Top 10 DevOps interview questions

By Aizhan Azhybaeva June 21, 2023

During a DevOps interview, asking relevant and insightful questions can help you assess a candidate’s knowledge, experience, and suitability for the role. Here are ten questions you can consider asking.

Can you explain the core principles and practices of DevOps?

This question helps assess the candidate’s understanding of DevOps fundamentals and their ability to articulate key concepts.

How would you approach implementing a CI/CD pipeline from scratch?

This question evaluates the candidate’s experience in designing and implementing continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines.

What tools and technologies have you used to automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration management?

This question explores the candidate’s familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools, such as Terraform or Ansible, and their ability to automate infrastructure tasks.

How do you ensure the security of a DevOps environment?

This question assesses the candidate’s knowledge of security best practices, including securing CI/CD pipelines, managing secrets, and implementing security controls.

Can you describe your experience with containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration tools like Kubernetes?

This question evaluates the candidate’s experience in containerization and their ability to deploy and manage containerized applications using orchestration tools.

Have you worked with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP? Can you explain how you leverage cloud services in a DevOps context?

This question examines the candidate’s experience with cloud platforms and their ability to leverage cloud services to enhance DevOps practices.

How do you handle monitoring and observability in a DevOps environment?

This question explores the candidate’s knowledge of monitoring tools, log management, and their approach to identifying and resolving issues in a distributed system.

Can you share an example of a challenging incident or outage you have experienced in a DevOps environment and how you resolved it?

This question assesses the candidate’s problem-solving skills, ability to handle incidents, and their understanding of post-incident analysis and improvement.

How do you promote collaboration and communication between development, operations, and other teams?

This question evaluates the candidate’s ability to foster a collaborative culture and their experience with tools and practices that facilitate communication and teamwork.

Can you provide an example of a project where you successfully implemented DevOps practices and achieved notable results?

This question allows the candidate to showcase their past achievements, demonstrating their ability to drive positive outcomes through DevOps implementation.

Remember to tailor these questions based on the specific requirements and priorities of your organization and the DevOps role you are interviewing for. Additionally, consider asking follow-up questions to delve deeper into the candidate’s responses and assess their problem-solving abilities and critical thinking skills.