([#122056](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122056), [@dhenkel92](https://github.com/dhenkel92))
- Improved scheduler performance when no scoring plugins were defined.
   ([#122058](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122058), [@aleksandra-malinowska](https://github.com/aleksandra-malinowska))
- Improved scheduler performance when no scoring plugins were defined.

        Entry<K, V>[] nonNullEntries = (Entry<K, V>[]) entries;
        if (!throwIfDuplicateKeys) {
          // We want to retain only the last-put value for any given key, before sorting.
          // This could be improved, but orderEntriesByValue is rather rarely used anyway.
          Entry<K, V>[] lastEntryForEachKey = lastEntryForEachKey(nonNullEntries, size);
          if (lastEntryForEachKey != null) {

        localAlternatingKeysAndValues = alternatingKeysAndValues;
        if (!throwIfDuplicateKeys) {
          // We want to retain only the last-put value for any given key, before sorting.
          // This could be improved, but orderEntriesByValue is rather rarely used anyway.
          localAlternatingKeysAndValues = lastEntryForEachKey(localAlternatingKeysAndValues, size);

## Major Themes

- StatefulSets (ex-PetSets)
  - StatefulSets are beta now (fixes and stabilization)
- Improved Federation Support
  - New command: `kubefed`
  - DaemonSets
  - Deployments
  - ConfigMaps
- Simplified Cluster Deployment
  - Improvements to `kubeadm`
  - HA Setup for Master

- 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))

(kernel or iptables versions are insufficient), the kube-proxy will fall-back
to userspace mode. Kube-proxy is much more performant and less
resource-intensive in ‘iptables’ mode.
  * Node stability can be improved by reserving [resources](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/release-1.2/docs/proposals/node-allocatable.md) for the base operating system using --system-reserved and --kube-reserved Kubelet flags

        * requests for a TLS client certificate for any node are approved if the CSR creator has `create` permission on the `certificatesigningrequests` resource and `nodeclient` subresource in the `certificates.k8s.io` API group

access-authn-authz/admission-controllers/#noderestriction). In authentication, we added alpha-level support for automounting improved service account tokens through projected volumes. We also enabled [audience validation in TokenReview](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.13/#tokenreview-v1-authentication-k8s-io) for the new tokens for improved scoping. Under audit logging, the new alpha-level "dynamic audit configuration" adds support for [dynamically registering webhooks...

  - [Changelog since v1.28.8](#changelog-since-v1288)
  - [Important Security Information](#important-security-information-1)
    - [CVE-2024-3177: Bypassing mountable secrets policy imposed by the ServiceAccount admission plugin](#cve-2024-3177-bypassing-mountable-secrets-policy-imposed-by-the-serviceaccount-admission-plugin)
  - [Changes by Kind](#changes-by-kind-6)
    - [Feature](#feature-4)
    - [Bug or Regression](#bug-or-regression-6)

Other notable changes include:
* CoreDNS replaces kube-dns as the default DNS provider
* Improved user experience for environments without a public internet connection and users using other CRI runtimes than Docker
* Support for structured configuration for the kubelet, which avoids the need to modify the systemd drop-in file