From Zero to Kubernetes Expert

This is my living study map. Not a course, not a tutorial series a structured path I'm actually following while working full-time. The rule: understand each layer before touching the next one. Each section below is a standalone article. Read it, do the lab, then move on. That's the point.

Kubernetes comes in many shapes:

• k8s - is the full thing

• k3s is a lightweight version

• k3d is not a distro, it wraps k3s in Docker, you can spin up a multi-node cluster on your laptop in few seconds

My order follows that logic. Start with k3d where feedback is instant and fewer moving parts means fewer reasons to quit => Once the concepts click, move to bare metal on Hetzner => then go deeper: kubeadm, manual networking, CNI internals but only when it is needed. Going deep too early is how you lose the thread.