Interview Answer:
Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized workloads. At its core, Kubernetes abstracts infrastructure into logical units called pods. A pod encapsulates one or more containers and represents the smallest deployable unit. The control plane—including the API server, scheduler, and controller manager—coordinates cluster operations.
The scheduler places pods onto worker nodes based on resource requirements and cluster policies. Nodes run the kubelet, which ensures containers inside pods stay running. Kubernetes continuously monitors application state, comparing desired configuration (stored in etcd) with actual state. If a container crashes or a node fails, Kubernetes automatically reschedules pods to healthy nodes.
Scalability is managed through Horizontal Pod Autoscalers, which adjust pod counts based on CPU, memory, or custom metrics. Services abstract pod networking and provide load balancing through ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer types. Ingress resources manage HTTP routing for external access.
Kubernetes supports rolling updates, rollbacks, secrets management, persistent volumes, and runtime policies. Its declarative model—"desired state"—ensures reliability even under dynamic workloads. Kubernetes has become the backbone of cloud-native infrastructure due to its automation, resilience, and extensibility.
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