- Implemented validation for `NodeSelectorRequirement` values in Kubernetes when creating pods. ([#128212](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128212), [@AxeZhan](https://github.com/AxeZhan)) [SIG Apps and Scheduling]

  - Different configuration types can be supplied all in the same file separated by `---`.
- Improved CRI handling
  - crictl is no longer required in docker-only setups.
  - Better detection of installed CRI.
  - Better output for image pull errors.
- Improved air-gapped and offline support
  - kubeadm now handles air-gapped environments by using the local client version as a fallback.

### AWS

### Scheduling

- Improved fairness of the scheduling queue by placing pods which are attempted recently behind other pods with the same priority. ([#73700](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73700), [@denkensk](https://github.com/denkensk))

## Changelog since v1.29.5

## Changes by Kind

### API Change

- Improved scheduling performance when many nodes, and prefilter returns 1-2 nodes (e.g. daemonset)
  

- Improved FormatMap: Improves performance by about 4x, or nearly 2x in the worst case ([#112661](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112661), [@aimuz](https://github.com/aimuz)) [SIG Node]

- Improved scheduling performance when many nodes, and prefilter returned 1-2 nodes (e.g. daemonset)
  

### Introducing Windows CSI support alpha for Kubernetes

With the release of Kubernetes 1.18, an alpha version of CSI Proxy for Windows is getting released. CSI proxy enables non-privileged (pre-approved) containers to perform privileged storage operations on Windows. CSI drivers can now be supported in Windows by leveraging CSI proxy.
SIG Storage made a lot of progress in the 1.18 release.

- Improved Node's QueueingHint in the `NodeAffinity` plugin by ignoring unrelated changes that keep pods unschedulable. ([#127444](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/127444), [@dom4ha](https://github.com/dom4ha)) [SIG Scheduling and Testing]

- Switched intstr.Type to sized integer to follow API guidelines and improve compatibility with proto libraries ([#83956](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83956), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))
- Client-go: improved allocation behavior of the delaying workqueue when handling objects with far-future ready times. ([#83945](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83945), [@barkbay](https://github.com/barkbay))