Kubernetes v1.36 (Apr 22, 2026) enables HPAScaleToZero by default. That lets the HPA use minReplicas: 0 and read only controller-owned pod metrics. The release swaps long-lived image-pull secrets for ephemeral KSA tokens. It deprecates IPVS, retires Ingress NGINX, and aligns with containerd 2.x.
The release forces clusters to migrate to eBPF/nftables proxies and the Gateway API. This reworks cluster networking, ingress, and runtime dependencies. Operators will face some honest plumbing.
