Kubernetes liveness probes ensure that an application within a container is live and operational based on a specified test. They are used when a pod may appear to be running but the application may not function correctly, such as in a deadlock situation. Liveness probes can improve pod resilience and availability by triggering an automatic restart of a container once a failure of a specified test is detected. Other types of Kubernetes probes include readiness and startup probes. Probes are managed by the kubelet, which uses one of four handlers: ExecAction, TCPSocketAction, HTTPGetAction, or gRPC handler.