1 — Why Kubernetes Exists

Kubernetes

A book-shaped table of contents for Kubernetes: cloud-native foundations, the CKAD/CKA/CKS certification tracks, control-plane internals, platform tooling, multi-cluster architecture, and MAANG-level system design and interview prep — cross-linking the existing Prometheus, Observability, and Platform Engineering chapters instead of duplicating them.

3 — Containers & OCI

Why the OCI image and runtime specs matter more than Docker itself — they let containerd, CRI-O, and Podman run the same artifact without vendor lock-in.

5 — Installing Kubernetes

Why kubeadm, managed control planes, and kubeadm-free distros mainly differ in who owns lifecycle and upgrade risk, not in what a conformant cluster actually runs.

6 — Kubernetes API & Object Model

Why kubectl is just a REST client — every object is a resource in the API server's store, making the API server the only legitimate path to change cluster state.

4 — Kubernetes Architecture

Why the control plane's continuous reconciliation loop, not the scheduler alone, is what makes Kubernetes self-healing rather than merely self-installing.