Which of the following options include resources cleaned by the Kubernetes garbage collection mechanism?

Question

Options

• AStale or expired CertificateSigningRequests (CSRs) and old deployments.
• BNodes deleted by a cloud controller manager and obsolete logs from the kubelet.
• CUnused container and container images, and obsolete logs from the kubelet.
• DTerminated pods, completed jobs, and objects without owner references.

• A
  2% (1)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  4% (2)
• D
  93% (51)

Explanation

Option D is correct because Kubernetes garbage collection specifically handles: terminated pods (after they exit), completed jobs (based on TTL or owner cleanup), and objects that have lost their owner references (orphaned resources) - these are all native GC responsibilities managed by the kube-controller-manager.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A is wrong because old deployments are not automatically cleaned up by GC (you must delete them manually), and while stale CSRs can be cleaned by a dedicated CSR approver controller, this isn't what's typically meant by "garbage collection."
• B is wrong because kubelet logs are not managed by Kubernetes GC at all - log rotation is handled by the OS or a logging agent, not the cluster.
• C is wrong because unused container images are cleaned by the kubelet's image GC (so that part is valid), but kubelet logs are not a GC responsibility - mixing a correct item with an incorrect one makes the whole option wrong.

Memory tip: Think of Kubernetes GC as cleaning up relationship breakdowns - when a parent (owner) disappears, orphaned children get collected, and when workloads finish their job (pods terminate, jobs complete), GC sweeps them away. If it's about logs or deployment history, that's outside GC's scope.

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