What is the purpose of readinessProbe in Kubernetes?

The readinessProbe in Kubernetes is used to determine if a container is ready to accept traffic. Until the readinessProbe passes successfully, Kubernetes does not route requests to this pod through services. This is important for proper load distribution and preventing requests from being sent to containers that are not yet ready to operate.

For example, if the application inside the container takes a long time to start or initialize data, the readinessProbe will return "not ready," and traffic will not be directed to this pod until the application is fully operational.