When scaling your team, finding the right DevOps engineer can be a challenge, especially if you’re looking for niche skills or roles. A poor hiring decision can lead to setbacks, low-quality code, and wasted time. Here, we look at DevOps engineer interview questions you can use to find the perfect technical and cultural fit for your team.
Questions to ask when interviewing a DevOps engineer
Before diving into the technical details, it can be helpful to start with a few questions to assess a candidate’s approach to technical problems, their knowledge of the latest ecosystem developments, and how they might collaborate with your team. Here are a few questions you can use in your next interview:
- Explain the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and its benefits. Can you provide examples of IaC tools?
- Describe the key components of a typical CI/CD pipeline. How does it improve software delivery?
- What is the difference between blue-green and canary deployments? When would you use each approach?
- How do you ensure high availability and scalability for a web application deployed in a cloud environment?
- Explain the purpose of containerization. What is Docker, and how does it work?
- What is Kubernetes, and how does it facilitate container orchestration? Can you describe Kubernetes’ key components?
- Discuss the concept of microservices and how they relate to DevOps. What challenges do microservices present in terms of deployment and monitoring?
- How do you handle secret management and configuration data in a secure and automated way in a DevOps environment?
- Describe the role of monitoring and observability in DevOps. What tools and practices can be used to ensure system health and performance?
- Explain the importance of version control in DevOps, and describe how Git works. What are common branching strategies in Git?
- How would you set up and manage a centralized logging system for a microservices-based application?
- What is continuous testing, and how does it fit into the CI/CD pipeline? How can automated testing be integrated into the process?
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP for hosting infrastructure and applications.
- Explain the concept of “Immutable Infrastructure” and how it relates to maintaining consistent and reliable environments.
- How do you handle database schema changes and data migrations in a DevOps pipeline without causing service disruptions?
- Describe a scenario where you had to troubleshoot a performance issue in a production environment. What steps did you take to identify and resolve the problem?
- Can you provide an example of a successful automation project you’ve worked on, including the problem you were addressing and the tools/technologies you used?
- Discuss the importance of security in DevOps. What are some best practices for integrating security into the CI/CD process?
- How would you design a disaster recovery and backup strategy for a critical application in a cloud environment?
- Explain the concept of GitOps and how it can be used to manage infrastructure and application configurations.
DevOps engineer technical interview questions
Now that you’ve covered a few behavioural questions, you can move on to assessing a candidate’s technical ability. Here, we’ll look at some general interview questions, plus a few specific questions for DevOps engineers at different levels of seniority.
- Explain the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and its benefits. Can you provide examples of IaC tools?
- Describe the key components of a typical CI/CD pipeline. How does it improve software delivery?
- What is the difference between blue-green and canary deployments? When would you use each approach?
- How do you ensure high availability and scalability for a web application deployed in a cloud environment?
- Explain the purpose of containerization. What is Docker, and how does it work?
- What is Kubernetes, and how does it facilitate container orchestration? Can you describe Kubernetes’ key components?
- Discuss the concept of microservices and how they relate to DevOps. What challenges do microservices present in terms of deployment and monitoring?
- How do you handle secret management and configuration data in a secure and automated way in a DevOps environment?
- Describe the role of monitoring and observability in DevOps. What tools and practices can be used to ensure system health and performance?
- Explain the importance of version control in DevOps, and describe how Git works. What are common branching strategies in Git?
- How would you set up and manage a centralized logging system for a microservices-based application?
- What is continuous testing, and how does it fit into the CI/CD pipeline? How can automated testing be integrated into the process?
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP for hosting infrastructure and applications.
- Explain the concept of “Immutable Infrastructure” and how it relates to maintaining consistent and reliable environments.
- How do you handle database schema changes and data migrations in a DevOps pipeline without causing service disruptions?
- Describe a scenario where you had to troubleshoot a performance issue in a production environment. What steps did you take to identify and resolve the problem?
- Can you provide an example of a successful automation project you’ve worked on, including the problem you were addressing and the tools/technologies you used?
- Discuss the importance of security in DevOps. What are some best practices for integrating security into the CI/CD process?
- How would you design a disaster recovery and backup strategy for a critical application in a cloud environment?
- Explain the concept of GitOps and how it can be used to manage infrastructure and application configurations.
If you’re interviewing for junior or intermediate Java developers, consider including a few of these questions:
- What is DevOps, and why is it important in modern software development?
- Explain the basic concepts of version control. What is Git, and how does it work?
- What is the purpose of a CI/CD pipeline, and how does it benefit a development team?
- Describe the difference between a virtual machine and a container. What is Docker, and how is it used in DevOps?
- What is the role of a configuration management tool in DevOps, and can you name a few popular ones?
- How does Infrastructure as Code (IaC) help in automating infrastructure provisioning and management?
- What are the key components of a typical CI/CD pipeline? Can you describe each step in the pipeline?
- Explain the benefits of automating routine tasks in a DevOps environment. Can you provide an example of a task that you’ve automated?
- What is the purpose of monitoring and logging in a DevOps context, and how do you set up basic monitoring for a web application?
- How do you manage secrets and sensitive configuration data in a secure manner in a DevOps environment?
- What is the role of a reverse proxy in a web application architecture, and how does it relate to load balancing and security?
- Explain the concept of “Infrastructure as Immutable” and why it’s important in maintaining a consistent and reliable environment.
- What are the advantages of using a cloud platform like AWS, Azure, or GCP for hosting infrastructure and applications?
- How do you handle database schema changes and data migrations in a DevOps pipeline without causing service disruptions?
- Describe a scenario where you had to troubleshoot a simple performance issue in a production environment. What steps did you take to identify and resolve the problem?
- Can you explain the importance of security in DevOps, and what are some basic security best practices you’d implement in a DevOps pipeline?
- What is a disaster recovery plan, and why is it important? How would you design a basic disaster recovery plan for a critical application?
- How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in the DevOps field?
For more senior DevOps engineers, more advanced questions might be appropriate:
- Describe a complex project where you applied DevOps principles to improve software delivery. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
- Explain the benefits and limitations of different CI/CD tools, such as Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Travis CI, or CircleCI. How do you choose the right tool for a project?
- Can you provide an in-depth explanation of how you’ve implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Terraform, Ansible, or Puppet in a previous role?
- Discuss your experience with container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. How have you used Kubernetes to manage and scale containerized applications?
- What strategies and tools have you employed to optimize the performance and scalability of microservices-based architectures?
- Explain your approach to security in DevOps. How do you integrate security practices into the CI/CD pipeline, and what tools have you used for vulnerability scanning and compliance checks?
- How do you manage secrets and sensitive data in a secure manner? Describe your experience with tools like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.
- Share a scenario where you designed and implemented a robust monitoring and observability solution for a complex system. What tools and practices did you use, and how did it benefit the organization?
- Describe your experience in setting up a centralized log management system for a large-scale, distributed application. What challenges did you face, and how did you address them?
- Explain your strategies for handling database schema changes and data migrations in a DevOps pipeline, with a focus on zero-downtime deployments and rollbacks.
- Discuss your approach to cost optimization in a cloud environment. How do you monitor and control cloud costs effectively?
- Can you provide an example of a major incident you’ve managed in a production environment, such as a service outage or a security breach? How did you handle it, and what lessons did you learn from the experience?
- What are some best practices for setting up an effective blue-green deployment strategy? Can you explain the benefits and potential challenges of this approach?
- How do you ensure high availability and disaster recovery for critical applications and services in a cloud environment?
- Describe a project where you implemented GitOps principles to manage infrastructure and application configurations. What were the key benefits of this approach?
- What are your recommendations for establishing a DevOps culture within an organization? How do you encourage collaboration and alignment between development and operations teams?
- What emerging technologies or trends in DevOps are you excited about, and how do you see them impacting the field in the near future?
Further reading
- Everything you need to know when hiring DevOps engineers on OfferZen
- DevOps engineer job description
- How to Run a Technical Interview to Hire Developers Efficiently
- How We Conduct a Screening Interview with Developers at OfferZen
- Conducting a technical assessment
- How OfferZen Uses the Panel Interview to Hire Great Developers
- Java developer interview questions
- Python developer interview questions
- Fullstack developer interview questions
