Kubernetes Concepts ☸️
A top-down learning path for Kubernetes, from “what is it” to “how the controllers actually work”. The folders are numbered — work through them in order, and each level builds on the previous.
First time here? Start with 00 — Start Here to see prerequisites, the big picture, and how to use this section.
The Roadmap
| # | Section | What you’ll understand |
|---|---|---|
| 00 | Start Here | What Kubernetes is, the cluster mental model, how to read this section |
| 01 | Architecture | Control plane components, nodes, what runs where, HA topology, namespaces |
| 02 | Objects | The Kubernetes API model — spec / status / metadata, declarative intent, how the API server stores state |
| 03 | Workloads | Pods → ReplicaSets → Deployments → StatefulSets → DaemonSets → Jobs/CronJobs — the layered workload model |
| 04 | Services & Networking | Services, DNS, Ingress, NetworkPolicy, CNI, endpoint slices |
| 05 | Config & Storage | ConfigMap, Secret, PersistentVolume, PersistentVolumeClaim, StorageClass, resource quotas |
| 06 | Scheduling & Scaling | Scheduling (taints, tolerations, affinity), HPA/VPA/Cluster Autoscaler, restart policies |
| 07 | Security | RBAC, ServiceAccounts, certificates, authentication vs authorization, Pod Security Standards |
| 08 | Operations | Troubleshooting flow, observability hooks, day-2 ops |
| 09 | Advanced | Operators, custom controllers, finalizers, garbage collection, etcd, the pause container, aggregation layer |
How to read this section
- Sequential if you’re new. 00 → 01 → 02 → … → 09. Each level only references forward concepts briefly with a “see L7: security” pointer.
- Reference if you already know k8s. Jump to the subfolder you need — every note is self-contained, but wikilinks back to prerequisites are explicit.
- Practitioner tracks. If your job is one specific thing, the table below tells you which levels to focus on:
| If you work on… | Read these levels |
|---|---|
| Application deployment / SRE | 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 08 |
| Platform engineering | 00, 01, 04, 05, 07, 09 |
| Security / compliance | 00, 01, 07 |
| Storage / data on k8s | 00, 01, 05 |
| Building controllers / operators | 00, 01, 02, 09 |
What’s NOT in this section
This section covers concepts that apply to any Kubernetes cluster — vanilla k3s, kubeadm, GKE, EKS, AKS, OpenShift. AWS-specific things (VPC CNI tuning, Karpenter, EKS Auto Mode, IRSA) live in EKS. Tooling and task-oriented walkthroughs (Argo CD, Helm charts, ingress controllers) live in Guides.
Status legend
Each numbered folder has a README that lists every note with a status:
- ✅ Core — solid reference note, read with confidence
- 🟡 Outline — real content but incomplete, good for orientation
- ⚪ Stub — placeholder, content to be filled in