- Added new option to the `InterPodAffinity` scheduler plugin to ignore existing
  pods` preferred inter-pod affinities if the incoming pod has no preferred inter-pod
  affinities. This option can be used as an optimization for higher scheduling throughput
  (at the cost of an occasional pod being scheduled non-optimally/violating existing
  pods preferred inter-pod affinities). To enable this scheduler option, set the

* Bugfix for erroneous upgrade needed messaging in kubernetes worker charm. ([#60873](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/60873), [@wwwtyro](https://github.com/wwwtyro))
* Fix inter-pod anti-affinity check to consider a pod a match when all the anti-affinity terms match. ([#62715](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/62715), [@bsalamat](https://github.com/bsalamat))

- User can now use component config to configure NodeLabel plugin for the scheduler framework. ([#84297](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/84297), [@liu-cong](https://github.com/liu-cong))
- Optimize inter-pod affinity preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution type, up to 4x in some cases. ([#84264](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/84264), [@ahg-g](https://github.com/ahg-g))

    <magic priority="50">
      <!-- MM.* = Big endian (M=Motorola) and 0x002a in big endian    -->
      <match value="MM\x00\x2a" type="string" offset="0"/>
      <!-- II*. = Little endian (I=Intel) and 0x002a in little endian -->
      <match value="II\x2a\x00" type="string" offset="0"/>
      <!-- MM.+ = Big endian (M=Motorola) and 0x002a in big endian-->
      <match value="MM\x00\x2b" type="string" offset="0"/>

- The Kubernetes API server merged selectors built from `matchLabelKeys` into the `labelSelector` of `topologySpreadConstraints`, aligning Pod Topology Spread behavior with Inter-Pod Affinity. To prevent breaking existing Pods using `matchLabelKeys`, this scheduler behavior was preserved until v1.34. Upgrades from v1.32 to v1.34 should be done incrementally (v1.32 → v1.33 → v1.34), ensuring Pods created at v1.32 with `matchLabelKeys`...

  * [Nodes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/assign-pod-node/#node-affinity-beta-feature) and [pods](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/assign-pod-node/#inter-pod-affinity-and-anti-affinity-beta-feature) now support affinity and anti-affinity

- Add improved load balancer naming.

### SIG-scheduling

SIG Scheduling development efforts have been primarily focused on improving performance and reliability of the scheduler.
- Performance of the inter-pod affinity/anti-affinity feature is improved over 100X via algorithmic optimization.