Quick Answer
Cilium attaches eBPF programs to network interfaces and socket layers. When a Pod connects to a Service ClusterIP, Cilium's eBPF socket-level program intercepts the connect() syscall and redirects it directly to a backend Pod's IP รขโฌโ without going through the kernel network stack, without iptables, and without needing kube-proxy at all. L7 policies work similarly.
Answer
eBPF enables direct routing, load balancing, and policy enforcement without iptables.
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SugharaIQ Editorial Team
Verified Answer
This answer has been peer-reviewed by industry experts holding senior engineering roles to ensure technical accuracy and relevance for modern interview standards.