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DevOps

Kubernetes Tutorial with Examples.

Kubernetes tutorial with examples: container orchestration with pods, deployments, services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, autoscaling and Helm charts.

3 Beginner 6 Intermediate 1 Advanced +5 From other topics

Architecture at a glance

Click any box to open the lesson that teaches it

Kubernetes architecture at a glance

kubectl apply → control plane → nodes → Pods, and how traffic finds them

Kubernetes architecture at a glance kubectl sends manifests to the API server in the control plane, which stores state in etcd and works with the scheduler and controller manager. Deployments own ReplicaSets, and the HPA scales them. Two worker nodes each run a kubelet, kube-proxy and a container runtime that start Pods. Users reach Pods through an Ingress and a Service. Tooling and guardrail lessons sit at the bottom right. You YAML kubectl apply · get Control plane API server authn · RBACadmission etcd stored cluster state Scheduler picks a node Controller manager reconcile loops Deployment rollout · rollback ReplicaSet keeps N Pods HPA scales on CPU Pod specs to the kubelets Worker node 1 Worker node 2 kubelet kube-proxy Container runtime Pods requests · probes Config & storage ConfigMaps · Secrets kubelet kube-proxy Container runtime Pods replicas spread DaemonSet Pod one per node Users HTTP Ingress host · path Service stable IP · DNS matching Pods Tooling and guardrails Helm RBAC · NetPol Pod Security kube-bench GitOps Strategies
How it fits together (6 steps)
  1. You declare the desired state in YAML and send it with kubectl; apply returns once the API server has stored it.
  2. The API server is the only door to etcd. Every request passes authentication, RBAC and admission first.
  3. The scheduler picks a node for each Pod, using its resource requests. Controllers run reconcile loops: a Deployment owns a ReplicaSet, which keeps N Pods alive, and the HPA changes N from real CPU numbers.
  4. On each node, the kubelet asks the container runtime to start the Pod's containers and runs its probes. Config and storage come from ConfigMaps, Secrets and volumes.
  5. Traffic: Ingress routes HTTP to a Service, a stable name and IP that kube-proxy load-balances across the matching Pods.
  6. Around the cluster: Helm packages and rolls back releases. Lessons from other topics add Pod Security admission, a CIS benchmark, GitOps and deployment strategies.

Beginner

Start here — no prior experience needed

3 lessons
kubernetes beginner
5 min read

Kubernetes Fundamentals

Learn the core concepts of Kubernetes—clusters, pods, deployments, services, namespaces, and how to reason about orchestration.

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kubernetes beginner
5 min read

Pods and Workloads

Understand pods, containers, labels, selectors, and how Kubernetes schedules and manages workload lifecycles.

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kubernetes beginner
5 min read

Kubernetes Services — Hands-On

Run a Service on a real cluster: ClusterIP, DNS names across namespaces, NodePort, Ingress routing, port-forwarding, and debugging empty endpoints.

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Intermediate

For developers with core concepts down

6 lessons
kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

Deployments and Rollouts

Learn how Deployments manage replica sets, rolling updates, rollbacks, and rollout strategies in Kubernetes.

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kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

Services and Networking

Put a real backend behind ClusterIP, NodePort and LoadBalancer Services, then trace DNS across namespaces, EndpointSlices and headless Services.

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kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Storage

Keep config out of images with ConfigMaps and Secrets, share files via emptyDir, and keep data through Pod deletion with a PVC, all run on minikube.

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kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

Workload Controllers

Run Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs and CronJobs on a real cluster and watch each controller reconcile Pods toward the desired state.

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kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

Horizontal Pod Autoscaling: Real Replicas, Real CPU Numbers

Deploy a CPU-hungry container behind an HPA and watch replica count climb in real time as metrics-server reports real utilization — no simulated numbers, just kubectl get hpa polled while it happens.

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kubernetes intermediate
5 min read

Helm: Packaging Manifests, and a Real Rollback

Every earlier lesson hand-applies individual YAML files. Package the same Deployment and Service as a Helm chart, upgrade it with a real broken image tag, and roll it back with helm rollback.

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Advanced

Production-grade patterns for experienced engineers

1 lesson
kubernetes advanced
5 min read

Security, RBAC, and Observability

Learn Kubernetes RBAC for access control and how to monitor cluster and workload health with logs, metrics, and events.

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Also part of Kubernetes

Taught in other topics. Each link opens the lesson in its home topic.

5 lessons
fastapi advanced
5 min read

Deploying FastAPI with Docker and Kubernetes: Images, Signals, and Probes

Ship FastAPI on Docker and Kubernetes: a 171 MB multi-stage image, clean SIGTERM shutdown, and liveness, readiness and startup probes on a live minikube.

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devops intermediate
5 min read

Deployment Strategies Compared: Rolling, Blue-Green, and Canary

Measure the real request failure rate of a rolling deployment, prove blue-green's zero-downtime claim, and show canary's blast-radius containment against a real bug.

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devops intermediate
5 min read

GitOps in Practice: Git as the Source of Truth

Build a real sync loop that reads desired state from a git repo, applies it to a separate cluster-state file, and self-heals manual drift back to what git says.

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cloud-security intermediate
5 min read

Kubernetes Pod Security Admission: Enforcing the Restricted Profile

Label a namespace restricted and watch Kubernetes reject a privileged pod with the real violates PodSecurity message, then admit the compliant spec.

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cloud-security intermediate
5 min read

CIS Kubernetes Benchmark Checks with kube-bench in kind

Run kube-bench against a local kind cluster, read a real FAIL from the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark, fix it in the cluster config and re-run it to PASS.

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