Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide Course

Lesson 1 • Installing and Configuring Docker

Walks through installation on Linux, macOS, and Windows and verifies a working setup. Ensures every student has a functional environment before writing any code.

Lesson 2 • Container Lifecycle Management

Explains container states, restart policies, and resource constraints. Connects lifecycle control to reliable service behavior in development and production.

Lesson 3 • Docker Architecture Overview

Covers the Docker daemon, client, registry, and image-layer model. Provides the mental model needed to understand every subsequent Docker command.

Lesson 4 • Core Docker CLI Commands

Introduces pull, run, stop, rm, and inspect commands with practical examples. Students gain hands-on fluency with the commands used in every later chapter.

Lesson 1 • Security Best Practices for Images

Addresses non-root users, minimal base images, and secret handling during builds. Reduces the attack surface of every image produced in the course.

Lesson 2 • Layer Caching and Build Optimization

Explains how Docker caches layers and how instruction order affects build speed. Students learn to structure Dockerfiles for fast incremental rebuilds.

Lesson 3 • Multi-Stage Builds

Demonstrates separating build and runtime stages to eliminate unnecessary artifacts. Produces significantly smaller production images without manual cleanup.

Lesson 4 • Tagging, Versioning, and Pushing Images

Covers semantic tagging strategies and pushing images to public and private registries. Establishes image versioning discipline required for team workflows.

Lesson 1 • Exposing and Mapping Ports

Covers publish flags, static vs. dynamic port mapping, and binding to specific interfaces. Enables controlled external access to containerized services.

Lesson 2 • Volumes and Bind Mounts

Compares named volumes, anonymous volumes, and bind mounts for data persistence. Students choose the right storage type for databases, configs, and dev workflows.

Lesson 3 • Sharing Data Between Containers

Shows volume sharing patterns and tmpfs mounts for ephemeral in-memory storage. Completes the storage toolkit needed for stateful multi-container applications.

Lesson 4 • Docker Networking Fundamentals

Explains bridge, host, overlay, and none network drivers and their trade-offs. Provides the foundation for connecting containers in all later multi-service scenarios.

Lesson 1 • Networking and Volumes in Compose

Shows how Compose auto-creates networks and volumes and how to customize them. Reinforces networking and storage concepts from Chapter 3 in a declarative context.

Lesson 2 • Compose Profiles and Override Files

Demonstrates profiles for optional services and override files for environment-specific config. Enables a single Compose project to serve dev, test, and staging needs.

Lesson 3 • Docker Compose Concepts and Syntax

Introduces the Compose file format, service definitions, and the relationship to Docker CLI. Establishes the declarative mindset carried into Kubernetes later.

Lesson 4 • Service Dependencies and Health Checks

Covers depends_on, condition-based startup ordering, and healthcheck definitions. Prevents race conditions in multi-service startup sequences.

Lesson 1 • Kubernetes Cluster Architecture

Explains control plane components (API server, etcd, scheduler, controller manager) and worker node components. Provides the structural model for all cluster operations.

Lesson 2 • Namespaces and Resource Organization

Explains namespaces for logical isolation and resource quotas for capacity governance. Prepares students for multi-team cluster management in later chapters.

Lesson 3 • Setting Up a Local Kubernetes Cluster

Covers Minikube and kind for local development and kubectl installation and configuration. Every student gets a working cluster before touching any manifest.

Lesson 4 • kubectl Essentials

Covers get, describe, apply, delete, exec, and logs commands with practical examples. Builds the CLI fluency required for every hands-on exercise in the course.

Lesson 1 • Kubernetes Services

Explains ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer, and ExternalName Service types and their routing behavior. Enables reliable internal and external access to workloads.

Lesson 2 • Deployments and ReplicaSets

Explains how Deployments manage ReplicaSets to maintain desired Pod count and enable updates. Covers the primary workload object for stateless applications.

Lesson 3 • Rolling Updates and Rollbacks

Demonstrates maxSurge, maxUnavailable, and rollback commands for zero-downtime deployments. Gives students control over update risk in production workloads.

Lesson 4 • Jobs and CronJobs

Covers batch Job completion semantics and CronJob scheduling for recurring tasks. Completes the workload toolkit for non-long-running application patterns.

Lesson 1 • Network Policies

Demonstrates ingress and egress NetworkPolicy rules to restrict Pod-to-Pod traffic. Adds a critical defense-in-depth layer to multi-tenant cluster environments.

Lesson 2 • Persistent Volumes and Claims

Explains the PersistentVolume, PersistentVolumeClaim, and StorageClass abstraction layers. Enables stateful workloads to survive Pod restarts and rescheduling.

Lesson 3 • ConfigMaps and Secrets

Shows how to create and consume ConfigMaps and Secrets as environment variables or volume mounts. Decouples configuration from container images for portability.

Lesson 4 • Role-Based Access Control

Explains Roles, ClusterRoles, RoleBindings, and ServiceAccounts for API authorization. Implements least-privilege access for users and workloads.

Lesson 1 • Observability: Metrics, Logs, and Tracing

Integrates Prometheus, Grafana, and structured logging into a Kubernetes cluster. Provides the visibility needed to operate and troubleshoot production workloads.

Lesson 2 • Helm Package Manager

Introduces Helm charts, values files, and release management for repeatable deployments. Replaces raw manifest management with a versioned, parameterized packaging system.

Lesson 3 • Ingress Controllers and Rules

Covers Ingress resources, path and host-based routing, and TLS termination with cert-manager. Replaces multiple LoadBalancer Services with a single, manageable entry point.

Lesson 4 • Horizontal and Vertical Pod Autoscaling

Explains HPA with CPU and custom metrics and VPA for right-sizing resource requests. Enables workloads to scale automatically with demand.