Go from your first container to running real applications on Kubernetes.
Read the guide: How to learn Docker and Kubernetes, step by step
Direct Answer: Go from your first container to running real applications on Kubernetes: Dockerfiles, Compose, pods, deployments, services, ingress, config, storage, autoscaling, Helm, security and troubleshooting, with CKAD exam preparation.
Understand why containers transformed software deployment, how they differ from virtual machines, install Docker and run your first containers, and learn how images, layers and registries fit together.
Use the Docker commands you will need daily, containerise your own application with a Dockerfile, configure containers with environment variables, ports and logs, and debug running containers with exec, inspect and stats.
Speed up builds with layer caching and BuildKit features, shrink images with multi-stage builds, choose base images deliberately, and harden images by scanning for vulnerabilities and running as a non-root user.
Keep data safe with volumes and bind mounts, connect containers through networks and built-in DNS, define multi-container applications with Docker Compose, and build fast local development workflows.
Understand why container orchestration exists, learn the parts of a Kubernetes cluster and how they cooperate, create a local cluster with kind or minikube, and work confidently with kubectl and YAML manifests.
Understand pods and their lifecycle, run resilient applications with Deployments and ReplicaSets, ship new versions with rolling updates and roll back safely, and run batch and per-node work with Jobs, CronJobs and DaemonSets.
Give pods stable addresses with ClusterIP, NodePort and LoadBalancer Services, route HTTP traffic with Ingress and the Gateway API, find services through cluster DNS, and restrict traffic with network policies.
Supply application settings with ConfigMaps, handle credentials with Secrets while understanding their limits, give pods durable storage with persistent volumes and claims, and run stateful applications with StatefulSets.
Tell Kubernetes when applications are alive and ready with probes, reserve and cap CPU and memory with requests and limits, scale automatically with the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler, and share clusters fairly with namespaces, quotas and limit ranges.
Package applications as Helm charts, manage environment differences with Kustomize overlays, tag and pull images reliably from private registries, and build a CI/CD pipeline that delivers tested images to Kubernetes.
Control who can do what with RBAC and service accounts, harden pods with security contexts and Pod Security Standards, troubleshoot failing pods, services and nodes systematically, and use events, logs and metrics to see inside the cluster.
Compare managed Kubernetes on EKS, AKS and GKE, deploy a complete application end to end, prepare effectively for the hands-on CKAD exam, and plan a career in DevOps and platform engineering.
Topic checks
Each one opens the next topic
Chapter quizzes
Each one opens the next chapter
50-question final
50 of 100 marks to pass
Certificate
Issued instantly, verifiable
One attempt, 60 minutes. If you don't pass, you can retake once after 30 days.
The way to learn Docker and Kubernetes is in that order, and with your hands on a terminal the whole time. Spend the first few weeks on Docker alone: run containers, write Dockerfiles for your own apps, and wire several services together with Docker Compose. Only once a container feels ordinary should you start Kubernetes, on a free local cluster on your own laptop, not a cloud account. Kubernetes runs containers. If you do not understand the container, every Kubernetes error will look like magic.
This page is the plan we would give a friend. Our free Docker & Kubernetes course follows the same order across 12 chapters, so you can read this as the map and use the course as the road.
Docker packages an application with everything it needs to run: the runtime, libraries, system files and default configuration. That package is an image, and a running copy of it is a container. The image runs the same way on your laptop, a test server and production, which ends the old "works on my machine" argument.
Kubernetes decides where and how many containers run across a group of machines, restarts them when they crash, replaces them during an update without downtime, and gives them stable network addresses. One container on one server does not need it. Twenty services across five servers very much do.
| Docker | Kubernetes | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Build and run containers | Run many containers across many machines |
| Unit you work with | Image, container | Pod, Deployment, Service |
| Where you start | Your laptop | A local cluster with kind or minikube |
| Config files | Dockerfile, compose.yaml | YAML manifests, Helm charts |
| Useful alone? | Yes, from day one | Only after you know containers |
Yes. You can type Kubernetes commands without Docker, but you will not be able to debug anything. When a pod shows CrashLoopBackOff, the cause is almost always inside the container: a wrong port, a missing environment variable, a process that exits immediately. Those are Docker skills.
The honest prerequisites are smaller than people fear:
You do not need a cloud account or a powerful machine. A laptop that runs Docker comfortably is enough for the whole plan.
The course is set at 7 weeks, from beginner to intermediate, and the plan below matches it. Roughly an hour a day, five days a week, is a realistic pace alongside a job or university.
| Week | Focus | You are done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Containers, images, everyday commands | You can run, stop, inspect and remove containers without looking things up |
| 2 | Dockerfiles, smaller and safer images | Your own app has a multi-stage Dockerfile that runs as a non-root user |
| 3 | Volumes, networks, Docker Compose | Your app, a database and a cache start together with one command |
| 4 | Kubernetes architecture, kubectl, a local cluster | You can create a cluster with kind or minikube and apply a manifest |
| 5 | Workloads and networking | Your app runs as a Deployment behind a Service and Ingress, and you can roll it back |
| 6 | Config, storage, health and scaling | Settings come from ConfigMaps and Secrets, probes work, and limits are set |
| 7 | Helm, CI/CD, security, troubleshooting | A pipeline builds your image and deploys it, and you can explain why a pod failed |
Learn why containers exist, the commands you will use daily, and write a Dockerfile for your own project. The early mistakes are predictable:
Finish this stage with Docker Compose: one file that starts your API, a PostgreSQL database and Redis on a shared network where they find each other by name. It improves your daily development setup even if you never touch Kubernetes.
Learn the parts of a cluster, the control plane and the worker nodes, then create a local cluster with kind or minikube. Both give you a real Kubernetes API, so the manifests you write locally work the same way on a production cluster.
Then build up one layer at a time with the same app you containerised: a Pod, then a Deployment with several replicas, then a rolling update and a rollback, then a Service and Ingress in front of it. Then add configuration, storage, probes, limits, Helm and a pipeline.
Two pieces of advice. First, read kubectl describe and kubectl get events before searching the internet; the answer is usually printed there. Second, learn what Secrets do not do. By default they are only base64 encoded, not encrypted, so anyone who can read them in the cluster can read your passwords.
The Docker & Kubernetes course has 12 chapters and 48 lessons, about eight hours of reading in total, and every lesson ends with a short quiz.
exec and inspect.The complete application in the last chapter is a realistic stack: a React front end, a Node.js API, a background worker, Redis and PostgreSQL. It is a good model for the portfolio project you should build yourself.
This path suits backend and full stack developers who want to deploy their own work, students heading towards DevOps or cloud roles, and anyone preparing for the CKAD. If you are still learning to program, wait. Build and finish a couple of small apps first, perhaps with our Node.js backend course, then come back. Containers make far more sense once you have felt the pain of deploying something by hand.
If you want the wider picture of where Docker and Kubernetes sit next to Linux, CI/CD, cloud and monitoring, read our DevOps roadmap and the Cloud & DevOps Essentials course alongside this one.
Each lesson unlocks its quiz after 90 seconds of reading, and you need 70 percent to pass it. The course ends with a final exam of 50 questions in 60 minutes, and you pass with 50 out of 100 marks. You get one timed attempt; if it goes badly, a single retake opens 30 days later. Pass, and you receive a certificate with a verification code anyone can check.
Be clear about what it is. It shows you passed our exam. It is not the CKAD, which is a hands-on exam run by the Linux Foundation and the CNCF, where you solve real tasks in live clusters. The course prepares you for that exam's topics, but only the official exam gives you that credential. For employers, a public repository with a clean Dockerfile, a Compose file and working manifests will say more than any certificate. Our post on whether free online certificates are worth anything goes into this honestly.
06 questions
At about an hour a day, plan on around seven weeks to reach a solid beginner to intermediate level: roughly three weeks for Docker and four for Kubernetes. Production confidence takes longer.
You can follow Kubernetes tutorials, but you will struggle to fix anything. Most failing pods fail because of something inside the container image, so learn to build and debug containers first.
No. Docker runs on an ordinary laptop, and kind or minikube give you a real Kubernetes cluster locally for free.
Yes. Kubernetes runs containers through a container runtime such as containerd, but images built with Docker follow the same open standard and run fine. Docker remains the everyday tool for building images and running local development setups.
Yes. All 48 lessons, the quizzes, the final exam and the certificate are free, with no trial or payment step.
It covers the topics the CKAD is built around and has a lesson on how the exam works. Practise the tasks in a terminal until they are fast, and check the official curriculum and handbook from the Linux Foundation before you book. *Ready to start? The free [Docker & Kubernetes](/learn/docker-kubernetes) course begins with why containers changed deployment and takes you all the way to a complete application on Kubernetes.*