World K1: The Food Court

Zones: namespaces

You will learn: how namespaces split one cluster into zones.

Checked with Kubernetes 1.37 on 31 Oct 2026

The problem

Two teams both want a pod called web, in one cluster. Will the names clash?

Watch

You are here: cluster kind-dev namespace default

~/shop $ kubectl get namespacesNAME                 STATUS   AGEdefault              Active   5m28sfood                 Active   28skube-node-lease      Active   5m28skube-public          Active   5m28skube-system          Active   5m28slocal-path-storage   Active   5m28s~/shop $ kubectl get podsNAME   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGEweb    1/1     Running   0          16s~/shop $ kubectl get pods -n foodNAME   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGEweb    1/1     Running   0          16s

A is one zone of the food court. Here, default and food each have a pod called web. No clash.

Try it

Open a new zone for the drinks team. Type kubectl create namespace drinks.

You are here: cluster kind-dev namespace default

dev-control-planeOpenManager

No trays here.

dev-workerOpen

dev-worker2Open

No trays here.

Time: +0s (sped up)

Predict

You type kubectl get pods. Which zone’s pods do you see?

Try it

Look inside the food zone: kubectl get pods -n food. Then try -A to see every zone at once.

You are here: cluster kind-dev namespace default

dev-control-planeOpenManager

No trays here.

dev-workerOpen

dev-worker2Open

Time: +0s (sped up)

Hint

-n means namespace. -A means all of them.

Check

Does it live inside a zone, or across the whole food court?

Drag a card into a box. Or tap the card, then tap the box.

You did it!

You can now split a cluster into zones and look inside each one.

Go deeper (optional)

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=food makes food your default zone. The pink bar shows it. Careful: kubectl delete namespace food deletes everything inside it. Zones keep names apart, not traffic. NetworkPolicies, in World K3, do that.

Real rep (optional): on your kind cluster, kubectl get namespaces shows the zones kind made for you.