Kubernetes Full Course 2026: Zero to Production

This is for you if

• You've copied YAML into a cluster but can't predict what Kubernetes will do with it
• You're aiming for a DevOps, SRE or platform role and want interview answers with real depth
• You run apps on Kubernetes at work and want probes, resources, rollouts and RBAC done right
• You learn best by building things, breaking them on purpose and fixing them

What's inside

• The control-loop mental model, with a step-by-step trace of what happens after kubectl apply
• 12 hands-on labs on a local kind cluster (Kubernetes v1.37), including turning the scheduler off and on
• Pods, init containers and native sidecars, Deployments, rollouts and rollbacks with zero-unavailable settings
• Services, EndpointSlices and DNS, plus where Gateway API fits now that ingress-nginx is retired
• ConfigMaps and Secrets: the reload behaviour that surprises everyone and how to handle credentials safely
• Probes, requests, limits and QoS, with an OOMKill and a liveness restart loop you cause yourself
• PV, PVC, StorageClass, StatefulSets, Jobs, CronJobs, DaemonSets, RBAC and Pod Security Admission
• Capstone: nginx, a Python API and PostgreSQL 18 with migrations, PDBs, NetworkPolicies, rollback and drain drills
• A symptom-to-fix troubleshooting table, 30 senior interview Q&As, a dense cheat sheet and a 30-day plan

After this guide you can

• Explain the Kubernetes architecture and trace any request through the control plane
• Debug Pending, CrashLoopBackOff, OOMKilled, unready and unreachable workloads methodically
• Ship and roll back Deployments without losing capacity
• Choose the right workload type and storage setup for stateless, stateful, batch and node-level work
• Lock down a namespace with least-privilege RBAC, Pod Security restricted and NetworkPolicies
• Deploy a production-shaped 3-tier app from an empty cluster and defend every decision in an interview

Contents

1. How Kubernetes Really Worksp. 4
2. Pods: The Unit Everything Else Builds Onp. 10
3. Deployments, Rollouts and Rollbacksp. 17
4. Services, DNS and How Traffic Finds Podsp. 23
5. ConfigMaps and Secretsp. 28
6. Probes, Resources and QoSp. 34
7. Storage: Volumes, PVs, PVCs and StatefulSetsp. 41
8. Jobs, CronJobs and DaemonSetsp. 47
9. Namespaces, RBAC and Pod Securityp. 52
10. Capstone: Deploy a 3-Tier App Properlyp. 58
11. The Troubleshooting Playbookp. 78
12. Interview Questions and Strong Answersp. 84
13. Cheat Sheet and 30-Day Practice Planp. 91