Top DevOps Interview Questions

In Q4 of 2021, DevOps Engineer was among the Top 10 roles with the highest number of LinkedIn job posts. The demand for DevOps engineers is growing. If you want to join this lucrative domain, you must prepare yourself for DevOps interview questions.

With the growing popularity, you can expect some serious competition at interviews for the DevOps engineer role, especially at FAANG and other top-tier companies. To help you prepare, we have put together a list of the most commonly asked questions at DevOps interviews.

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To start your interview prep, practice these DevOps interview questions.

• Basic DevOps Interview Questions and Answers
• Intermediate DevOps Interview Questions and Answers
• Advanced DevOps Interview Questions
• FAQs on DevOps Interviews

Basic DevOps Interview Questions and Answers

Following are a few DevOps interview questions with answers for freshers:

1. What is the role of a DevOps engineer?

A DevOps engineer ensures smooth code releases by working with IT staff and software developers. In simple words, DevOps engineers have a clear understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle and automation tools of CD/CI pipelines.

DevOps is extremely helpful in achieving frequent delivery deployments, quick bug fixes, quick recovery of release failures, and much more. Due to its host of benefits, most multinational firms have adopted this methodology to increase organizational performance.

2. What’s the use of SSH?

SSH is an acronym for Secure Shell. It is an administrative protocol, providing users with control and access to the remote servers around the internet with the use of a command line.

3. Define configuration management.

CM is the process of the systematic handling of changes in a way that the system retains its integrity. It helps in providing a technical and administrative direction to the development and design of appreciation.

4. What’s the importance of configuration management in DevOps?

CM helps in automating tedious tasks, thereby enhancing the performance and agility of the entire organization.

Learn about How to Become a DevOps Engineer here.

Here are a few additional basic-level DevOps interview questions for practice:

1. What is CAMS?
2. Define Configuration Integration (CI).
3. Define Continuous Testing (CT).
4. What’s the important DevOps kpi?
5. How does HTTP work?
6. What are the core operations of DevOps wrt infrastructure and development?
7. What are a few business and technical benefits of DevOps work culture?
8. What is the difference between Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment?
9. We have a few ideas software application ideas. Should we go for DevOps or Agile work culture? Why?
10. Can DevOps be considered an Agile methodology?
11. What are the top DevOps tools? How do these tools work together?
12. What are some of the critical benefits of DevOps?
13. Explain a scenario in which DevOps can be used in real life.
14. What are anti-patterns of DevOps?

If you’re not a fresher, you must also go through a few intermediate-level DevOps interview questions to prepare yourself for the interview. We’ve covered these in the next section.

Intermediate DevOps Interview Questions and Answers

Here are a few DevOps engineer interview questions and answers for the intermediate level:

1. In what way do you handle merge conflicts in Git?

To merge conflicts in Git, we follow these steps:

• Step 1: Understand the issue.
• Step 2: Mark the conflict and then clean it.
• Step 3: Perform commit again; merge the current branch and the master branch.

2. What are the advantages of Forking Workflow over the other Git workflows?

Instead of utilizing a single server-side repository for a central codebase, forking workflow provides a server-side repository to every developer. The primary advantage of this is integrated contributions to the organization.

3. When can you use Git rebase instead of Git merge?

Both git merge and git rebase help integrate changes from one branch to another. However, they do so in different ways. While performing git rebase, we shift the base of the feature branch to the ending point of the master branch.

While performing git merge, we take the feature branch content and add it with that of the master branch.

4. I just made a bad git commit by mistake and made it public. Can you tell me how I can reverse the commit?

We can use the following command:

git revert <name the commit you wish to revert>

5. What are the various phases in DevOps methodology?

The various phases in DevOps methodology are:

• Planning
• Development
• Continuous Integration
• Monitoring
• Deployment
• Operations

A few additional DevOps interview questions for the intermediate level are:

1. What is Memcached?
2. What are some branching strategies implemented in a version control system?
3. Define CBD.
4. Define Resilience Testing.
5. Explain the DevOps pipeline.
6. What do you mean by Ansible work in DevOps?
7. Explain the working of Ansible.
8. What is the contribution of AWS to DevOps?
9. What are the steps to develop a project using DevOps methodology?
10. How can you launch a browser with WebDriver?
11. Define Puppet Manifests.
12. Define Puppet Module. Explain how it is different from Puppet Manifests.
13. What is Puppet codedir?
14. Where can you locate Puppet codedir?
15. Tell us about your understanding of the technical operations and software development at an organization for which you have worked previously.

Do you know what exactly a DevOps engineer does at a tech company? Read this article to learn more.

If you’re more experienced, you should also prepare for advanced-level DevOps interview questions. Read the following section.

Advanced DevOps Interview Questions and Answers

Following are some DevOps interview questions for candidates with over 3 years of experience:

1. What’s the difference between ad-hoc commands and Ansible Playbook?

Ad-hoc commands are mostly one-time use and are used to do something at a quick pace. On the other hand, Ansible playbook is useful in performing repetitive actions.

2. Why should we use Ansible?

Ansible helps in application deployment, task automation, and configuration management.

3. What do handlers mean in Ansible?

Handlers in Ansible feature regular tasks as inside the Ansible playbook. However, we only run them if the task contains a notify directive.

4. Do you know about Ansible Galaxy? What is its purpose?

Ansible Galaxy is the galaxy website of Ansible. Here, users share Ansible roles.

5. Write the syntax for building a docker image.

docker build –f <file_name> -t image_name:version

A few additional DevOps engineer interview questions for advanced level are:

1. What does sudo mean in Linux?
2. What is NRPE in Nagios?
3. Why should we use Nagios?
4. Define Nagios Log Server.
5. Why should we use Nagios for monitoring HTTP?
6. What are the prerequisites of installing Ansible 2.8 on Linux?
7. What are the benefits of using VCS (Version Control System)?
8. What are the benefits of docker over virtual machines?
9. Why do we use SSL certificates in Chef?
10. How can we share Docker containers in different nodes?
11. What does ‘shift left to reduce failure’ in DevOps mean?
12. Do you know what post mortem meetings mean?
13. Define Pair Programming.
14. Explain Blue/Green Deployment Pattern.
15. Explain Dogpile method. How can we prevent it?

Practicing these DevOps interview questions is just the start! Be sure to brush up on your core coding and system design skills, too, before your interview. You can practice the coding interview questions listed on our Problems page.

FAQs on DevOps Interviews

Q1. What is the average salary of a DevOps engineer in the US?

The average base salary for a DevOps engineer in the United States is $126,248.

Q2. What are the core operations a DevOps engineer looks into?

The core operations of DevOps are application development, code coverage, code development, packaging, unit testing, configuration, provisioning, deployment, orchestration, and deployment with infrastructure.

Q3. What is the minimum eligibility to become a DevOps engineer?

To become a DevOps engineer, you need to have a degree in computer science or a related field.

Q4. How do I prepare for DevOps interview questions?

To answer even the hardest DevOps interview questions, you need to have a clear understanding of the technicalities of this subject. You need to be well-versed in Unix/Linux systems and networking, container-orchestration systems, configuration management, SRE system design, and monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting systems.

Q5. What are the different types of DevOps Engineers?

The different types of DevOps engineers include DevOps Evangelists, Release Manager, Automation Expert, Software Developer/Tester, Security Engineer, and Quality Assurance Specialist.

Gear Up for Your Next DevOps Engineer Interview

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