10 Best Kubernetes Courses to Start Learning Online in 2023

Introduction

Kubernetes is one of the most popular tools in today's world. Many companies use it for running their apps. Do you want to learn about it? Then you are at the right place. The blog provides you with a list of the best Kubernetes courses you can find online. Some courses are for beginners, so you can start with the basics. Already familiar with Kubernetes? Then you can start with the intermediate-level courses. And the best thing? These courses are very practical, so you'll get a lot of hands-on experience.

Which Kubernetes Course is Right for You?

You should select the course that is most suitable for you. To help you with that, we have considered multiple factors. These factors will help you make the right choice. Some of them include the level of proficiency, learning hours, certification, hands-on exercises, etc. You may select one of them depending on your priority.

The level of expertise can be divided into three parts:

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

If you are a total beginner, then you should choose Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginners. Are you interested in security? The Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) is for you. If you want to know about Helm, you can go through this course - Helm for Beginners. Are you new to the DevOps world? DevOps Pre-Requisite Course will give you the right way forward.

Some courses are on Docker, in case you want to learn more about containers. Docker for the Absolute Beginners and Docker Certified Associate will help you on this journey.

10 Best Kubernetes Courses in 2022

#1. CKA Certification Course – Certified Kubernetes Administrator

This course will help you prepare for the CKA certification. It assures that you have the skills of a Kubernetes admin. It makes you qualified in handling the clusters (the collection of servers and software that make up a Kubernetes infrastructure).

Who should opt for this course?

Those interested in administering the Kubernetes clusters. You will get more info about it from an admin's point of view. You will be responsible for managing the Kubernetes instances.

What can you learn from this course?

• Introduction to the core concepts like Pods, Deployments, etc.
• Different ways of scheduling i.e. Using labels, selectors, taints, etc.
• How to monitor the cluster and see logs of apps.
• Maintaining the cluster and apps running on top of it.
• How to use storage for the apps using PVCs - Persistent Volume Claims.
• Design and install a cluster.
• How to troubleshoot any issue that comes in Kubernetes.
• Mock exams to help you prepare for the exam.

And much more!

Level of expertise - Advanced

Learning Hours - 20 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#2. Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

This course will help you prepare for the CKAD certification. It qualifies you as an app developer on Kubernetes. You will learn how to design, build, and deploy apps on Kubernetes.

Who should opt for this course?

People who want to build and run apps on Kubernetes should opt for this course. You will get more exposure from a developer's point of view.

What can you learn from this course?

• Introduction to the core concepts like Pods, Deployments, etc.
• How to configure apps and secure them.
• Define and observe the state of the apps.
• Design pods and run them on Kubernetes.
• Enable apps to talk with each other via Services.
• Maintain the state of the apps.
• Mock exams to help you prepare for the exam.

Level of expertise - Advanced

Learning Hours - 15 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#3. Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)

Security is a top priority for any company. This course will teach you how to secure the Kubernetes infrastructure, plus the apps and containers that it hosts. CKA is a prerequisite for the CKS exam. You should have a valid CKA certification before sitting for the CKS exam.

Who should opt for this course?

This course focuses more on the security side of Kubernetes. CKA pros, admins, and cloud engineers can opt for this course.

What can you learn from this course?

• Understand how Kubernetes clusters are attacked.
• The 4C's of Cloud-native security - Cloud, Clusters, Containers, and Code
• How to set up the cluster in a secure manner.
• Minimize the vulnerabilities in the cluster.
• Detect threats on the cluster.
• Monitor and log the health of the cluster.
• How to improve container isolation and security.
• How to enforce security policies within your cluster.
• Mock exams to help you prepare for the exam.

Level of expertise - Advanced

Learning Hours - 8.25 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#4. Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginners

Want to get started with Kubernetes? This course is perfect. It makes all the basic concepts very easy to understand.

Who should opt for this course?

Anyone who wants to learn about Kubernetes.

What can you learn from this course?

• Introduction to Kubernetes and its architecture.
• How to set up an instance of Kubernetes on your machine.
• Basic objects of Kubernetes such as Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments, etc.
• Introduction to YAML (Yet Another Markup Language).
• Basics of networking in Kubernetes.
• Ways to access apps running on Kubernetes.
• How to run an app on the cluster.

Level of expertise - Beginner

Learning Hours - 6 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#5. Docker for the Absolute Beginners

Docker is a tool that runs apps in separate containers. It is one of the widely-used tools in the DevOps ecosystem. The beginners should know about Docker first. Kubernetes works with containers. So learning about these will help you a lot on your journey to master Kubernetes next.

Who should opt for this course?

Any beginner who wants to learn about Docker and containers.

What can you learn from this course?

• Basic commands of Docker
• Introduction to Docker engine
• How to run an app using Docker
• Run and configure multiple apps Docker compose.
• How to create an image of the app.
• Store and persist app-related data.
• Introduction to Docker networking.
• Store images at a central location (container registry).
• Using Docker on Windows and Mac.
• Introduction to Docker Swarm and Kubernetes.

Level of expertise - Beginner

Learning Hours - 3.75 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#6. Docker Certified Associate

This course helps you prepare for the DCA (Docker Certified Associate) exam. It will validate your technical knowledge of Docker. The course covers all the required topics from the DCA curriculum.

The pre-requisites to attend this course are:

The Docker for Beginners Course

The Kubernetes for Beginners Course

Who should opt for this course?

People who have basic knowledge about Docker and Kubernetes can opt for this course.

What can you learn from this course?

• Docker engine and its architecture.
• Building custom images of apps.
• Enabling resource requests and limits for apps.
• Networking aspects related to apps.
• Using volumes to store the app-related data.
• Introduction to Docker compose.
• How Docker and Kubernetes work with each other.
• How to recover from any disaster on Docker Swarm.
• Mock exams to help you prepare for the exam.

Level of expertise - Intermediate

Learning Hours - 13.50 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#7. DevOps Pre-Requisite Course

Want to begin your journey into DevOps? This course will help you do just that. It is a prerequisite course for DevOps. It will strengthen the basics required before going on this journey.

Who should opt for this course?

Any beginner who wants to go into the DevOps domain.

What can you learn from this course?

• Introduction to Linux and its commands.
• Introduction to Virtual box.
• Basics of networking.
• Basics of programming languages like Java, Python, and NodeJS.
• Introduction to Git.
• Web servers and database basics.
• Basics of SSL and TLS.
• Introduction to YAML and JSON.

Level of expertise - Beginner

Learning Hours - 6.25 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#8. Kubernetes Challenges

The theory is good, but nothing beats real-world experience. See if you can master these challenges. You'll basically get tasks that you need to solve with real Kubernetes commands. This is a quick and fun way to test your knowledge.

Who should opt for this course?

People that want to test their real-world Kubernetes skills. This will help you discover your strong and weak areas of knowledge. So you'll find out if you need to study more in certain areas.

What can you learn from this course?

• 4 different challenges to test your skills.
• How to tackle these 4 challenges.

Level of expertise - Intermediate

Learning Hours - 0.25 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#9. Helm for Beginners

Over time, it becomes difficult to manage Kubernetes. That’s because the number of running apps start increasing. Each app will create objects in Kubernetes such as pods, services, deployments, etc. These objects are defined using YAML files. It becomes difficult to maintain the files and definitions related to each app. To help you manage and deploy apps better, Helm can be used. This course will introduce you to Helm, a Kubernetes package manager. It requires basic knowledge of Kubernetes.

Who should opt for this course?

Any person having prior knowledge of Kubernetes. Anyone who wants to manage their apps in an efficient manner.

What can you learn from this course?

• Introduction to Helm and its architecture.
• Helm2 vs Helm3.
• Introduction to Helm charts
• Terms of helm charts such as functions, pipelines, etc.
• How to create Helm charts for your apps.
• Lifecycle management using Helm.

Level of expertise - Intermediate

Learning Hours - 2.25 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

#10. Istio Service Mesh

Multiple apps run on the Kubernetes cluster. Thousands of components will need to communicate with each other. We need to interconnect/network many of these together. And these networks become incredibly complicated. Istio is a tool that tries to simplify how we interconnect all of our microservices in Kubernetes. It can also help us secure traffic on this network, and monitor what is going on. This course gives you a brief introduction to Istio.

Who should opt for this course?

Anyone with basic Kubernetes knowledge.

What can you learn from this course?

• Understand what service mesh is.
• Introduction to Istio.
• Manage traffic using Istio.
• How to secure connection between services
• Observe the state of the services.

Level of expertise - Intermediate

Learning Hours - 2.75 hours of video

Certificate of completion - Yes

Hands-on experience - Yes

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I learn Kubernetes for free?

KodeKloud provides introductory videos for all the courses on the platform. It will give you a gist of the course and what to expect. KodeKloud also provides free courses such as Kubernetes challenges and Docker training course for beginners.

What does Reddit say about the best Kubernetes courses?

Many questions asked on Reddit suggest courses that are available on KodeKloud. In this discussion, there are references to CKAD and CKA preparation courses. In another discussion, one of the recommended courses is Kubernetes for beginners. Learning paths that are provided by KodeKloud are also mentioned. They help you in learning about DevOps in the right way.

Conclusion

We hope this list will help you on your journey. The courses are very easy to understand. And the hands-on labs will help you the most. After every theoretical section, we drop you into a so-called lab.

There, you get access to an environment where you can test out these tools. For example, if you learn about Kubernetes, we give you access to a cluster. There, you can try real-world commands and solve problems. This way, you get real experience that will help you understand these tools. Good luck on your learning path!