Which approach is recommended to roll out updates to a Pod-based application with minimal downtime?

• A. Directly replace Pods manually.
• B. Use a Route to handle updates.
• C. Use a Deployment to manage updates and ensure rolling updates.
• D. Use a ConfigMap to store all changes.

Answer: (C)

Rolling updates are best handled by a Deployment. A Deployment manages the lifecycle of your pods by creating or updating a ReplicaSet and performing updates in a controlled, rolling fashion. As the update starts, the Deployment spins up new pods with the updated specification and waits for them to become ready before terminating old pods. This keeps some pods serving traffic throughout the rollout, minimizing downtime. You can further ensure smoothness by configuring readiness probes and tuning the rolling update settings (like how many pods can be unavailable at a time and how many extra pods can be created during the update). Routes and Services will route traffic to the available pods, but they don’t manage the rollout itself. Manually replacing pods or using a ConfigMap to drive updates doesn’t provide the automated, graceful rolling behavior you need.