Kubernetes -- Portfolio Projects

Three projects that prove production Kubernetes skills. These mirror what you will build at any company using K8s.

Project 1: Stateful WordPress on Kubernetes

Level: Beginner | Time: 1-2 days | GitHub: k8s-stateful-wordpress

What you build: WordPress + MySQL on Kubernetes using Deployments, PersistentVolumeClaims, ConfigMaps, and Secrets.

Key manifests

yaml

# secret.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata: {name: mysql-secret}
type: Opaque
data:
  password: BASE64_ENCODED_PASSWORD

---
# mysql-pvc.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata: {name: mysql-pvc}
spec:
  accessModes: [ReadWriteOnce]
  resources:
    requests: {storage: 10Gi}

---
# mysql-deployment.yaml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata: {name: mysql}
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels: {app: mysql}
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: mysql
        image: mysql:8.0
        env:
        - name: MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef: {name: mysql-secret, key: password}
        volumeMounts:
        - name: storage
          mountPath: /var/lib/mysql
      volumes:
      - name: storage
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: mysql-pvc

Steps

1.Set up minikube or kind cluster locally

2.Write all manifests by hand (no Helm yet)

3.Apply in order: Secret, PVC, Deployment, Service

4.Test persistence: delete pod, verify data survives restart

5.Add Ingress with host-based routing

6.Add HPA for WordPress (not MySQL)

7.Write troubleshooting guide for CrashLoopBackOff

Project 2: GitOps Platform with ArgoCD

Level: Intermediate | Time: 3 days | GitHub: k8s-gitops-platform

What you build: A GitOps-managed cluster where ALL changes go through Git, ArgoCD auto-syncs, and self-heals drift.

Repository structure

k8s-gitops-platform/
+-- apps/
|   +-- api/ (deployment.yaml, service.yaml, hpa.yaml)
|   +-- monitoring/ (prometheus.yaml, grafana.yaml)
+-- infra/
|   +-- argocd/
|   +-- cert-manager/
+-- argocd-apps/
    +-- api.yaml
    +-- monitoring.yaml

ArgoCD Application

yaml

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: production-api
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/yourname/k8s-gitops-platform
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: apps/api
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: production
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true       # Delete resources removed from Git
      selfHeal: true    # Fix manual kubectl changes

Steps

1.Install ArgoCD on the cluster

2.Push K8s manifests to GitHub

3.Create ArgoCD Application pointing to repo

4.Make a change in Git, watch ArgoCD auto-sync

5.Try kubectl delete deployment api -- ArgoCD restores it

6.Add Slack notifications for sync events

7.Add ApplicationSet for dev/staging/prod namespaces

Project 3: Custom Kubernetes Operator

Level: Advanced | Time: 4-5 days | GitHub: database-provisioner-operator

What you build: A Kubernetes Operator that provisions PostgreSQL on demand via a custom DatabaseClaim CRD.

Custom Resource

yaml

apiVersion: db.synfracore.io/v1
kind: DatabaseClaim
metadata: {name: my-app-db, namespace: team-backend}
spec:
  engine: postgres
  size: small
  dbName: myappdb
# Operator sees this and provisions a full PostgreSQL StatefulSet + Service + Secret automatically

Steps

1.Scaffold with Kubebuilder: kubebuilder init && kubebuilder create api

2.Implement Reconcile loop (compare desired vs actual state)

3.On DatabaseClaim created: deploy PostgreSQL + create Secret with credentials

4.On DatabaseClaim deleted: clean up all resources

5.Add status conditions: Provisioning, Ready, Failed

6.Write unit tests with envtest

7.Package as Helm chart

Portfolio Checklist

•[ ] Architecture diagram in every README

•[ ] kubectl apply -f . works from a clean cluster

•[ ] Project 2 demonstrates live GitOps (commit to Git triggers deploy)

•[ ] Can explain: StatefulSet vs Deployment for databases

•[ ] HPA configured and tested with load testing

Kubernetes — Projects

Kubernetes -- Portfolio Projects

Project 1: Stateful WordPress on Kubernetes

Key manifests

Steps

Project 2: GitOps Platform with ArgoCD

Repository structure

ArgoCD Application

Steps

Project 3: Custom Kubernetes Operator

Custom Resource

Steps

Portfolio Checklist