diff --git a/test/e2e/kind-conf.yaml b/test/e2e/kind-conf.yaml
index 42c6a320e..fa8d2e480 100644
--- a/test/e2e/kind-conf.yaml
+++ b/test/e2e/kind-conf.yaml
@@ -3,7 +3,28 @@ kind: Cluster
 apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
 name: kind
 
+# We decrease the interval at which kubelet synchronizes the mounted configmaps
+# and secrets from the default 1 minute to 10 seconds. It helps speeding up the
+# tests because the configuration changes are propagated faster to the
+# containers.
+#
+# While we apply the same settings to all nodes, there's a current limitation
+# with Kind that kubelet configuration is cluster-wide so only the first patch
+# is applied in fact. See https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/issues/3849
+# for details.
 nodes:
 - role: control-plane
+  kubeadmConfigPatches:
+  - |
+    kind: KubeletConfiguration
+    syncFrequency: 10s
 - role: worker
+  kubeadmConfigPatches:
+  - |
+    kind: KubeletConfiguration
+    syncFrequency: 10s
 - role: worker
+  kubeadmConfigPatches:
+  - |
+    kind: KubeletConfiguration
+    syncFrequency: 10s