines to add in vim, a manifest pasted
from the docs page it names, kubectl edit, ssh NODE and sudo -i, or a
value read off the screen and echoed. The other 42 were commands typed
as they stand already.
A solution can now be parts (sim/bank.py cmd, hand) as a lesson step's
show is. The page and ./ksim solution N render it as Markdown, each
thing to type a block of its own that a click copies, with the edit
beneath it. A solution in parts is its own audit script: load_track
runs its parts, and for each edit by hand the script beside it, so the
solution you read is the one proven. Their separate scripts in
cka/solve.py are dropped, and a task that has both is refused.
./ksim solution lint [N|DOMAIN..] reads what the solutions have you
type against TYPING_TRAPS: the CKA bank is clean. Q49's params gain
the plural stem and shortName the solution spells out (no new draws);
Q103, ported from CKAD Q23, takes a solution of its own.
Audited from a copy with renamed hosts: Q3-Q67 (52 tasks) all solved by
their parts, after two waits were added to the audit scripts (Q43's
DNS record, Q53's Pods); Q68-Q147 still running.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BNSZLLsGXTMBsw17kDunkQ
Show me how gave the commands the audit runs: sed, awk and yq edits,
heredoc manifests, JSON patches, --overrides, sleeps and wait loops -
nothing anyone types in the exam. A step's show is now a list of
parts (sim/bank.py): cmd() is what you type as it stands; hand() is
what you do by hand - vim on a generated skeleton or on a manifest
pasted from the docs page it names, kubectl edit, ssh NODE and sudo
-i, a value you read and echo - with a script that does the same for
the audit. All 135 CKA steps are rewritten so, with k for kubectl;
their checks, titles and texts are unchanged.
Add ./ksim lesson lint, which reads what every step has you type and
flags scripts. The lesson audit runs it first.
Record the hosts whose setup failed when a session started. The page
warns above that task or lesson and offers Rebuild this host; the CLI
names ./ksim reset N on each step.
Render *italics* in lessons and tasks, outside code spans.
Audited on v1.37: CKA lessons 27/27, 135/135 steps, done the exam
way; lint clean. kubectl edit --subresource resize, the one edit the
audit replaces with a patch, was proven on its own.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add runs of a domain's lessons: ./ksim lesson ARCH, the lobby's Teach
a domain card, or the Teach a domain session in the Start exam
dialog. A run is one lesson session over the domain's lessons not
done yet (--all: every one), each on its own host, all made before it
starts, so there is no waiting between lessons. The session keeps
the lesson you are on and each lesson's checks. A lesson's wrap-up
leads to the next, the list at the top of a lesson goes to any lesson
of the run, and ./ksim lesson next and ./ksim lesson OBJ do the same
in a terminal. Finishing the run sends you to the domain's drill.
Stamp a lesson done the moment its last step passes, not when the
session ends, so terminating a lesson or a run keeps what it taught.
Tested on a real STOR run in a copy of the repo: every host up before
step 1; lesson 1.1 done step by step through the CLI and the web API,
and stamped done as its last step passed; next, jump, a lesson
outside the run refused, and the finish report as expected.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add lessons: untimed guided labs, one per curriculum objective, on a
host of their own, in the browser and in the terminal. Each step has
a check, a hint and its commands; a lesson writes no history or
scores, only a done mark on its objective. CKAD 2.1-2.4 (24 steps)
and all 27 CKA objectives (135 steps) have one, and `./ksim lesson
audit` proves that every step fails, is done by its own commands,
then passes.
Add CKA tasks 132-147 (cka/bank_course.py) on what a full CKA course
teaches beyond the bank: a real upgrade from v1.36, a drain under a
PodDisruptionBudget, QoS and eviction, in-place resize, kube-proxy's
chains, encryption at rest, an operator, and CSI expansion, snapshots
and clones (ensure_csi_hostpath).
Move CKA and CKS to Kubernetes v1.37 and rebuild the hosts on Ubuntu
24.04, with kubelet, kubeadm and kubectl as held packages from
pkgs.k8s.io; the desktop runs Ubuntu too. Hosts gain man pages,
hexdump and xxd.
Fix CKS Q4, which gave 3 of 12 points untouched, and CKA Q4 and Q49,
whose solutions raced their new CRD.
Audited on v1.37: CKA 147/147, CKAD 105/105, CKS 109/110 (Q103, a
Falco task, failed to seed once and awaits a re-audit); lessons: 135
of 135 CKA steps and 24 of 24 CKAD steps.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Study mode is gone: no more untimed sessions with the reference
solutions open from the start. The path is now objective drills against
the clock, then a mock, then the fixed sets, and an objective is done
when every task passed on its latest timed attempt. In the lobby "Study
mode" becomes "Drill an objective" (the objective list, with one
"Against the clock" button per objective); ./ksim study is removed and
./ksim next always drills. study-<track>.json keeps focus, known and the
done stamps; results of old study sessions stay in it, read by nothing.
Also in this commit, from the work before it:
- ./ksim skip / unskip, and links beside each domain in the lobby: mark
a domain or an objective as known, so the path, the no-argument drill
and drill all leave it out; a mock still draws from every domain
- DOMAIN:N picks N tasks of a domain, spread over its objectives
- a command with neither --track nor KSIM_TRACK is for the track whose
session is under way; ./ksim show says where the task's host resolves
- CKAD Q60: the check names which file holds which run's output
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JZPd3GGWyxTgAkL6a4gAJz
kubestronaut-sim runs each exam task on a host of its own - a kind (kubeadm)
cluster in rootless podman, or a QEMU/KVM Ubuntu VM for the CKS tasks that
need their own kernel (Falco, AppArmor) - and puts a browser desktop in front
of them, the way killer.sh and sailor.sh do.
- ksim, sim/: the engine (sessions, drills, study mode, grading, coverage,
audit), host and VM lifecycle, the desktop
- images/: exam host images (common, CKS variant with its tools, VM guest)
- cka/ (131 tasks), ckad/ (105), cks/ (110): task banks, curricula with
study notes, reference solutions and scripted solutions
Every domain of every track has at least 17 pool tasks. `./ksim audit` proves
a task three ways: it seeds cleanly on its own host, scores nothing before
anyone has worked on it, and reaches full marks when its scripted solution is
run on the host as `candidate`. All 346 tasks pass (CKA audited 2026-10-13,
CKAD and CKS 2026-10-12).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JZPd3GGWyxTgAkL6a4gAJz
