CKA-10-ClusterIP vs. NodePort vs. LoadBalancer

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Jun 29, 2026

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In the previous article, we learned that a Service provides a stable network identity for Pods.

But not every application needs the same level of exposure.

Some services should only be reachable inside the cluster, while others need to be accessible from the internet.

Kubernetes provides different Service Types to handle these scenarios.

The three most important Service types for the CKA exam are:

• ClusterIP
• NodePort
• LoadBalancer

ClusterIP

ClusterIP is the default Service type.

It creates an internal IP address that is only accessible from within the cluster.

spec:
  type: ClusterIP

Example:

Frontend Pod
      |
      v
Catalog Service
      |
      v
Catalog Pods

The Service can be reached using:

http://catalog

But it cannot be accessed directly from outside the cluster.

Use Cases

• Internal APIs
• Database access
• Microservice communication