Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and StackMonsters, a company based in Ontario, Canada ("we", "us"). They govern your use of StackMonsters, including the website at www.stackmonsters.com, its courses, labs and related services (the "Service"). By creating an account, making a purchase or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

1. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. You're responsible for keeping access to your email and any GitHub or Google account you sign in with secure, and for everything that happens under your account. One account per person. Please tell us right away if you think someone else has accessed it.

Your handle must not impersonate anyone, infringe anyone's rights, or be offensive. We may change or reclaim handles that break this rule.

2. Free access

World 1 of the Kubernetes course is free, with or without an account. Progress made without an account is stored only in your browser and can be lost if you clear your browser data. Free labs run on an in-browser simulator that models a subset of Kubernetes. It's built for learning and doesn't behave identically to a real cluster.

3. The paid course

The full course (Kubernetes Foundations) is a one-time payment, currently $29.99 USD plus any applicable taxes. It is not a subscription and does not renew. Payment unlocks all worlds, labs, boss fights and the certificate for that course on your account, along with future updates to that course's content.

"Lifetime" or "forever" access means for as long as StackMonsters operates the course. If we ever shut the course down, we'll give at least 90 days' notice. Access is personal to you. You may not share, resell or transfer your account or purchase.

Payments are processed by Stripe and are subject to Stripe's terms. Prices may change, but a change never affects a purchase you've already made.

4. Refunds

All purchases are final. Because World 1 is free to try before you buy, we don't offer refunds once a purchase is complete. We may make an exception at our sole discretion. If something has gone wrong, email hello@stackmonsters.com and we'll take a look. If we do issue a refund, access to the paid content and any certificate issued from it is revoked. Nothing in this section limits rights you have under consumer protection laws that apply to you.

5. Labs

Real-cluster labs run on temporary virtual machines that we provision for your session. They have time limits, are reset or deleted when the session ends, and nothing stored on them is kept. Don't put personal data, credentials or anything you need to keep on a lab machine.

When using labs you agree not to:

• mine cryptocurrency, send spam, or run anything unrelated to the lesson;
• attack, scan or try to access any system other than your own lab environment;
• try to escape the lab environment, get around its network restrictions, or access other learners' sessions;
• deliberately use excessive resources or interfere with the Service for others.

We may end a lab session, suspend access to labs, or close an account that breaks these rules.

6. Fair play

XP, levels, leaderboards and certificates only mean something if they're earned. Don't automate progress, exploit bugs to gain XP, manipulate grading, or use multiple accounts to climb leaderboards. If you find a bug, please report it to us instead. We may reset progress, remove leaderboard entries or revoke certificates obtained by cheating.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• break the law, or use the Service to harm or harass anyone;
• copy, scrape, redistribute or resell course content, lessons, labs or solutions;
• reverse engineer the Service except where the law explicitly allows it;
• probe, test or overload our infrastructure without our written permission;
• upload anything malicious or anything you don't have the right to share.

8. Intellectual property

The Service, including course content, lessons, labs, the simulator, monster artwork, design and software, belongs to StackMonsters or its licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use it for your own learning while you comply with these terms. Kubernetes is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation; StackMonsters is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Linux Foundation or the CNCF.

Commands, YAML and other work you produce in labs are yours. You give us permission to process them to run, grade and improve the Service.

9. Certificates

Certificates record that you completed the course on StackMonsters. They are not an official Kubernetes certification (such as CKA or CKAD) and don't guarantee any exam result, job or salary. Each certificate has a public verification page.

10. Suspension and termination

You can stop using the Service at any time, and you can delete your account from Settings. Deleting your account permanently removes your progress and access to anything you've purchased, and isn't refunded. We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if we're required to by law, or to protect the Service or other learners. If we close your account for reasons other than your breach of these terms, we'll refund your purchase on a pro-rata basis.

11. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep the Service accurate and available, but it's provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don't guarantee the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that lab environments will always be available. Course content is educational. Applying it to your own production systems is at your own risk.

12. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, StackMonsters will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data or goodwill. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and $50 USD. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not fully apply to you.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the Service evolves. If a change is material, we'll update the date at the top and notify you by email or in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the new terms. Changes never take away access to a course you've already paid for.

14. General

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be resolved in the courts of Ontario, and you and we both agree to their jurisdiction. You keep any mandatory protections given to consumers where you live. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a provision isn't a waiver of it. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello@stackmonsters.com.