EO Engineering Learning OS
PROJECT LADDER · P14
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CORE PROJECT · TARGET L3 · 10 days
P14

Kubernetes

Learn orchestration as a solution to known scheduling, health, networking and configuration problems.

01 / CONCEPT MAP

Know what the parts mean.

Learn each concept deeply enough to recognize it, place it in the system and reason about normal and failed behavior.

01

Pods and Deployments

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

02

Services and Ingress

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

03

ConfigMaps and Secrets

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

04

Health probes

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

05

Storage

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

06

Scaling and rollout

Define it · locate it · observe it · explain its failure mode.

02 / SYSTEM FLOW

Trace it end to end.

Image→Deployment→Pods→Service→Ingress→client

For every transition: identify input, output, identity, protocol, state, trust boundary, evidence and owner.

03 / GUIDED BUILD

Build, observe and explain.

Documentation and AI are allowed. The engineer must review every output and demonstrate the result from direct evidence.

  1. 01Deploy application
  2. 02Expose through Service/Ingress
  3. 03Add config and secret
  4. 04Configure probes
  5. 05Scale and update
  6. 06Break selectors and diagnose
04 / INCIDENT

Ingress returns 503 because Service selectors match no ready pods.

Required investigation

State impact → collect evidence → form competing hypotheses → test the cheapest discriminator → isolate root cause → contain → correct → verify.

Evidence pack

Timeline, relevant logs/metrics, failed assumptions, root cause, correction, verification and one prevention action.

AI ownership

AI may suggest causes and commands. The engineer must explain why each check is safe, what result is expected and how the result changes the hypothesis.

05 / DESIGN CHALLENGE

Defend the decision.

Map ECS concepts to Kubernetes and decide whether added platform complexity is justified.

06 / VERIFY, SUBMIT & REVIEW

Submission evidence

Architecture review

  • Explain kubernetes without relying on memorized commands.
  • Draw the flow and name what crosses every arrow.
  • Identify the most likely, highest-impact and hardest-to-detect failure.
  • Show the evidence that proves the solution works.
  • Defend one security, reliability and cost trade-off.

Definition of Done

  • Acceptance criteria pass
  • Flow is drawn and explained
  • Security implications considered
  • Logs/metrics checked
  • Failure is tested
  • AI output is understood
  • Runbook is reusable
  • Mentor review passes
07 / MENTOR GUIDE

Do not score memory. Score the engineer’s ability to form a model, collect evidence, make a safe change and defend the trade-off.

1 Cannot explain2 Understands with gaps3 Implements and troubleshoots4 Designs and reviews