- The example API server has renamed its `wardle.k8s.io` API group to `wardle.example.com` ([#81670](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/81670), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))
- CRDs defaulting is promoted to GA. Note: the feature gate CustomResourceDefaulting will be removed in 1.18. ([#84713](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/84713), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))

The main themes of this release are:

- **Custom resources:** CRDs are in widespread use as a way to extend Kubernetes to persist and serve new resource types, and have been available in beta since the 1.7 release. The 1.16 release marks the graduation of CRDs to general availability (GA).

* Added Establishing Controller on CRDs to avoid race between Established condition and CRs actually served. In HA setups, the Established condition is delayed by 5 seconds. ([#63068](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63068), [@xmudrii](https://github.com/xmudrii))

- CRD supports multi-version Schema, Subresources and AdditionalPrintColumns (NOTE that CRDs created prior to 1.13 populated the top-level additionalPrinterColumns field by default. To apply an updated that changes to per-version additionalPrinterColumns, the top-level additionalPrinterColumns field must be explicitly set to null). ([#702...

- Fixed a bug that prevents kubectl to validate CRDs with schema using x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields on object fields.

- Revised `OpenAPI v2` fetching for CustomResourceDefinitions. CRDs are now aggregated lazily,
  which improves resource usage during installation of many CRDs. As a result, the first request
  to fetch the OpenAPI may be slower. ([#118808](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118808), [@Jefftree](https://github.com/Jefftree))

    - [API Machinery](#api-machinery)
      - [kube-apiserver](#kube-apiserver)
      - [Dynamic Admission Control](#dynamic-admission-control)
      - [Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs)](#custom-resource-definitions-crds)
      - [Garbage Collector](#garbage-collector)
      - [Monitoring/Prometheus](#monitoringprometheus)
      - [Go Client](#go-client)
  - [External Dependencies](#external-dependencies)

* 'cj' has been added as a shortname for CronJobs, as in `kubectl get cj` ([#59499](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59499), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))

* `crds` has been added as a shortname for CustomResourceDefinition, as in `kubectl get crds` ([#59061](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59061), [@nikhita](https://github.com/nikhita))

- Reduce API server memory when many CRDs are loaded by sharing a single etcd3 client logger across all clients ([#111648](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111648), [@negz](https://github.com/negz)) [SIG API Machinery]

- Fixed a bug that prevents kubectl to validate CRDs with schema using x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields on object fields.