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Interview Q&A · 40 questions · 9 answered publicly

DevOps Fundamentals Interview Questions

Ordered by how often they're asked. Sign in free to see every answer, rate your confidence and run timed mock interviews.

  1. Most asked CI vs CD

    Summary

    CI continuously integrates/tests; CD continuously delivers/deploys to environments.

    Longer Answer

    CI continuously integrates/tests; CD continuously delivers/deploys to environments. DevOps culture/practice.

    Key Points

    • CI continuously integrates/tests; CD continuously delivers/deploys to environments
    • DevOps culture/practice
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Culture
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'CI vs CD'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea CI continuously integrates/tests; CD continuously delivers/deploys to environments.
    Practical tradeoff DevOps culture/practice.

    Permalink

  2. Most asked infrastructure as code

    Summary

    Declare infra in versioned code for repeatability.

    Longer Answer

    Declare infra in versioned code for repeatability. DevOps culture/practice.

    Key Points

    • Declare infra in versioned code for repeatability
    • DevOps culture/practice
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Culture
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'infrastructure as code'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Declare infra in versioned code for repeatability.
    Practical tradeoff DevOps culture/practice.

    Permalink

  3. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain Docker image vs container.

    Summary

    Image is immutable template; container is running instance.

    Longer Answer

    Image is immutable template; container is running instance. Tooling: Docker image vs container.

    Key Points

    • Image is immutable template; container is running instance
    • Tooling: Docker image vs container
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain Docker image vs container.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Image is immutable template; container is running instance.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: Docker image vs container.

    Permalink

  4. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain Kubernetes Pod.

    Summary

    Smallest deployable unit; one or more containers sharing network/volumes.

    Longer Answer

    Smallest deployable unit; one or more containers sharing network/volumes. Tooling: Kubernetes Pod.

    Key Points

    • Smallest deployable unit; one or more containers sharing network/volumes
    • Tooling: Kubernetes Pod
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain Kubernetes Pod.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Smallest deployable unit; one or more containers sharing network/volumes.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: Kubernetes Pod.

    Permalink

  5. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain liveness vs readiness probes.

    Summary

    Liveness restart unhealthy; readiness control traffic.

    Longer Answer

    Liveness restart unhealthy; readiness control traffic. Tooling: liveness vs readiness probes.

    Key Points

    • Liveness restart unhealthy; readiness control traffic
    • Tooling: liveness vs readiness probes
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain liveness vs readiness probes.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Liveness restart unhealthy; readiness control traffic.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: liveness vs readiness probes.

    Permalink

  6. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain Terraform state.

    Summary

    Tracks real resources; remote state + locking for teams.

    Longer Answer

    Tracks real resources; remote state + locking for teams. Tooling: Terraform state.

    Key Points

    • Tracks real resources; remote state + locking for teams
    • Tooling: Terraform state
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain Terraform state.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Tracks real resources; remote state + locking for teams.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: Terraform state.

    Permalink

  7. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain blue/green & canary.

    Summary

    Traffic shifting strategies to reduce release risk.

    Longer Answer

    Traffic shifting strategies to reduce release risk. Tooling: blue/green & canary.

    Key Points

    • Traffic shifting strategies to reduce release risk
    • Tooling: blue/green & canary
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain blue/green & canary.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Traffic shifting strategies to reduce release risk.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: blue/green & canary.

    Permalink

  8. Most asked Security in DevOps: secrets management?

    Summary

    Vault/SM/KMS; never commit secrets; rotate regularly.

    Longer Answer

    Vault/SM/KMS; never commit secrets; rotate regularly. Sec: secrets management.

    Key Points

    • Vault/SM/KMS; never commit secrets; rotate regularly
    • Sec: secrets management
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Security
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'Security in DevOps: secrets management?'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Vault/SM/KMS; never commit secrets; rotate regularly.
    Practical tradeoff Sec: secrets management.

    Permalink

  9. Most asked DevOps tooling: explain Deployment vs StatefulSet.

    Summary

    Deployments for stateless; StatefulSets stable identity/storage.

    Longer Answer

    Deployments for stateless; StatefulSets stable identity/storage. Tooling: Deployment vs StatefulSet.

    Key Points

    • Deployments for stateless; StatefulSets stable identity/storage
    • Tooling: Deployment vs StatefulSet
    • Relevant areas: Devops, Tools
    • Use the answer to connect the concept back to a realistic production or interview scenario for 'DevOps tooling: explain Deployment vs StatefulSet.'

    Comparison / Tradeoffs

    Aspect Notes
    Core idea Deployments for stateless; StatefulSets stable identity/storage.
    Practical tradeoff Tooling: Deployment vs StatefulSet.

    Permalink

  10. What is DevOps?
  11. continuous delivery vs deployment
  12. DevOps tooling: explain Dockerfile best practices.
  13. DevOps tooling: explain Service / Ingress.
  14. DevOps tooling: explain Terraform plan/apply.
  15. DevOps tooling: explain Jenkins / GitHub Actions.
  16. Security in DevOps: DevSecOps?
  17. Security in DevOps: least privilege IAM?
  18. shift left
  19. GitOps
  20. SRE vs DevOps
  21. blameless postmortems
  22. DORA metrics
  23. DevOps tooling: explain ConfigMap / Secret.
  24. DevOps tooling: explain HPA.
  25. DevOps tooling: explain artifact repositories.
  26. DevOps tooling: explain Prometheus / Grafana.
  27. DevOps tooling: explain OpenTelemetry.
  28. DevOps tooling: explain feature flags.
  29. Security in DevOps: image scanning?
  30. Security in DevOps: network policies?
  31. Security in DevOps: supply chain attacks?
  32. toil
  33. DevOps tooling: explain Ansible.
  34. DevOps tooling: explain ELK / OpenSearch.
  35. DevOps tooling: explain Helm.
  36. DevOps tooling: explain service mesh.
  37. Security in DevOps: SBOM?
  38. Security in DevOps: policy as code?
  39. What is infrastructure as code and why is it useful?
  40. How does continuous integration differ from continuous deployment?