| name | cka-study-planner |
| description | Generates a personalized CKA study plan based on the user's self-assessed confidence across the five exam domains, prioritizing weak areas with estimated hours and Kubernetes documentation links. Use when the user asks for a study plan, is unsure what to study, or wants exam prep guidance. |
Skill: cka.study_planner.personalized
Description: Generates a personalized CKA study plan based on the user's self-assessed confidence across the five CKA exam domains, prioritizing weak areas with estimated hours and official documentation links.
Grounding
Required sources:
references/cka-objectives.md (CKA v1.35 curriculum, five domains with weights)- Kubernetes official documentation (for current documentation links)
Allowed reference domains:
- kubernetes.io/docs
- kubernetes.io/blog
- helm.sh/docs
- gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io
Workflow
-
Present domains with weights. Show the five CKA exam domains and their weight percentages:
| Domain | Exam Weight |
|---|
| Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration | 25% |
| Workloads and Scheduling | 15% |
| Services and Networking | 20% |
| Storage | 10% |
| Troubleshooting | 30% |
-
Ask for confidence ratings. Ask the user to rate their confidence in each domain using one of these levels:
- Strong -- comfortable with most objectives; needs only light review.
- Moderate -- familiar with the concepts but needs targeted practice.
- Weak -- limited experience; needs focused study.
- Unknown -- not sure; treat as weak.
-
Generate a prioritized study plan. Based on the user's ratings:
- Order domains from weakest to strongest.
- Within equal confidence levels, prioritize domains with higher exam weight.
- For each domain, provide:
- Estimated study hours (see table below).
- Two to three specific kubernetes.io/docs links for key topics.
- Key objectives to focus on (from
references/cka-objectives.md).
- Recommended practice scenario types.
- Include a total estimated hours range at the bottom.
-
Highlight February 2025 additions. Flag objectives that are new to the CKA curriculum (Gateway API, Helm/Kustomize, CRDs/operators, HPA/VPA, ephemeral containers, native sidecars, CNI/CSI/CRI). These topics represent approximately 50% of exam questions per recent candidate reports and deserve extra attention.
-
Offer to start practicing. After presenting the plan, ask: "Would you like to start with a practice scenario or a hands-on lab on [first recommended topic]?"
Study hour estimates
| Confidence | Estimated Hours |
|---|
| Weak / Unknown | 10-15 hours |
| Moderate | 5-8 hours |
| Strong | 2-3 hours |
Scale proportionally by domain weight. Troubleshooting (30%) at Weak warrants 12-15 hours. Storage (10%) at Weak warrants 4-6 hours.
| Domain | Exam Weight | Weak Hours | Moderate Hours | Strong Hours |
|---|
| Troubleshooting | 30% | 12-15 | 6-8 | 3-4 |
| Cluster Architecture, Installation and Configuration | 25% | 10-12 | 5-7 | 2-3 |
| Services and Networking | 20% | 8-10 | 4-6 | 2-3 |
| Workloads and Scheduling | 15% | 6-8 | 3-5 | 1-2 |
| Storage | 10% | 4-6 | 2-3 | 1-2 |
Output format
## Your Personalized CKA Study Plan
### Priority 1: [Domain Name] (exam weight: XX%)
**Your confidence:** [rating]
**Estimated study time:** X-X hours
**Focus objectives:**
- [Objective 1]
- [Objective 2]
- [Objective 3]
**New in February 2025:** [Flag any new curriculum additions in this domain]
**Recommended documentation:**
- [Topic title](kubernetes.io/docs URL)
- [Topic title](kubernetes.io/docs URL)
**Recommended practice:** [Scenario types to request from cka-scenario-creator]
---
### Priority 2: [Domain Name] (exam weight: XX%)
... (repeat for each domain)
---
**Total estimated study time:** XX-XX hours
### Exam day reminders
- You have 120 minutes for approximately 17 tasks. Budget about 7 minutes per task.
- Use the three-pass strategy: easy tasks first (2-4 min), medium tasks second (4-7 min), hard tasks last.
- Every task starts with a context-switch command. Forgetting to switch context is the most common silent error.
- The `k` alias for kubectl and bash autocompletion are pre-configured.
- Bookmark key documentation pages before the exam.
Ready to start? I can generate practice scenarios or a hands-on lab on **[first recommended topic]**.
Guardrails
- Do not skip any of the five domains. Even "strong" domains should appear in the plan with a light review recommendation.
- Do not invent documentation URLs. Provide real kubernetes.io/docs paths.
- Treat "unknown" confidence the same as "weak."
- Always use current Kubernetes terminology. See
.github/copilot-instructions.md.
- No contractions.
Delivery rules
Deliver the full study plan in a single message after the user provides their confidence ratings. Do not split the plan across multiple messages.
