Master Linux Foundation CNPA Exam with Reliable Practice Questions

Correct : A

Developer portals like Backstage act as the single entry point for platform services, APIs, golden paths, and documentation. Option A is correct because centralizing access greatly reduces the friction developers face when trying to adopt a new platform. Instead of searching across fragmented systems or learning low-level Kubernetes details, developers can find everything in one place, including templates, service catalogs, automated workflows, and governance policies.

Option B is irrelevant to platform adoption. Option C may foster community sharing but does not directly address adoption challenges. Option D contradicts platform engineering principles, which emphasize democratizing access and self-service rather than restricting tools to senior developers.

By providing a unified experience, portals improve discoverability, consistency, and self-service. They reduce cognitive load and support the platform engineering principle of improving developer experience, making adoption of new platforms smoother and more efficient.

--- CNCF Platforms Whitepaper

--- CNCF Platform Engineering Maturity Model

--- Cloud Native Platform Engineering Study Guide

Correct : B

Agile and DevOps share the principle of continuous improvement through rapid feedback and iteration. Option B is correct because gathering feedback continuously and iterating aligns directly with DevOps practices such as CI/CD, observability-driven development, and platform engineering's focus on developer experience. This ensures platforms and applications evolve quickly in response to real-world conditions.

Option A contradicts Agile, which emphasizes active customer collaboration. Option C reflects rigid waterfall methodologies, not Agile or DevOps. Option D enforces silos, which is the opposite of DevOps principles of cross-functional collaboration.

By embracing continuous feedback loops, both Agile and platform engineering accelerate delivery, improve resilience, and ensure that platforms deliver real value to developers and end users. This cultural alignment ensures both speed and quality in cloud native environments.

--- Agile Manifesto Principles

--- CNCF Platforms Whitepaper

--- Cloud Native Platform Engineering Study Guide

Correct : A

The primary reason for implementing multiple environments in cloud native platforms is to isolate the different phases of the software development lifecycle. Option A is correct because environments such as development, staging, and production enable testing and validation at each stage without impacting end users. Development environments allow rapid iteration, staging environments simulate production for integration and performance testing, and production environments serve real users.

Option B (reducing costs) may be a side effect but is not the main purpose. Option C (distributing traffic) relates more to load balancing and high availability, not environment separation. Option D is the opposite of the goal---different environments often require tailored infrastructure to meet their distinct purposes.

Isolation through multiple environments is fundamental to reducing risk, supporting continuous delivery, and ensuring stability. This practice also allows for compliance checks, automated testing, and user acceptance validation before changes reach production.

--- CNCF Platforms Whitepaper

--- Team Topologies & Platform Engineering Guidance

--- Cloud Native Platform Engineering Study Guide

Correct : D

The defining capability of an IDP is enabling self-service so developers can independently access infrastructure and platform resources. Option D is correct because self-service resource provisioning APIs allow developers to provision resources such as namespaces, databases, or environments without relying on manual intervention from the platform team. These APIs embed governance, compliance, and organizational guardrails while giving autonomy to development teams.

Option A (manual deployment services) defeats the purpose of self-service. Option B (knowledge centers) improve documentation but do not provide automation. Option C (logging/monitoring interfaces) are observability tools, not resource provisioning mechanisms.

Self-service APIs empower developers, reduce cognitive load, and minimize bottlenecks. They also align with the platform engineering principle of ''treating the platform as a product,'' where developers are customers, and the platform offers curated golden paths to simplify consumption of infrastructure and services.

--- CNCF Platforms Whitepaper

--- CNCF Platform Engineering Maturity Model

--- Cloud Native Platform Engineering Study Guide

Correct : D

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in Kubernetes is a cornerstone of cluster security, enabling fine-grained access control based on the principle of least privilege. Option D is correct because RBAC leverages Roles (or ClusterRoles) that define sets of permissions, and RoleBindings (or ClusterRoleBindings) that assign those roles to users, groups, or service accounts. This mechanism ensures that users have only the minimum required access to perform their tasks, enhancing both security and governance.

Option A is incorrect because RBAC fully supports namespace-scoped roles, allowing isolation of permissions at the namespace level in addition to cluster-wide roles. Option B is wrong because RBAC is specifically designed to restrict, not grant, unrestricted access. Option C is misleading because RBAC applies broadly across Kubernetes API resources, not just Pods---it includes ConfigMaps, Secrets, Deployments, Services, and more.

By applying RBAC correctly, platform teams can align with security best practices, ensuring that sensitive operations (e.g., managing secrets or modifying cluster configurations) are tightly controlled. RBAC is also central to compliance frameworks, as it provides auditability of who has access to what resources.

--- CNCF Kubernetes Security Best Practices

--- Kubernetes RBAC Documentation (aligned with CNCF platform engineering security guidance)

--- Cloud Native Platform Engineering Study Guide