How I Troubleshoot Kubernetes in Production

Kubernetes failures are rarely random. Most incidents repeat a small set of patterns - image pull issues, crash loops, pending pods, DNS failures, or network path problems. I used to jump between logs, dashboards, and guesses. Over time, I adopted a repeatable sequence that consistently shortens time-to-recovery. This post shares that sequence and the scenario patterns I've documented while troubleshooting Kubernetes workloads. My Baseline Troubleshooting Flow Before I try anything else, I run t