DevOps Interview Questions - Land Your DevOps Engineer Role

Master DevOps interview questions with AI-generated practice. Prepare for CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes, cloud platforms, Linux administration, and infrastructure as code rounds.

What are DevOps Interview Questions?

DevOps interview questions assess your ability to bridge development and operations, automate infrastructure, manage CI/CD pipelines, and ensure system reliability. These interviews test your knowledge of cloud platforms, containerization, scripting, and infrastructure as code. Whether you're preparing for junior DevOps engineer or senior SRE roles, comprehensive practice is essential.

Typical DevOps interview rounds:

  • Technical Screen – Linux commands, networking basics, scripting (45-60 minutes)
  • Tools & Technologies – Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Terraform, Ansible deep dives
  • System Design – Design scalable infrastructure, deployment pipelines, monitoring systems
  • Troubleshooting – Debug production issues, incident response scenarios

Master All Types of DevOps Questions

🐳

Containers & Orchestration

Docker and Kubernetes are essential for modern DevOps roles.

  • Docker images, containers, volumes
  • Kubernetes pods, services, deployments
  • Container networking
  • Helm charts & operators
🔄

CI/CD Pipelines

Automate build, test, and deployment processes effectively.

  • Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions
  • Pipeline as code
  • Blue-green & canary deployments
  • Artifact management
☁️

Cloud Platforms

AWS, Azure, or GCP knowledge is required for most DevOps roles.

  • EC2, S3, VPC, IAM (AWS)
  • Load balancing & auto-scaling
  • Serverless (Lambda, Cloud Functions)
  • Cloud networking & security
🏗️

Infrastructure as Code

Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration management.

  • Terraform modules & state
  • Ansible playbooks & roles
  • CloudFormation / Pulumi
  • GitOps workflows

50+ Common DevOps Interview Questions

🐳 Docker & Kubernetes

  • • What's the difference between CMD and ENTRYPOINT?
  • • How do you reduce Docker image size?
  • • Explain Kubernetes services (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer)
  • • How does a pod communicate with another pod?

🔄 CI/CD Questions

  • • Explain your ideal CI/CD pipeline
  • • How do you handle secrets in pipelines?
  • • What's the difference between blue-green and canary?
  • • How do you rollback a failed deployment?

🐧 Linux & Scripting

  • • How do you find the largest files on a server?
  • • Explain the Linux boot process
  • • What's the difference between soft and hard links?
  • • Write a script to monitor disk usage

☁️ Cloud & Infrastructure

  • • Explain VPC, subnets, and security groups
  • • How would you design a highly available architecture?
  • • What is Terraform state and how do you manage it?
  • • How do you handle infrastructure drift?

Essential DevOps Tools to Master

🐳

Docker

Containerization platform. Must-know for any DevOps role.

☸️

Kubernetes

Container orchestration. Essential for scaling containerized apps.

🏗️

Terraform

Infrastructure as code. Multi-cloud provisioning tool.

⚙️

Jenkins / GitHub Actions

CI/CD automation. Build, test, and deploy pipelines.

📊

Prometheus & Grafana

Monitoring and alerting. Observability stack.

📝

Ansible

Configuration management. Agentless automation.

Common Troubleshooting Scenarios

🔴 Website is down, what do you do?

Check load balancer health → Verify application pods/containers → Check logs (application, nginx) → Verify database connectivity → Check DNS resolution → Review recent deployments → Check resource utilization

🐢 Application is slow, how do you debug?

Check metrics (CPU, memory, I/O) → Review APM data → Analyze slow queries → Check network latency → Review connection pool exhaustion → Check external dependencies → Profile the application

💾 Server is running out of disk space

Find large files (du -sh, ncdu) → Check log rotation → Clean Docker images/volumes → Review temporary files → Archive old data → Expand storage if needed

🔄 Deployment failed, how do you recover?

Immediate rollback to last known good version → Review deployment logs → Check pod events (kubectl describe) → Verify config/secrets → Review recent changes → Fix issue and redeploy with proper testing

DevOps Engineer vs SRE: Interview Differences

AspectDevOps EngineerSRE
FocusCI/CD, automation, toolingReliability, SLOs, incident response
CodingScripting, pipeline codeSoftware engineering level
MetricsDeployment frequency, lead timeSLIs, SLOs, error budgets
On-callSometimesCore responsibility
Interview FocusTools, automation, pipelinesCoding, system design, incidents

Your DevOps Interview Prep Roadmap

📚

Week 1-2: Linux & Networking Fundamentals

Review Linux commands, file systems, processes, and networking (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP). Practice shell scripting (Bash). Understand systemd and process management.

🐳

Week 3-4: Containers & Orchestration

Master Docker (images, containers, compose, networking). Learn Kubernetes core concepts (pods, services, deployments, configmaps, secrets). Practice with minikube or kind.

☁️

Week 5-6: Cloud & Infrastructure as Code

Study one cloud platform deeply (AWS recommended). Learn Terraform for infrastructure provisioning. Understand VPCs, IAM, load balancers, and auto-scaling.

🎯

Week 7-8: CI/CD & Mock Interviews

Build complete CI/CD pipelines. Practice troubleshooting scenarios. Do mock interviews covering system design and incident response. Review monitoring/logging concepts.

Ready to Land Your DevOps Engineer Role?

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