- Scheduler ComponentConfig fields are now pointers ([#83619](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83619), [@damemi](https://github.com/damemi))

- Replaced deprecated package `k8s.io/utils/pointer` with `k8s.io/utils/ptr` for the apiextensions-apiserver apiextensions. ([#132723](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132723), [@PatrickLaabs](https://github.com/PatrickLaabs))

* Added bool type support for jsonpath. ([#39063](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/39063), [@xingzhou](https://github.com/xingzhou))
* Preventing nil pointer reference in client_config ([#40508](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/40508), [@vjsamuel](https://github.com/vjsamuel))

### Cluster Lifecycle

- kubeadm: fixed nil pointer dereference caused by a bug in url parsing ([#74454](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74454), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

* fix parse devicePath issue on Azure Disk ([#74499](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74499), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* kubeadm: fixed nil pointer dereference caused by a bug in url parsing ([#74454](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74454), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

* Add RequestedToCapacityRatioPriority priority function. Function is parametrized with set of points mapping node utilization (0-100) to score (0-10). ([#63929](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63929), [@losipiuk](https://github.com/losipiuk))
    * Function is linear between points. Resource utilization is defined as one minus ratio of total amount of resource requested by pods on node and node's capacity (scaled to 100).

### Other notable changes

* Fixed a regression where the kubelet would fail to update the ready status of pods. ([#86191](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/86191), [@tedyu](https://github.com/tedyu))
* Fix nil pointer dereference in azure cloud provider ([#85975](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85975), [@ldx](https://github.com/ldx))

- Fix missing "apiVersion" for "involvedObject" in Events for Nodes. ([#87537](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87537), [@uthark](https://github.com/uthark)) [SIG Apps and Node]
- Fix nil pointer dereference in azure cloud provider ([#85975](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85975), [@ldx](https://github.com/ldx)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

- Ignore context canceled from validate and mutate webhook ([#120020](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120020), [@divyasri537](https://github.com/divyasri537)) [SIG API Machinery]
- Kubeadm: fix nil pointer when etcd member is already removed ([#120011](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120011), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

- Fix: avoid nil-pointer panic when checking the frontend IP configuration ([#101739](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101739), [@nilo19](https://github.com/nilo19)) [SIG Cloud Provider]