This two-week plan gives you a clear, day-by-day roadmap to get ready for a DevOps Engineer interview. It’s designed to help you cover all the important areas—from basic concepts like Linux, Networking, and Git, to hands-on practice, cloud system design, kubernetes and interview techniques.
Here’s what’s included:
- A detailed list of DevOps topics you should know
- Tips on how to plan and research companies
- Guidance for behavioral interview questions
- Resume preparation tips and useful tools
🎯 Goal: Understand the company's context, the specific role, and the likely interview focus areas.
🛠️ Activities:
- Research the company: Products, services, scale, business drivers, primary infrastructure (
AWS,Azure,GCP, On-prem?). - Deep-dive into the Job Description: Identify key responsibilities, required tools (
Terraform,Ansible,Jenkins,Docker,Kubernetes, etc.), and experience level. - Investigate their Tech Stack: Check tech blogs, conference talks (YouTube), open-source projects, and employee LinkedIn profiles.
- Identify Company Values / Engineering Principles.
- Consult Interview Resources:
Glassdoor,Blind,Reddit(r/devops),Levels.fyifor company-specific DevOps interview insights. Note down common question types (System Design, Coding, Troubleshooting, Behavioral). - Start Your Questions List: Begin compiling insightful questions to ask your interviewers.
✅ Output: A clear picture of the company/role context, a prioritized list of study topics/tools, understanding of the likely interview format, and initial questions for interviewers.
🎯 Goal: Solidify core Linux command-line skills and understanding of fundamental Operating System and Networking concepts.
🛠️ Activities:
- Linux Command Line Mastery:
- File/Directory Management:
find,locate. - Text Processing:
less,more,head,tail,grep,sed,awk. - Permissions:
chmod,chown,sudo; understand user/group/other permissions (symbolic & octal). - Process Management:
ps,top,htop,kill,nice,systemctl/service. - Archiving/Compression:
tar,gzip,gunzip. - Disk Usage:
df,du. - Basic Networking Tools:
ping,ip addr(orifconfig),netstat,ss,traceroute,dig,nslookup,curl,wget,lsof. - Process Management:
ps,top,htop,kill,nice,systemctl,service,uptime,dmesg | tail,vmstat 1,mpstat -P ALL 1,pidstat 1,iostat -xz 1,free -m,sar -n DEV 1,sar -n TCP,ETCP 1
- File/Directory Management:
- Operating System Concepts:
- Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).
/procfilesystem- Kernel vs. Shell interaction.
- Kernel Space and User Space
- How Linux handles Interrupts
- I/O Redirection & Piping (
>,>>,|,2>). - Environment Variables (
export,.bashrc/.zshrc). - Processes vs. Threads.
- Virtual Memory concepts.
- Inodes and File Descriptors (including standard streams 0, 1, 2).
- Linux Boot Process (high-level: BIOS/UEFI -> Bootloader -> Kernel -> Init System).
- Init Systems (
systemdvsSysVinitconcepts). - Load Average
- Networking Fundamentals:
- OSI Model: Understand the 7 layers and the primary function of each (esp. Layers 1-4, 7).
- TCP/IP Model: Relationship to OSI; focus on key protocols at each layer.
- TCP vs. UDP: Key differences, use cases, 3-way handshake (TCP).
- IP Addressing: Basics of IPv4 addresses, subnet masks, private vs. public IPs, CIDR notation (briefly).
- DNS: Resolution process (recursive vs. iterative), common record types (
A,AAAA,CNAME,MX,TXT,NS). - HTTP/HTTPS: Request methods (
GET,POST, etc.), status codes (categories 2xx-5xx), basics of HTTPS/TLS handshake and certificates. - Common Ports (e.g., 22, 53, 80, 443).
- Concepts: Default Gateway, Routing basics.
✅ Output: Confidence using the Linux command line for common tasks; foundational understanding of OS structure, core networking principles, and the OSI model.
🎯 Goal: Understand core DevOps philosophies, the basics of their primary cloud environment, and master essential
Gitversion control concepts and workflows.
🛠️ Activities:
- Review DevOps Pillars: CI/CD principles, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) importance, Monitoring vs. Observability, Configuration Management goals, DevOps Culture (collaboration, feedback loops, automation).
- Study Cloud Fundamentals: (Focus on their primary provider:
AWS,Azure, orGCP): Core Compute, Storage, Networking (VPC/VNet, SG/NSG, LB), IAM, Managed Databases (basic concepts). - Version Control with
Git:- Core Concepts: Understand Repository, Working Directory, Staging Area (Index), Commit, Branch, Merge (including different strategies like fast-forward vs recursive), Remote (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket), HEAD, Tags.
- Essential Commands: Practice
git init,git clone,git status,git add,git commit -m,git log(and variations like--oneline,--graph),git diff,git branch,git checkout/git switch,git merge. - Working with Remotes: Practice
git remote add,git fetch,git pull(and--rebase),git push. - Branching Strategies: Understand the concepts behind Feature Branching, Gitflow (high-level), Trunk-Based Development (high-level). Why use branches?
- Collaboration: Basic understanding of how to handle Merge Conflicts.
- Ignoring Files: Understand and use
.gitignore.
✅ Output: Strong grasp of DevOps principles, foundational cloud knowledge, and confidence using
Gitfor version control tasks including branching, merging, and remote collaboration.
🎯 Goal: Develop practical scripting skills, leveraging Linux fundamentals and assuming code is managed in
Git, for automating common DevOps tasks.
🛠️ Activities:
- Select primary language:
Python(highly recommended) and/orBash(essential). - Review Language Basics: Data types, control flow (loops, conditionals), functions, error handling (
try-exceptin Python). - Practice Scripting Tasks (incorporating Linux commands):
- File I/O (reading configs, writing logs/reports).
- API Interaction (using
requestsin Python orcurl/jqin Bash). - Data Parsing (JSON using
jsonlib orjq, YAML usingPyYAML). - OS Interaction (running commands via
subprocessoros.system, managing processes, gathering system info). - Combining tools using pipes (
|) within scripts.
- Focus on: Readability, Error Handling, Modularity (functions), Idempotency where applicable. (Code should be versioned in
Git).
✅ Output: Ability to write simple-to-intermediate scripts for common automation needs; referenceable code snippets leveraging OS commands, managed with Git.
🎯 Goal: Understand IaC principles and gain hands-on experience with a primary tool (e.g.,
Terraform), managing code withGit.
🛠️ Activities:
- Explore IaC Concepts: Declarative approach, State Management, Idempotency, Modularity. (Code should be versioned in
Git). - Setup Chosen Tool: Install
Terraform(orCloudFormation/ARM/Pulumi). - Work Through Basics: Define simple cloud resources (VM, Storage Bucket, Security Group, basic network).
- Understand Core Workflow:
terraform init,terraform plan,terraform apply,terraform destroy,terraform fmt,terraform validate. - Learn about: Input Variables, Resource Outputs, Basic Dependencies, Data Sources.
✅ Output: Understanding of IaC core concepts and basic proficiency defining/managing simple infrastructure with your chosen tool, using Git for code management.
🎯 Goal: Explore more advanced IaC features, best practices, and structure, managed within
Git.
🛠️ Activities:
- Learn Modularity: Use
Terraform Modules(local and remote/registry) or (CloudFormation Nested Stacks) for reusable infrastructure components. (Modules versioned inGit). - Deep Dive into State: Remote State backends (e.g.,
S3,Azure Blob Storage), State Locking (critical for teams),terraform workspace. - Handle Sensitive Data: Integrate with secrets management tools (
Vault,AWS Secrets Manager,Azure Key Vault), avoid hardcoding secrets. Use sensitive variable flags. - Build More Complex Setups: E.g., Provision a web server cluster behind a load balancer with database connectivity.
- Explore IaC Best Practices: Linting (
tflint), static analysis (tfsec/checkov), directory structure patterns, version constraints.
✅ Output: Ability to structure IaC code effectively using modules, understand state management trade-offs, handle secrets securely, and apply best practices, all managed via Git.
🎯 Goal: Understand the role of configuration management and gain basic proficiency in one tool (e.g.,
Ansible), managing code withGit.
🛠️ Activities:
- Differentiate: IaC (Provisioning) vs. Configuration Management (Configuration & Maintenance). Understand when to use which. (Code/Playbooks versioned in
Git). - Understand Key Concepts: Idempotency, Push vs. Pull models, Agent vs. Agentless.
- Get Hands-on (
Ansiblerecommended for simplicity):- Write basic Playbooks. Use common modules (
apt/yum,copy,template,service,user,file). - Define Tasks ensuring idempotency.
- Understand Inventory (static and dynamic).
- Explore basic Roles structure for organization and reusability.
- Use Handlers and Variables.
- Look into
ansible-vaultfor encrypting sensitive data.
- Write basic Playbooks. Use common modules (
✅ Output: Understanding of configuration management principles like idempotency and the ability to automate basic server setup/configuration tasks idempotently, using Git for code management.
🎯 Goal: Master
Dockerfundamentals for building, shipping, and running applications consistently. (Dockerfiles managed inGit).
🛠️ Activities:
- Review Core Concepts: Images vs. Containers, Layered Filesystem, Namespaces & Cgroups (high-level), Benefits (Consistency, Isolation, Density).
- Practice
dockerCLI:build,run,ps,stop,rm,images,rmi,logs,exec,inspect,network,volume. - Write Effective
Dockerfiles: Understand instructions (FROM,RUN,COPY,ADD,WORKDIR,EXPOSE,USER,CMDvsENTRYPOINT), Multi-Stage Builds, minimizing layers, security best practices (non-root user). - Understand
DockerNetworking: Port mapping, bridge/host/overlay network drivers. - Learn
DockerVolumes & Bind Mounts: Managing persistent data. - Explore
docker-compose: Define and run multi-container applications locally for development environments. (docker-compose.ymlversioned inGit).
✅ Output: Solid understanding of
Docker, ability to write efficient and secureDockerfiles, manage container lifecycles/data/networking, and usedocker-compose.
🎯 Goal: Understand the need for orchestration and learn the fundamentals of a key platform (
Kuberneteshighly recommended). (YAML manifests managed inGit).
🛠️ Activities:
- Identify Problems Solved: Scaling, Self-Healing, Service Discovery, Load Balancing, Rolling Updates/Rollbacks, Resource Management.
- Learn
KubernetesBasics:- Core Objects:
Pod(and containers within),Service(types:ClusterIP,NodePort,LoadBalancer),Deployment(andReplicaSet),Namespace,ConfigMap,Secret. Understand their purpose and relationships. - Architecture Overview: Control Plane (
api-server,etcd,scheduler,controller-manager), Worker Nodes (kubelet,kube-proxy, Container Runtime). - Practice
kubectl:get,describe,apply -f,delete -f,logs,exec,port-forward,config,explain. Learn YAML manifest structure. - Deploy & Expose: Run a simple application using a
Deploymentand expose it via aService. Interact withPods.
- Core Objects:
- Compare (Optional): Briefly understand managed K8s (
EKS,AKS,GKE) and alternatives (ECS,Fargate,Nomad).
✅ Output: Conceptual grasp of container orchestration; hands-on familiarity with
Kubernetescore resources, architecture, and basickubectlusage, managing manifests with Git.
🎯 Goal: Design and understand continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment workflows and common tooling, triggered from
Gitrepositories.
🛠️ Activities:
- Detail CI/CD Stages: Source (
Gitcommit/merge trigger) -> Build -> Test (Unit, Integration, Static Analysis) -> Artifact Storage -> Deploy (Staging -> Prod) -> Verify/Monitor/Rollback. Understand the difference between CDelivery and CDeployment. - Explore Pipeline-as-Code: Syntax and structure for
Jenkinsfile(Declarative/Scripted),.gitlab-ci.yml,GitHub Actionsworkflows. (Pipeline definitions stored inGit). - Practice with One Tool: Define a simple pipeline (trigger, stages, steps, basic build/test execution). Integrate with source control (
Git). - Understand Artifact Management: Using registries like
Docker Hub,ECR,ACR,GCR,Nexus,Artifactory. Versioning strategies. - Study Deployment Strategies: Rolling Update, Blue/Green Deployment, Canary Release, A/B Testing (conceptual). Discuss pros, cons, implementation considerations, and rollback mechanisms.
✅ Output: Ability to design basic CI/CD pipelines triggered by Git events, understand pipeline-as-code syntax for a major tool, discuss various deployment strategies and trade-offs.
🎯 Goal: Understand how to monitor systems effectively using the pillars of observability (metrics, logs, traces) and the tools involved.
🛠️ Activities:
- Revisit Observability Pillars: Metrics (System vs App; USE/RED methods), Logging (Structured Logging best practices), Tracing (Distributed request tracing concepts). Understand why all three are important.
- Explore Common Tooling Categories:
- Metrics/Alerting: Time-series databases (
Prometheus,InfluxDB), Visualization (Grafana), Alerting (Alertmanager), Cloud Provider tools (CloudWatch,Azure Monitor). - Logging: Log shippers (
Fluentd,Logstash,Filebeat), Storage/Indexing (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch,Loki), Visualization (Kibana,Grafana). Cloud Provider tools (CloudWatch Logs,Azure Log Analytics). - Tracing: Standards (
OpenTelemetry), Tools (Jaeger,Zipkin, Cloud Provider tools).
- Metrics/Alerting: Time-series databases (
- Define Monitoring Strategy: Consider what key metrics/logs/traces to collect for different system types (web app, database, K8s cluster).
- Understand Basic Alerting: Principles of setting meaningful thresholds, reducing noise, routing notifications.
✅ Output: Solid understanding of observability concepts (the 'three pillars'), familiarity with the types of tools used in each category, and the ability to discuss basic monitoring strategies.
🎯 Goal: Integrate fundamental security (
DevSecOps) and explore more advanced networking and infrastructure concepts relevant in complex environments.
🛠️ Activities:
- Security (
DevSecOps) Integration:- Secrets Management: Tools (
Vault,AWS Secrets Manager,Azure Key Vault), secure injection patterns. - IAM Best Practices: Principle of Least Privilege review; Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in cloud and K8s.
- Vulnerability Scanning: Tools (
Trivy,Clair,Snyk,Dependabot, SAST/DAST concepts) and integration points (CI, registry). - Pipeline Security: Securing build environments, artifact signing/verification.
- Infrastructure Hardening basics (e.g., CIS benchmarks awareness).
- Secrets Management: Tools (
- Network Security Concepts:
- Firewalls: Stateful vs. Stateless concepts.
- Cloud Network Security: Security Groups (
AWS SG,Azure NSG) vs. Network ACLs (NACLs). WAF basics. - Secure Access Patterns: Bastion Hosts / Jump Boxes, VPNs, Zero Trust concepts (high-level).
- Advanced Networking & Infrastructure:
- Cloud Networking: VPC Peering / Transit Gateway / VNet Peering, PrivateLink / Private Endpoints, Direct Connect / ExpressRoute concepts.
- Load Balancing: Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) vs. Layer 7 (HTTP/S) load balancers, common algorithms (Round Robin, Least Connections, IP Hash), Health Checks.
- Content Delivery Networks (CDN): Basic concepts (caching, edge locations, invalidation).
- Kubernetes Networking: CNI plugin overview,
Ingresscontrollers (e.g., Nginx Ingress, Traefik), Network Policies for pod-to-pod traffic control. - Service Mesh Concepts (Optional, if relevant): e.g., Istio, Linkerd (mTLS, traffic management, observability).
✅ Output: Awareness of key security practices integrated into DevOps (
DevSecOps), foundational understanding of essential cloud/container networking, plus exposure to more advanced networking, security, and infrastructure topics.
🎯 Goal: Apply accumulated knowledge to design DevOps-related systems and practice common troubleshooting scenarios systematically.
🛠️ Activities:
- Tackle DevOps System Design Prompts:
- Focus on CI/CD pipeline design (consider security, testing, artifacts, multi-environment promotion).
- Architect highly available/scalable infrastructure on a specific cloud (consider load balancing, auto-scaling, databases, state, disaster recovery).
- Design monitoring/logging/alerting strategies for a given architecture (consider dashboards, alert fatigue).
- Consider deployment strategies (Blue/Green, Canary) implementation details and automation.
- Practice Diagramming: Use simple block diagrams to communicate architecture. Focus on explaining components, data flow, trade-offs, scalability, reliability, and cost considerations.
- Develop Systematic Troubleshooting Methodology:
- Practice applying approaches like USE/RED for identifying bottlenecks or the "Five Whys" for root cause analysis.
- Work through hypothetical failures in CI/CD, IaC, K8s, Linux services. Define steps: Observe symptoms -> Gather data (logs, metrics, traces) -> Formulate hypothesis -> Test hypothesis -> Implement fix/rollback -> Verify -> Document.
- Practice using debugging tools learned (
kubectl describe/logs, system logs (journalctl), monitoring dashboards, network diagnostic tools (tcpdumpbasics)).
✅ Output: Increased confidence tackling system design questions relevant to DevOps and articulating systematic troubleshooting approaches for various scenarios.
🎯 Goal: Polish behavioral answers, conduct final reviews, simulate interview pressure through mocks, and ensure logistical readiness.
🛠️ Activities:
- Behavioral Polish:
- Review Company Values/Principles (from Day 1).
- Refine STARR Stories (Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection). Ensure relevance to DevOps (collaboration, automation, problem-solving, incident response, learning, leadership). Practice telling them out loud smoothly.
- Practice Your Elevator Pitch (< 1 minute).
- Finalize Your Questions for interviewers - ensure they are thoughtful and specific to the role/team/company.
- Final Technical Review:
- Quickly review notes/mind maps from all previous days – focus on core concepts, commands, patterns, trade-offs.
- Explain key ideas out loud briefly (e.g., "Explain IaC state", "Explain K8s Service types", "Explain TCP 3-way handshake", "Explain Git branching").
- Mock Interviews (Crucial!):
- Arrange sessions covering the breadth of topics: Linux/Fundamentals, Git, Scripting, IaC, Containers/K8s, CI/CD, Monitoring, Networking/Security, System Design, Troubleshooting, Behavioral.
- Get constructive feedback and identify any last-minute areas needing quick reinforcement.
- Logistics Check: Confirm interview time (check timezone!), date, video links, interviewer names. Prepare your setup (quiet space, stable internet, water, charged devices).
- Relax & Rest: Avoid cramming. Trust your preparation. Get good sleep!
✅ Output: Polished behavioral responses, consolidated knowledge, experience under simulated pressure, logistical readiness, and a calm, prepared mindset.
Most employers today rely on an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to manage the large number of resumes they receive. This software helps HR teams filter, rank, and organize applications before a human recruiter even looks at them.
The ATS works by scanning resumes for specific keywords, job titles, skills, and experience that match the job description. If your resume lacks these elements or uses formatting the system can’t read, it may be rejected automatically — even if you're a strong candidate.
- Over 95% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS software to streamline the hiring process.
- On average, a recruiter spends just 6–8 seconds reviewing each resume, so the system helps highlight top matches.
- Your resume is scored based on how well it aligns with the job description — higher scores increase your chances of making it to the next stage.
- Without optimizing your resume for ATS, your application may never reach a human recruiter.
To ensure your resume makes it through the initial scan:
- Use simple formatting: Avoid tables, columns, headers/footers, or graphics that ATS systems might misread.
- Save your resume as a .docx or PDF, unless a different format is specifically requested.
- Incorporate relevant keywords from the job posting, such as:
- Tools: Kubernetes, Jenkins, Terraform, Docker
- Concepts: CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, Monitoring
- Stick to standard fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
- Avoid images, logos, or flashy designs that can confuse the parsing system.
Tip: Use standard headings like “Experience,” “Education,” and “Skills” — ATS tools are trained to recognize these.
- Resumake – Free and simple resume builder.
- Standard Resume – Clean, professional templates that work well with ATS.
- Jobscan – Compare your resume with a job description. Shows how well your resume matches.
- Novoresume – ATS-friendly templates with tips.
- Zety – Easy tool with customization and guidance.
- Microsoft – Beat the bots and land the job with ATS-friendly resume.
- Title: Use the job title you're applying for (e.g., DevOps Engineer).
- Professional Summary: 2–3 concise lines summarizing your experience, strengths, and goals.
- Skills Section:
- List relevant tools and platforms (e.g., AWS, Jenkins, Ansible, Docker, Prometheus).
- Group them under categories if needed (e.g., Infrastructure, Automation, Monitoring).
- Projects:
- Highlight achievements (e.g., Reduced deployment time by 40% using CI/CD pipelines).
- Certifications:
- Include relevant ones like CKA, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Terraform Associate.
- Experience:
- Use bullet points with action verbs.
- Focus on what you built, automated, optimized, or secured.
- Links:
- Add your GitHub, LinkedIn, or personal portfolio.
Getting past the ATS is the first gate in the hiring process — treat it like a technical challenge that you can beat with the right tools and strategy. Once you make it through, your skills and experience will speak for themselves.