Kubernetes Practical By Samson Tanimawo, PhD Published Apr 10, 2026 4 min read

Readiness vs Liveness Probes

Readiness gates traffic; liveness restarts pods. Different.

Readiness

Pod ready to serve. Removes from endpoints if not.

Slow start, dependency check.

Pod alive. Restart if not.

Use carefully; bad liveness causes restart loops.

Slow-starting apps. Replaces initial liveness checks.

Long timeout; switches to liveness after pass.