CNPA Exam Dumps - Linux Foundation Kubernetes and Cloud Native Questions and Answers

The main advantage of a platform engineering approach is balancing self-service for developers with organizational governance and standardization. Option A is correct because platforms enable developers to provision infrastructure and application environments independently while embedding security, compliance, and operational guardrails. This ensures that applications with diverse needs (e.g., different scaling patterns, compliance requirements, or environments) can still operate within a unified governance framework.

Option B (isolation only) is sometimes required for compliance but does not address the broader benefit of balancing flexibility and standardization. Option C forces uniformity, which reduces adaptability for varied workloads. Option D (centralized deployments) reduces developer autonomy and scalability.

The platform approach enables golden paths, curated abstractions, and reusable services, allowing diverse applications to thrive while maintaining control. This balance is central to platform engineering’s goal of reducing cognitive load and improving developer productivity.

Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) extend the Kubernetes API by allowing platform teams to create and expose custom APIs without modifying the core Kubernetes API server code. Option C is correct because this extensibility enables teams to define new abstractions (e.g., Database, Application, or Environment resources) tailored to organizational needs, which developers can consume through a self-service model.

Option A is incorrect because scaling and failover are handled by controllers or operators, not CRDs themselves. Option B is wrong because RBAC is still required for access control over custom resources. Option D is misleading because multi-cloud support depends on how CRDs and their controllers are implemented, not a built-in CRD feature.

By leveraging CRDs, platform teams can standardize workflows, hide complexity, and implement guardrails, all while presenting developers with simplified abstractions. This is central to platform engineering, as it empowers developers with self-service APIs while maintaining operational control.

In cloud native CI/CD workflows, build artifacts such as Docker/OCI images are pushed to a central container registry to ensure consistent, reproducible deployments. Option A is correct because registries serve as a single source of truth where immutable artifacts are stored, versioned, and distributed across environments. Deployment systems like Kubernetes pull images from these registries, ensuring that the same tested artifact is deployed in staging and production.

Option B is incorrect because images cannot be directly transformed back into source code. Option C partially describes benefits (version tracking) but misses the primary function of deployment consistency. Option D is misleading—registries typically don’t run automated tests; CI/CD pipelines do that before pushing the image.

By using OCI-compliant registries, organizations gain portability, interoperability, and compliance with supply chain security practices such as image signing and SBOM attestation. This ensures traceability, reliability, and secure distribution of artifacts across the platform.

Simplifying developer access to platform services is a central goal of internal developer platforms (IDPs). Option D is correct because a service catalog with abstracted APIs and automated registration provides a unified interface for developers to consume services without dealing with low-level infrastructure details. This approach combines service discovery with abstraction, offering golden paths and self-service capabilities.

Option A burdens developers with hardcoded dependencies, reducing flexibility and portability. Option B relies on manual documentation, which is error-prone and not dynamic. Option C increases cognitive load by requiring developers to interact directly with Kubernetes APIs, which goes against platform engineering’s goal of reducing complexity.

A service catalog enables developers to provision databases, messaging queues, or APIs with minimal input, while the platform automates backend provisioning and wiring. It also improves consistency, compliance, and observability by embedding platform-wide policies into the service provisioning workflows. This results in a seamless developer experience that accelerates delivery while maintaining governance.

Proper documentation is critical for fostering collaboration through APIs. Option A is correct because well-documented APIs ensure that all teams—platform engineers, developers, and operations—understand how to consume and integrate services effectively. Clear documentation reduces friction, accelerates adoption, and minimizes support overhead.

Option B (no versioning) is poor practice, as versioning ensures backward compatibility and safe upgrades. Option C (tight coupling) restricts collaboration and creates silos, which goes against platform engineering principles. Option D (complex design) reduces usability and increases cognitive load, the opposite of platform goals.

APIs serve as the contracts between teams and systems. In platform engineering, well-documented, versioned, and abstracted APIs provide a consistent and predictable way to interact with platform services, improving collaboration and developer experience.

Automation in platform engineering is primarily about reducing repetitive manual work, or toil, which consumes engineering capacity and increases the risk of human error. Option A is correct because cluster autoscaling—adjusting resources to meet workload demand—is a repetitive, ongoing task that is better handled through automation. Automating this process ensures scalability, efficiency, and reliability while freeing platform teams to focus on higher-value work.

Option B may provide learning opportunities but is not a sustainable justification. Option C is subjective and inefficient, while Option D is overly broad—automation should be applied thoughtfully to tasks that bring measurable benefits.

Automating autoscaling aligns with cloud native best practices, ensuring workloads can respond elastically to demand changes while maintaining cost efficiency. This reduces manual overhead, improves resiliency, and supports the developer experience by ensuring resource availability.

An API-driven service catalog provides a centralized and standardized interface where developers can discover and provision platform services. Option A is correct because it simplifies service discovery, allowing teams to connect to databases, messaging systems, and other infrastructure without needing in-depth platform knowledge. This improves productivity and developer experience by reducing cognitive load and ensuring consistent, governed access.

Option B is the opposite of the benefit—catalogs accelerate provisioning. Option C is incorrect because catalogs do not bypass security; they enforce guardrails and compliance. Option D is also incorrect because service catalogs abstract away provisioning details rather than forcing developers to manage them.

By providing golden paths and API-driven self-service, service catalogs ensure developers focus on building applications while platform teams maintain consistency and compliance.

Successful platform adoption depends heavily on cultural practices that foster collaboration and continuous improvement. Option D is correct because feedback loops between developers and platform teams ensure that the platform evolves to meet developer needs while balancing security and governance. This aligns with the principle of treating the platform as a product, where developer experience is central.

Option A (mandates) often lead to resistance and shadow IT. Option B isolates platform teams, creating silos and reducing alignment with developer workflows. Option C is misleading—security is important, but overemphasizing it at the expense of usability hinders adoption.

Feedback-driven iteration creates trust, improves usability, and drives organic adoption. It transforms the platform into a valuable product that developers want to use, rather than one they are forced to adopt.

An incident management system’s primary function is to coordinate response during outages, ensuring that alerts are centralized, on-call personnel are notified, communication is managed, and visibility is maintained. Option B is correct because it emphasizes the core responsibilities of incident management systems like PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or ServiceNow. These systems streamline response efforts, reducing mean time to recovery (MTTR).

Option A (incident documentation) is valuable but usually a secondary outcome of incident management. Option C (root cause analysis) is part of post-incident reviews, not the primary function during active response. Option D (automated remediation) may be supported by runbooks but is not the core role of incident management systems.

By centralizing and standardizing incident response, these systems enhance collaboration, reduce confusion, and provide stakeholders with up-to-date information on incident status, which is critical for maintaining trust and operational resilience.

Platform engineering clearly separates responsibilities between platform teams and application teams. Option C is correct because platform teams manage the platform and infrastructure layer, ensuring stability, compliance, and availability, while application teams own their applications, including troubleshooting application-specific issues.

Option A (creating a single merged team) introduces inefficiency and removes specialization. Option B incorrectly suggests application teams should also solve infrastructure issues, which conflicts with platform-as-a-product principles. Option D places all responsibilities on platform teams, which creates bottlenecks and undermines application team ownership.

By splitting responsibilities, IDPs empower developers with self-service provisioning while maintaining clear boundaries. This ensures both agility and accountability: platform teams focus on enabling and securing the platform, while application teams take ownership of their code and services.