To understand the complex architecture and components of Kubernetes, we should take a step back and look at the landscape of the overall system in order to understand the context and place of each moving piece. This book focuses mainly on the technical pieces and processes of the Kubernetes software, but let's examine the system from a top-down perspective. In the following diagram, you can see the major parts of the Kubernetes system, which is a great way to think about the classification of the parts we'll describe and utilize in this book:

Let's take a look at each piece, starting from the bottom.