Kubernetes Crash Course
“Kubernetes is to distributed systems what an operating system is to a computer.” - Kelsey HightowerKubernetes (K8s) is not just another tool. It is the operating system for the cloud. Google runs billions of containers on it. Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb - they all bet their infrastructure on Kubernetes. This course takes you from kubectl-curious to production-ready.
Why Kubernetes Matters
Orchestration
Manage thousands of containers automatically
Self-Healing
Auto-restart failed containers, replace nodes
Scaling
Auto-scale based on CPU, memory, custom metrics
Cloud Native
Industry standard for container orchestration
The Story Behind Kubernetes
2014: Google open-sourced Kubernetes, based on their internal Borg system. The Problem:- Managing containers manually doesn’t scale
- Need automated deployment and scaling
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Rolling updates without downtime
- Declarative configuration
- Self-healing systems
- Horizontal auto-scaling
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Automated rollouts and rollbacks
- Google: Runs billions of containers
- Spotify: Entire infrastructure
- Airbnb: Microservices platform
- Pokemon Go: Handled massive scale
- Every major cloud provider (EKS, GKE, AKS)
What You’ll Learn
Fundamentals
Pods, nodes, clusters, namespaces. The building blocks you need to understand before anything else.
Start Here
Internals Deep Dive
etcd, the scheduler algorithm, controller patterns, CNI/CSI. If you love understanding how things actually work, this one is for you.
Explore Internals
Workloads
Deployments, ReplicaSets, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs. How to run anything on Kubernetes.
Deploy Apps
Services
Service types, load balancing, Ingress controllers, DNS. Exposing your applications to the world.
Expose Services
Configuration
ConfigMaps, Secrets, environment variables. Managing configuration without rebuilding images.
Manage Config
Storage
Volumes, PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, StorageClasses. Stateful workloads done right.
Handle Storage
Helm
Package management for Kubernetes. Deploy complex applications with a single command.
Use Helm
Windows and Linux
Platform-specific considerations, Windows containers, hybrid clusters. Real-world complexity.
Platform Details
Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm
| Feature | Kubernetes | Docker Swarm |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Features | Extensive | Basic |
| Community | Huge | Small |
| Adoption | Industry standard | Declining |
| Learning Curve | Steep | Gentle |
Course Structure
Module 1: Fundamentals (2-3 hours)
Cluster architecture, pods, nodes, namespaces. kubectl basics that you will use every single day.Module 2: Internals Deep Dive (2-3 hours)
etcd and the Raft consensus protocol, scheduler algorithms, the controller pattern, CNI and CSI interfaces. If you love internals, continue. If not, skip to Module 3.Module 3: Workloads (2-3 hours)
Deployments for stateless apps, StatefulSets for databases, DaemonSets for node-level services, Jobs and CronJobs for batch processing.Module 4: Services (2 hours)
ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer, ExternalName. Ingress controllers. Service discovery and DNS.Module 5: Configuration (2 hours)
ConfigMaps for non-sensitive config, Secrets for sensitive data. Environment variables, volume mounts, immutable configurations.Module 6: Storage (2 hours)
emptyDir, hostPath, PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, StorageClasses. Dynamic provisioning.Module 7: Helm (1-2 hours)
Charts, releases, values files. The package manager that makes complex deployments manageable.Module 8: Windows and Linux (1-2 hours)
Windows container support, node selectors, taints and tolerations for heterogeneous clusters.Ready to master Kubernetes? Start with Kubernetes Fundamentals or dive straight into Internals Deep Dive if you want to understand how the control plane really works.