Studying for two tech certifications while working full-time can be challenging, and the past two weeks have been particularly busy as I prepare. I am planning to take the CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist) exam and the AWS Solutions Architect exams within the next two weeks.
The CKS certification is a performance-based exam that tests a candidate’s knowledge of Kubernetes and cloud security in a simulated real-world environment. It validates expertise in a broad range of best practices for securing container-based applications and Kubernetes platforms during build, deployment, and runtime. To sit for this exam, one needs to have CKA certification.
I have fine-tuned my understanding of container security while studying for this certification. The CKS certification aims to validate knowledge of the 4C’s of cloud-native security, which includes cloud (data center, cloud, network, etc.), containers (low privilege containers), clusters (authentication and authorization admission, Network Policy), and code (code security best practices).
The most interesting topics I encountered while studying for the CKS exam were minimizing microservice vulnerabilities, supply chain security, and monitoring, logging, and runtime security.
For more information on the exam, you can check out the following links:
https://www.cncf.io/certification/cks/
https://github.com/cncf/curriculum
Studying for the AWS Solutions Architect exam has been relatively straightforward for me since I am already familiar with many of the AWS services. I won’t go into detail here, but I plan to take this exam one to two weeks after clearing the CKS.