DevOps interview prep: 100+ questions

Design multi-stage Dockerfiles optimized for size, security, and build speed.

Implement security best practices for container images, including non-root users and minimal base images.

Diagnose and resolve common container runtime issues related to networking, storage, and resource constraints.

Explain the Kubernetes architecture, including control plane and node components.

Author a basic Pod manifest from scratch to run a simple containerized application.

Create and manage Deployment manifests with replicas, update strategies, and rollback capabilities.

Configure Services (ClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer) to expose applications running in Deployments.

Manage application configuration and secrets using ConfigMaps and Secrets in pod specifications.

Implement resource requests and limits in pod specifications for proper scheduling and stability.

Configure health checks using liveness, readiness, and startup probes.

Explain the Kubernetes networking model and how pod-to-pod and pod-to-service communication works.

Configure persistent storage using PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, and StorageClasses.

Implement RBAC with Roles, ClusterRoles, RoleBindings, and ServiceAccounts for access control.

Configure the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) based on CPU, memory, and custom metrics.

Implement pod scheduling controls using node selectors, affinity, anti-affinity, and taints/tolerations.

Troubleshoot complex Kubernetes issues involving networking, DNS, and resource exhaustion.

Explain how Terraform state works and why proper state management is critical for team collaboration.

Configure a remote state backend with state locking using a cloud storage service (e.g., S3, Azure Storage).

Resolve state drift and perform state operations (import, move, remove) safely.

Implement security and access controls for production state files.

Design reusable and composable Terraform modules with proper variable validation and outputs.

Implement dynamic blocks and for_each/count meta-arguments for flexible resource creation.

Manage multiple environments (e.g., dev, staging, prod) using workspaces or directory structures with shared modules.

Troubleshoot Terraform dependency issues, circular dependencies, and plan failures.

Implement basic testing and validation strategies for Terraform code.

Compare and contrast managed Kubernetes services (EKS, AKS, GKE) in terms of cost, integration, and operational overhead.

Design cloud IAM policies (AWS IAM, Azure RBAC, GCP IAM) following the principle of least privilege for CI/CD and application workloads.

Compare native secret management solutions (AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, GCP Secret Manager) and their integration patterns.

Design a secure network architecture for a multi-tier application on a chosen cloud platform (e.g., AWS VPC, Azure VNet).

Explain the three pillars of observability (metrics, logs, traces) and how they enable effective troubleshooting.

Design effective alerting strategies that incorporate SLOs and aim to reduce alert fatigue.

Implement log aggregation and structured logging for distributed applications.

Perform root cause analysis for an infrastructure incident using observability data.

Implement security scanning in CI/CD pipelines for code vulnerabilities, dependencies, and container images.

Explain the GitOps model and its benefits compared to traditional CI/CD deployment approaches.

Describe a strategy for detecting and remediating infrastructure drift in an IaC-managed environment.