devops-interview-handbook

Mid-Level DevOps Engineer Checklist

Use this checklist to assess your readiness for mid-level DevOps positions (2-5 years experience).

Advanced Linux

System Administration

• Advanced shell scripting (bash)
• System performance tuning
• Process management and optimization
• Advanced file system operations
• System monitoring and troubleshooting
• Kernel parameters tuning

Automation

• Write complex bash scripts
• Python scripting for automation
• Configuration management basics (Ansible)
• System automation workflows

Cloud Expertise (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Advanced Services

• Auto Scaling Groups
• Load Balancers (ALB, NLB)
• RDS (Multi-AZ, Read Replicas)
• ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached)
• CloudFront CDN
• Route 53 DNS
• S3 advanced features (lifecycle, versioning)

Networking

• VPC advanced (peering, Transit Gateway)
• VPN and Direct Connect
• Security Groups and NACLs
• Network troubleshooting

Cost Optimization

• Reserved Instances
• Spot Instances
• Right-sizing instances
• Cost monitoring and optimization

Kubernetes

Core Concepts

• Pods, Services, Deployments
• ConfigMaps and Secrets
• Ingress and networking
• PersistentVolumes
• Namespaces and RBAC

Advanced Topics

• StatefulSets and DaemonSets
• Jobs and CronJobs
• Resource quotas and limits
• Network policies
• Service mesh basics (Istio/Linkerd)

Operations

• Deploy applications to Kubernetes
• Troubleshoot pod issues
• Manage cluster resources
• Upgrade clusters
• Backup and restore

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform Advanced

• Modules and module composition
• Remote state management
• Workspaces and environments
• State locking
• Import existing resources
• Terraform best practices

CloudFormation (AWS)

• Write CloudFormation templates
• Nested stacks
• Stack sets
• Change sets

Ansible

• Write playbooks
• Roles and modules
• Inventory management
• Configuration management

CI/CD Advanced

Pipeline Design

• Multi-stage pipelines
• Parallel job execution
• Conditional execution
• Pipeline optimization
• Artifact management

Deployment Strategies

• Blue-green deployments
• Canary deployments
• Rolling deployments
• Feature flags
• Rollback strategies

Advanced Features

• Secrets management in pipelines
• Infrastructure testing in CI/CD
• Database migrations in pipelines
• Multi-environment deployments
• Pipeline as code best practices

Monitoring & Observability

Monitoring Tools

• Prometheus and Grafana
• CloudWatch advanced
• ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
• APM tools (New Relic, Datadog)

Metrics & Alerting

• Custom metrics
• Alerting rules
• Dashboard creation
• Log aggregation and analysis

Distributed Tracing

• Understand distributed tracing
• Use tracing tools (Jaeger, Zipkin)
• Debug microservices issues

Security

Security Practices

• Security scanning (SAST, DAST)
• Container security
• Secrets management (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
• Network security
• Compliance basics (SOC 2, PCI DSS)

Implementation

• Implement security best practices
• Security audits
• Vulnerability management
• Incident response basics

Disaster Recovery & High Availability

Concepts

• RPO and RTO
• Backup strategies
• Disaster recovery planning
• Multi-region architectures
• Failover strategies

Implementation

• Design HA architectures
• Implement backups
• Test disaster recovery
• Document recovery procedures

Performance Optimization

Application Performance

• Identify bottlenecks
• Optimize database queries
• Caching strategies
• CDN optimization
• Load testing

Infrastructure Performance

• Right-size resources
• Optimize costs
• Auto-scaling optimization
• Network optimization

Architecture Design

System Design

• Design scalable architectures
• Microservices architecture
• Event-driven architecture
• API design
• Database design

Best Practices

• Well-Architected Framework (AWS)
• Design patterns
• Trade-offs analysis
• Documentation

Automation & Scripting

Advanced Scripting

• Complex bash scripts
• Python automation
• API integration (REST, GraphQL)
• Error handling and logging

Infrastructure Automation

• Complete infrastructure automation
• Multi-environment automation
• Self-healing systems
• Automated testing

Troubleshooting & Problem Solving

Advanced Troubleshooting

• Complex system debugging
• Performance issues
• Network issues
• Database issues
• Distributed system issues

Problem-Solving Approach

• Systematic debugging
• Root cause analysis
• Documentation of solutions
• Knowledge sharing

Leadership & Collaboration

Team Collaboration

• Code reviews
• Knowledge sharing
• Mentoring junior engineers
• Cross-functional collaboration

Process Improvement

• Identify process improvements
• Implement best practices
• Documentation
• Tool evaluation and selection

Projects to Build

Intermediate Projects

• Multi-tier application on cloud
• Microservices on Kubernetes
• Complete CI/CD pipeline
• Multi-region setup
• Monitoring and alerting stack
• Disaster recovery setup

Advanced Projects

• Production-ready application
• Complete DevOps pipeline
• Security hardening
• Cost optimization project
• Performance optimization

Interview Readiness

Technical Depth

• Can explain complex concepts
• Can discuss trade-offs
• Can design architectures
• Can troubleshoot complex issues
• Can optimize systems

System Design

• Can design scalable systems
• Can discuss architecture decisions
• Can evaluate trade-offs
• Can estimate capacity

Leadership

• Can mentor others
• Can lead projects
• Can improve processes
• Can communicate effectively

Certifications (Recommended)

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (or working towards)
• CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator)
• HashiCorp Terraform Associate

Assessment

If You Can Check 80%+:

✅ You’re ready for mid-level DevOps interviews!

Focus Areas if Below 80%:

1. Kubernetes: Essential for most roles
2. Cloud Advanced: Deep expertise in one cloud
3. CI/CD: Advanced pipeline design
4. Architecture: System design skills
5. Leadership: Team collaboration and mentoring

Next Steps

1. Deepen Expertise: Specialize in areas of interest
2. Get Certified: Validate your knowledge
3. Lead Projects: Take ownership
4. Mentor: Help junior engineers
5. Contribute: Open source, blog posts, talks
6. Network: Attend meetups, conferences

Tips for Mid-Level DevOps Engineers

1. Specialize: Deep expertise > broad knowledge
2. Own Projects: Take end-to-end ownership
3. Mentor: Teaching reinforces learning
4. Stay Current: DevOps changes fast
5. Automate Everything: Look for automation opportunities
6. Document: Share knowledge with team
7. Network: Connect with DevOps community

Good luck! 🚀

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