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answer: direct
beat: system-design
source: 1 article · updated: November 13, 2026
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Who actually creates the pods when I apply a Deployment?

Not the API server. The Deployment controller creates a ReplicaSet, and the ReplicaSet controller creates the Pod objects. The scheduler then assigns each pod to a node, and the kubelet on that node starts the containers. Each component does one narrow job.

Answered in

What Really Happens After kubectl apply

Follow one Deployment from kubectl apply to a running pod: API server, etcd, controllers, scheduler and kubelet each own one step of the chain.

Crashtech Editorial November 13, 2026 System Design & Architecture

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