Overview

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This advanced course dives deep into Kubernetes, equipping you with the skills to build secure, scalable, and production-ready deployments. By the end, you’ll confidently manage Kubernetes resources, configure persistent storage, implement strong security practices, and deploy applications to cloud platforms like GKE using Kustomize. You'll also learn to tackle real-world infrastructure challenges such as handling secrets, configuring probes, and applying network policies. Your learning journey starts with advanced resource management—using labels, selectors, quotas, and namespaces—followed by implementing health checks through readiness, liveness, and startup probes. You'll then work with persistent storage solutions like volumes and StatefulSets, manage configuration and sensitive data using ConfigMaps and Secrets, and secure workloads with RBAC, service accounts, and Pod Security Standards. Kustomize will help you streamline multi-environment deployments with ease. This course is designed for DevOps engineers and cloud professionals with prior Kubernetes experience who are looking to scale, secure, and operate containerized applications in production environments.

Syllabus

[Kubernetes] Managing Kubernetes Resources

In this module, we will dive deep into organizing and managing Kubernetes resources effectively. You’ll explore the use of labels, selectors, annotations, and namespaces to structure your deployments. The module also guides you through setting resource constraints and configuring health probes to ensure workload resilience and optimal performance.

[Kubernetes] Storage and Data Persistence

In this module, we will explore Kubernetes storage concepts and how to manage data persistence effectively. You’ll learn about volume types such as EmptyDir, PVCs, and StatefulSets, and practice mounting volumes in Pods. Labs include hands-on experience with dynamic provisioning and data retention strategies for stateful applications.

[Kubernetes] Managing Configuration and Secrets

In this module, we will cover best practices for managing application configuration and secrets within Kubernetes. You’ll gain hands-on experience using ConfigMaps and Secrets to pass data into containers through environment variables and mounted files. This section ensures your applications can adapt and operate securely across environments.

[Kubernetes] Project - Deploying a MongoDB Database

In this module, we will bring together several core Kubernetes concepts to deploy a production-ready MongoDB instance. You’ll use StatefulSets, headless services, and ConfigMaps to set up and manage the database. The module culminates with integrating the Color API with MongoDB to persist data and validate functionality.

[Kubernetes] Security Foundations

In this module, we will explore foundational Kubernetes security practices to protect your clusters and applications. You’ll learn how to use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Service Accounts, and Network Policies to manage permissions and traffic flow. The section also introduces Pod Security Standards to enforce workload compliance.

[Kubernetes] Using Kustomize

In this module, we will work with Kustomize, a Kubernetes-native tool for managing configuration variations. You’ll learn how to use bases, overlays, and transformations to simplify environment-specific deployments. Labs guide you through patching, generating ConfigMaps and Secrets, and building reusable infrastructure configurations.

[Kubernetes] Project - Deploying the Color API Application to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

In this module, we will deploy the complete Color API application to Google Kubernetes Engine. You’ll configure GKE resources, deploy MongoDB and the API, and secure communication using ingress and TLS certificates. The project also includes monitoring setup and scaling to simulate a real-world production environment.

[Kubernetes] Course Conclusion

In this module, we will wrap up the course and reflect on everything you’ve accomplished. You’ll review the skills you’ve developed across resource management, storage, security, and deployments. This final section celebrates your progress and points toward advanced topics and certifications to further your expertise.