Top 110+ DevOps Interview Questions and Answers for 2026

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a set of practices that brings software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) together to streamline how software is built, tested, released, and maintained. Its goal is to strengthen collaboration across the entire software development life cycle while improving speed, reliability, and quality. By using automation and pipelines for continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, teams can ship updates faster with fewer errors

Now, let’s get into the most common DevOps interview questions and answers.

Most Popular DevOps Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is CI/CD, and how does it help DevOps?

Continuous Integration (CI) is the practice of merging code frequently into a shared repository and automatically testing it. Continuous Deployment/Delivery (CD) ensures that validated code is automatically deployed to production or staging environments. CI/CD reduces manual errors, accelerates releases, and improves software quality.

2. What are some popular CI/CD tools?

Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, CircleCI, Travis CI, GitHub Actions, Bamboo, and Azure DevOps Pipelines are widely used.

3. What is Kubernetes, and why is it used in DevOps?

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It ensures high availability, scalability, and simplified management of microservices.

4. What are Pods and Deployments in Kubernetes?

Pods are the smallest deployable units in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers. Deployments manage Pods by ensuring the desired number of replicas are running and by automatically handling updates.

5. What is Terraform, and how does it help DevOps?

Terraform is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool used to define, provision, and manage infrastructure in a consistent and automated way. It helps DevOps teams by enabling version-controlled infrastructure, repeatable deployments, and multi-cloud support.

6. What is Ansible, and why is it used in DevOps?

Ansible is an open-source configuration management and automation tool. It allows DevOps teams to automate provisioning, configuration, and deployment of servers without installing agents.

7. Which AWS services are commonly used in DevOps?

AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodeCommit, CloudFormation, ECS, EKS, CloudWatch, and S3 are commonly used for CI/CD, automation, container orchestration, and monitoring.

8. What is AWS CloudFormation, and how does it relate to DevOps?

CloudFormation is an IaC service that lets you define AWS infrastructure using JSON or YAML templates. It enables automated and consistent deployments.

9. What is Azure DevOps, and what are its components?

Azure DevOps is a Microsoft platform providing DevOps services for CI/CD, code repositories, testing, and project management. Its components are Azure Boards, Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, Azure Test Plans, and Azure Artifacts.

10. How can Azure Pipelines help in DevOps?

Azure Pipelines automate build, test, and deployment processes, supporting multi-platform and multi-cloud environments for faster and more reliable releases.

11. What Linux commands are frequently used in DevOps?

Some common Linux commands are grep, awk, sed, ps, top, netstat, systemctl, chmod, chown, and cron. You can use them to monitor processes, manage files, change permissions, or schedule tasks.

12. What is GitOps, and how does it differ from DevOps?

GitOps is all about using Git to manage infrastructure and app setups. Instead of manually deploying like in traditional DevOps, GitOps automates deployments directly from the Git repository. This way, every change is tracked, versioned, and easy to review.

13. What is the difference between SRE and DevOps?

DevOps focuses on bridging development and operations to improve deployment speed and reliability. SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) applies software engineering principles to operations, emphasizing reliability, SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets.

14. What is an error budget in SRE?

An error budget is the maximum allowed downtime or errors in a system, calculated as 1 - SLO. It balances innovation and reliability by limiting the amount of risk that can be taken.

15. What type of DevOps projects can be added to a resume?

Projects demonstrating CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker & Kubernetes), cloud deployments (AWS & Azure), infrastructure-as-code (Terraform & Cloud Formation), monitoring (Nagios & Prometheus), or automated testing are highly valued.

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General DevOps Interview Questions

1. What do you know about DevOps?

DevOps is a set of practices that combines development and operations to deliver software faster and more reliably. It emphasizes collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement throughout the software development lifecycle.

2. What are the benefits of using version control in DevOps?

Version control in DevOps helps teams track changes, collaborate safely, roll back quickly, and support CI/CD by keeping code history, reviews, and releases organized and reliable.

3. Which are some of the most popular DevOps tools?

The most popular DevOps tools include:

1. Selenium
2. Puppet
3. Chef
4. Git
5. Jenkins
6. Ansible
7. Docker

4. What are the different phases in DevOps?

The various phases of the DevOps lifecycle are as follows:

• Plan: Initially, there should be a plan for the type of application that needs to be developed. Getting a rough picture of the development process is always a good idea.
• Code: The application is coded as per the end-user requirements. 
• Build: Build the application by integrating various codes formed in the previous steps.
• Test: This is the most crucial step of the application development. Test the application and rebuild, if necessary.
• Integrate: Multiple codes from different programmers are integrated into one.
• Deploy: Code is deployed into a cloud environment for further usage. It is ensured that any new changes do not affect the functioning of a high-traffic website.
• Operate: Operations are performed on the code if required.
• Monitor: Application performance is monitored. Changes are made to meet the end-user requirements.

Image Representation: DevOps lifecycle

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5. Mention some of the core benefits of DevOps.

The core benefits of DevOps are as follows:

Technical benefits

• Continuous software delivery
• Less complex problems to manage
• Early detection and faster correction of defects

Business benefits

• Faster delivery of features
• Stable operating environments
• Improved communication and collaboration between the teams

6. How will you approach a project that needs to implement DevOps?

First, assess current processes to identify areas for improvement. Next, create a proof-of-concept to validate DevOps practices. Finally, implement DevOps in steps, including version control, automation, testing, deployment, and monitoring.

7. What is the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment?

Image Representation: Continuous Delivery vs Continuous Deployment

8. What is the role of configuration management in DevOps?

• Enables management of and changes to multiple systems
• Standardizes resource configurations
• Helps with the administration and management of multiple servers
• Maintains the integrity of the entire infrastructure

9. How does continuous monitoring help you maintain the entire architecture of the system?

Continuous monitoring in DevOps is a process of detecting, identifying, and reporting faults or threats in the system's entire infrastructure.

• Ensures that all services, applications, and resources are running on the servers properly.
• Monitors the status of servers and determines if applications are working correctly or not.
• Enables continuous audit, transaction inspection, and control monitoring.

10. What is the role of AWS in DevOps?

AWS has the following role in DevOps:

• Flexible services: Provides ready-to-use, flexible services without the need to install or set up the software.
• Built for scale: You can manage a single instance or scale to thousands using AWS services.
• Automation: AWS lets you automate tasks and processes, giving you more time to innovate.
• Secure: You can set user permissions and policies using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).
• Large partner ecosystem: AWS supports a large ecosystem of partners that integrate with and extend AWS services.

11. Name three important DevOps KPIs.

The 3 important KPIs are as follows:

• Meantime to failure recovery: This is the average time taken to recover from a failure.
• Deployment frequency: The frequency in which the deployment occurs. 
• Percentage of failed deployments: The number of times the deployment fails.

12. Explain the term "Infrastructure as Code" (IaC) as it relates to configuration management.

• Writing code to manage configuration, deployment, and automatic provisioning.
• Managing data centers with machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration.
• Ensuring all your servers and other infrastructure components are provisioned consistently and effortlessly. 
• Administering cloud computing environments, also known as infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

13. How is IaC implemented using AWS?

With AWS, Infrastructure as Code lets you set up and manage your infrastructure using code, usually in JSON or YAML. Instead of doing things manually, you can deploy resources quickly and consistently, making changes faster and less error-prone.

Image Representation: IaC deploys AWS resources from code.

14. Why has DevOps gained prominence over the last few years?

DevOps is popular because it makes building and updating software easier. Teams can spot issues sooner, release updates more often, and keep costs lower. Big companies like Netflix and Facebook use it to roll out changes smoothly so their millions of users don’t run into problems.

15. What are the fundamental differences between DevOps & Agile?

The main differences between Agile and DevOps are summarized below:

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16. What are the anti-patterns of DevOps?

Patterns are common practices that organizations usually follow. An anti-pattern is formed when an organization continues to follow a pattern adopted by others blindly but does not work for them. Some of the myths about DevOps include:

• Cannot perform DevOps → Have the wrong people
• Developers do DevOps ⇒ Production Management
• The solution to all the organization’s problems ⇒ DevOps
• DevOps == Process 
• DevOps == Agile
• Cannot perform DevOps → Organization is unique
• A separate group needs to be made for DevOps

17. Describe the branching strategies you have used.

Here are branching strategies I’ve used in DevOps, and when I choose each:

• GitFlow: Long-lived main & develop, plus feature/, release/, and hotfix/ branches. Works well for scheduled releases and heavier QA cycles, but can slow down fast CI/CD.

• Trunk-based Development: A single “trunk” (main) with very short-lived feature branches (or direct commits behind feature flags). Best for rapid CI/CD and frequent releases; relies on strong automated testing.

• Release Branching: Useful for ongoing work, plus release/x.y branches to stabilize production while new work continues. Useful when you support multiple versions or need parallel release trains.

• Hotfix Strategy: Urgent production fixes via hotfix/* off main, then merged back to both main and develop (or trunk). Keeps production stable without disrupting ongoing work

18. Can you explain the “Shift left to reduce failure” concept in DevOps?

“Shift left” means addressing issues like security and performance earlier in the development process. By testing and reviewing code early, teams can catch problems sooner and reduce failures later.

19. What is the Blue/Green Deployment Pattern?

This is a method of continuous deployment commonly used to reduce downtime. Traffic is transferred from one instance to another. To include a fresh version of the code, we must replace the old code with a new version. 

The new version exists in a green environment, and the old one in a blue environment. After making changes to the previous version, we need a new instance from the old one to execute a newer version of the instance.

20. What is Automation Testing?

Automation testing uses scripts and tools to run test cases automatically instead of manually. It validates features, APIs, and workflows quickly and consistently, helping teams catch defects early and improve release reliability.

21. What are the benefits of Automation Testing?

Automation testing

• improves speed and test coverage
• reduces human error
• enables repeatable regression testing

It supports faster releases, early bug detection, better CI/CD stability, and saves time on repetitive test execution

22. How to Automate Testing in the DevOps lifecycle?

Automate tests by integrating them into CI/CD pipelines.

Run unit tests on every commit, API/integration tests on builds, UI tests on key flows, and regression suites nightly. Use test data management, mocks, and parallel runs, and publish reports to block failed builds.

23. What is Continuous Testing?

Continuous testing is the practice of running automated tests throughout the software delivery pipeline, during code commits, builds, deployments, and even production checks, to provide rapid feedback on quality and risks.

24. Why is Continuous Testing important for DevOps?

Continuous testing keeps release-ready confidence by catching issues early, reducing rework, and preventing broken builds from reaching production. It shortens feedback loops, improves deployment reliability, and supports frequent, automated releases without sacrificing quality.

25. What are the key elements of Continuous Testing tools?

Key elements include test automation support (unit/API/UI), CI/CD integration, parallel execution, environment and test data management, reporting/dashboards, traceability to requirements, defect logging integrations, and analytics to identify flaky tests and quality trends.

DevOps Interview Questions for Source Code Management: Git

26. Explain the difference between a centralized and distributed version control system (VCS).

Centralized VCS (CVCS)

• A single central server stores the full repository history

• Developers check out a working copy; history is primarily on the server

• If the server is down, collaboration is blocked; without proper backups, data loss risk increases

Distributed VCS (DVCS) (e.g., Git)

• Every developer has a full local copy of the repository

• Enables offline work and fast local operations

• Multiple copies reduce single-point-of-failure risk

27. What is the Git command that downloads a repository from GitHub to your computer?

Use git clone to download a repository from GitHub to your computer.

git clone <repo-url>

28. How do you push a file from your local system to a GitHub repository using Git?

Notes/Fixes:

• Use main unless your repo uses master
• -u sets upstream so future pushes can be git push

git init
# if needed
git remote add origin <repo-url>
git add <file>
git commit -m "Add <file>"
git push -u origin main
# use main (or your default branch)

29. How is a bare repository different from the standard way of initializing a Git repository?

Standard repo

• Command: git init
• Has a working directory (checked-out files)
• Git metadata is stored in a hidden .git folder

Bare repo

• Command: git init --bare
• No working directory (no checked-out files)
• Repository data is stored directly in the folder (no .git directory)
• Commonly used as a central remote on servers (shared repo

30. Which Git CLI command can be used to rename files?

1. git rm
2. git mv
3. git rm -r
4. None of the above

The correct answer is 2. git mv

git mv oldname.txt newname.txt
git commit -m "Rename file"

31. What is the process for reverting a commit that has already been pushed and made public?

For public/shared history, use revert (safe, non-destructive):

git revert <commit_sha>
git push

• This creates a new commit that undoes the changes from the specified commit
• Avoid git reset --hard on public branches unless you coordinate and understand the impact

32. Explain the difference between git fetch and git pull.

33. What is Git stash?

git stash temporarily saves uncommitted changes (tracked files by default) so you can switch branches or work on something else without committing incomplete work.

34. Explain the concept of branching in Git.

Branching lets you create an isolated line of development (e.g., for a feature or fix) without affecting the main codebase.

• By default, you always work on the master branch
• The circles on the branch represent various commits made on the branch
• After you are done with all the changes, you can merge it with the master branch

35. What is the difference between Git Merge and Git Rebase?

Suppose you are working on a new feature in a dedicated branch, and another team member updates the master branch with new commits. You can use these two functions:

Git Merge

To incorporate the new commits into your feature branch, use Git merge.

• Creates an extra merge commit every time you need to incorporate changes
• But, it pollutes your feature branch history

Git Rebase

As an alternative to merging, you can rebase the feature branch onto master.

• Incorporates all the new commits in the master branch
• It creates new commits for every commit in the original branch and rewrites the project history

36. How do you find a list of files that have been changed in a particular commit?

The command to get a list of files that have been changed in a particular commit is:

git diff-tree –r {commit hash}

Example: git diff-tree –r 87e673f21b

• -r flag instructs the command to list individual files
• commit hash will list all the files that were changed or added in that commit

37. What is a merge conflict in Git, and how can it be resolved?

A merge conflict occurs when Git can’t automatically combine changes (e.g., when two branches edit the same lines).

Resolution steps:

• Open conflicted files and choose the correct changes
• Mark resolved

git add <file>

git commit# for merge
# or
git rebase --continue

38. What is Git bisect? How can you use it to determine the source of a regression bug?

Git bisect is a tool that uses binary search to locate the commit that triggered a bug.

Git bisect command:

git bisect <subcommand> <options>

The commit that causes the bug is called the “bad” commit, and the commit before the bug is called the “good” commit. We pass the same to the git bisect tool, which picks a random commit between the two endpoints and prompts whether that one is the “good” or “bad” one.

The process continues until the range is narrowed and the exact commit that introduced the change is identified.

39. Explain some basic Git commands.

Here’s a quick list of the basic Git commands:

• git init: Create a new local repository
• git config --global user.name "Name" / git config --global user.email "email": Set identity
• git clone <url>: Copy a remote repository locally
• git status: Show changes, staging status
• git add <file> / git add .: Stage changes
• git commit -m "message": Commit staged changes
• git log: View commit history
• git diff/git diff --staged: Compare changes (working tree vs staged)
• git branch / git branch -d <name>: List/create/delete branches
• git checkout <branch> / git switch <branch>: Switch branches
• git merge <branch>: Merge a branch into current branch
• git pull/git fetch: Update from remote
• git push: Push commits to remote
• git rm <file>: Remove file and stage deletion
• git show <commit>: Show a specific commit’s details

40. What is the difference between git reset and git revert?

git reset moves your branch pointer back to an older commit and can also change your staging area and working directory (depending on --soft, --mixed, or --hard). It’s best for local, unpublished changes.

git revert creates a new commit that undoes a specific commit, making it the safer choice for public/shared branches.

DevOps Interview Questions for Continuous Integration: Jenkins

41. Explain the master-slave architecture of Jenkins.

• Jenkins master pulls the code from the remote GitHub repository every time there is a code commit.
• It distributes the workload to all the Jenkins slaves.
• On request from the Jenkins master, the slaves carry out, builds, test, and produce test reports.

42. What is Jenkinsfile?

Jenkinsfile contains the definition of a Jenkins pipeline and is checked into the source control repository. It is a text file.

• It allows code review and iteration on the pipeline.
• It permits an audit trail for the pipeline.
• There is a single source of truth for the pipeline, which can be viewed and edited.

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43. Which of the following commands runs Jenkins from the command line?

1. java –jar Jenkins.war
2. java –war Jenkins.jar
3. java –jar Jenkins.jar
4. java –war Jenkins.war

The correct answer is A) java –jar Jenkins.war

44. What concepts are key aspects of the Jenkins pipeline?

• Pipeline: User-defined model of a CD pipeline. The pipeline's code defines the entire build process, which includes building, testing, and delivering an application
• Node: A machine that is part of the Jenkins environment and capable of executing a pipeline
• Step: A single task that tells Jenkins what to do at a particular point in time
• Stage: Defines a conceptually distinct subset of tasks performed through the entire pipeline (build, test, deploy stages)

45. Which file is used to define dependency in Maven?

1. build.xml
2. pom.xml
3. dependency.xml
4. Version.xml

The correct answer is B) pom.xml

46. Explain the two types of pipelines in Jenkins, along with their syntax.

Jenkins lets you set up pipelines in two ways: Scripted or Declarative. Scripted pipelines use Groovy, which gives you more control if you want to write custom flows. Declarative pipelines are easier to read and follow. Either way, you break your work into stages, such as building, testing, and deploying.

Image Description: Scripted Pipeline

Image Description: Declarative Pipeline

47. How do you create a backup and copy files in Jenkins?

In order to create a backup file, periodically back up your JENKINS_HOME directory.

In order to create a backup of Jenkins setup, copy the JENKINS_HOME directory. You can also copy a job directory to clone or replicate a job or rename the directory.

48. How can you copy Jenkins from one server to another?

• Move the job from one Jenkins installation to another by copying the corresponding job directory.
• Create a copy of an existing job by making a clone of a job directory with a different name.
• Rename an existing job by renaming a directory.

49. Name three security mechanisms Jenkins uses to authenticate users.

Jenkins can authenticate users using

• its internal database
• LDAP
• authentication mechanism of the deployed application server

50. How is a custom build of a core plugin deployed?

Steps to deploy a custom build of a core plugin:

• Copy the .hpi file to $JENKINS_HOME/plugins
• Remove the plugin's development directory
• Create an empty file called <plugin>.hpi.pinned
• Restart Jenkins and use your custom build of a core plugin

51. How can you temporarily turn off Jenkins security if the administrative users have locked themselves out of the admin console?

• When security is enabled, the Config file contains an XML element named useSecurity that will be set to true.
• By changing this setting to false, security will be disabled the next time Jenkins is restarted.

52. What are the ways in which a build can be scheduled/run in Jenkins?

• By source code management commits.
• After the completion of other builds.
• Scheduled to run at a specified time.
• Manual build requests.

53. What are the commands that you can use to restart Jenkins manually?

Two ways to manually restart Jenkins: 

1. (Jenkins_url)/restart            // Forces a restart without waiting for builds to complete                                
2. (Jenkins_url)/safeRestart    // Allows all running builds to complete before it restarts   

54. Explain how you can set up a Jenkins job?

To create a Jenkins Job, we go to the top page of Jenkins, choose the New Job option and then select Build a free-style software project.

The elements of this freestyle job are:

• Optional triggers for controlling when Jenkins builds.
• Optional steps for gathering data from the build, like collecting javadoc, testing results and/or archiving artifacts.
• A build script (ant, maven, shell script, batch file, etc.) that actually does the work.
• Optional source code management system (SCM), like Subversion or CVS.

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DevOps Interview Questions for Continuous Testing: Selenium

55. What are the different Selenium components?

Selenium has the following components:

Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 

• It has a simple framework and should be used for prototyping.
• It has an easy-to-install Firefox plug-in.

Selenium Remote Control (RC)

• Testing framework for a developer to write code in any programming language (Java, PHP, Perl, C#, etc.).

Selenium WebDriver

• Applies a better approach to automate browser activities.
• It does not rely on JavaScript.

Selenium Grid

• Works with Selenium RC and runs tests on different nodes using browsers.

56. What are the different exceptions in Selenium WebDriver?

Exceptions are events that occur during the execution of a program and disrupt the normal flow of a program's instructions. Selenium has the following exceptions:

• TimeoutException: It is thrown when a command performing an operation does not complete in the stipulated time.
• NoSuchElementException: It is thrown when an element with specific attributes is not found on the web page.
• ElementNotVisibleException: It is thrown when an element is present in Document Object Model (DOM) but is not visible. Ex: Hidden Elements defined in HTML using type=“hidden”.
• SessionNotFoundException: The WebDriver is performing the action immediately after quitting the browser.

57. Can Selenium test an application on an Android browser?

Selenium is capable of testing an application on an Android browser using an Android driver. You can use the Selendroid or Appium framework to test native apps or web apps in the Android browser. The following is a sample code:

58. What are the different test types that Selenium supports? 

Functional: This is a type of black-box testing in which the test cases are based on the software specification.

Regression: This testing helps to find new errors, regressions, etc. in different functional and non-functional areas of code after the alteration. 

Load Testing: This testing seeks to monitor the response of a device after putting a load on it. It is carried out to study the behavior of the system under certain conditions.

59. How can you access the text of a web element?

Get command is used to retrieve the text of a specified web element. The command does not return any parameter but returns a string value.

Used for:

• Verification of messages
• Labels
• Errors displayed on the web page

Syntax: 

String Text=driver.findElement(By.id(“text”)).getText();

60. How can you handle keyboard and mouse actions using Selenium?

You can handle keyboard and mouse events with the advanced user interaction API. The advanced user interactions API contains actions and action classes.

60. Which of these options is not a WebElement method?

1. getText()
2. size()
3. getTagName()
4. sendKeys()

The correct answer is B) size()

61. When do we use findElement() and findElements()?

•  findElement()

It finds the first element in the current web page that matches the specified locator value.

Syntax:

WebElement element=driver.findElements(By.xpath(“//div[@id=‘example’]//ul//li”));

•  findElements()

It finds all the elements in the current web page that matches the specified locator value.

Syntax:

List elementList=driver.findElements(By.xpath(“//div[@id=‘example’]//ul//li”));

62. What are driver.close() and driver.quit() in WebDriver?

These are two different methods used to close the browser session in Selenium WebDriver:

• driver.close(): This is used to close the current browser window on which the focus is set. In this case, there is only one browser open.
• driver.quit(): It closes all the browser windows and ends the WebDriver session using the driver.dispose method.

63. How can you submit a form using Selenium?

The following lines of code will let you submit a form using Selenium:

WebElement el = driver.findElement(By.id(“ElementID”));

el.submit();

64. What are the Testing types supported by Selenium?

There are two types of testing that are primarily supported by Selenium:

Functional Testing: Individual testing of software functional points or features.

Regression Testing: Wherever a bug is fixed, a product is retested and this is called Regression Testing.

65. What is Selenium IDE?

Selenium integrated development environment (IDE)  is an all-in-one Selenium script development environment. It may be used to debug tests, alter and record and is also available as a Firefox extension. Selenium IDE comes with the whole Selenium Core that  allows us to rapidly and easily replay and record  tests in the exact environment where they will be conducted.

Selenium IDE is the best environment for building Selenium tests, regardless of the style of testing we prefer, thanks to the ability to move instructions around rapidly and the autocomplete support.

66. What is the difference between Assert and Verify commands in Selenium?

Assert stops test execution if the condition fails, while Verify records the failure but continues the test execution.

67. How to launch Browser using WebDriver?

To launch Browser using WebDriver, following syntax is followed -

WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

68. What is the difference between Asset Management and Configuration Management?

Differences between Configuration Management and Asset Management are:

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DevOps Interview Questions for Configuration Management: Chef, Puppet, Ansible

69. Why are SSL certificates used in Chef?

• SSL certificates are used between the Chef server and the client to ensure that each node has access to the right data.
• Every node has a private and public key pair. The public key is stored at the Chef server.
• When an SSL certificate is sent to the server, it will contain the private key of the node.
• The server compares this against the public key in order to identify the node and give the node access to the required data.

70. Which of the following commands would you use to stop or disable the 'httpd' service when the system boots?

1. # systemctl disable httpd.service
2. # system disable httpd.service
3. # system disable httpd
4. # systemctl disable httpd.service

The correct answer is A) # systemctl disable httpd.service

71. What is Test Kitchen in Chef?

Test Kitchen is a command-line tool in Chef that spins up an instance and tests the cookbook on it before deploying it on the actual nodes.

Here are the most commonly used kitchen commands:

72. How does chef-apply differ from chef-client?

• chef-apply is run on the client system.
  
  chef-apply applies the recipe mentioned in the command on the client system.
  
  $ chef-apply recipe_name.rb
  
  
• chef-client is also run on the client system.
  
  chef-client applies all the cookbooks in your server's run list to the client system.
  
  $ knife chef-client

73. What is the command to sign the requested certificates?

• For Puppet version 2.7:
  
  # puppetca –sign hostname-of-agent
  
  Example:
  
  # puppetca –sign ChefAgent
  
  # puppetca sign hostname-of-agent
  
  Example:
  
  # puppetca sign ChefAgent
  
  
• For Puppet version 2.7:
  
  # puppetca –sign hostname-of-agent
  
  Example:
  
  # puppetca –sign ChefAgent
  
  # puppetca sign hostname-of-agent
  
  Example:
  
  # puppetca sign ChefAgent

74. Which open-source or community tools do you use to make Puppet more powerful?

• Changes in the configuration are tracked using Jira, and further maintenance is done through internal procedures. 
• Version control takes the support of Git and Puppet's code manager app.
• The changes are also passed through Jenkin's continuous integration pipeline.

75. What are the resources in Puppet?

• Resources are the basic units of any configuration management tool.
• These are the features of a node, like its software packages or services.
• A resource declaration, written in a catalog, describes the action to be performed on or with the resource.
• When the catalog is executed, it sets the node to the desired state.

76. What is a class in Puppet?

Classes are named blocks in your manifest that configure various functionalities of the node, such as services, files, and packages.

The classes are added to a node's catalog and are executed only when explicitly invoked.

Class apache (String $version = ‘latest’) {

package{

‘httpd’: ensure => $version,

before => File[‘/etc/httpd.conf’],}

77. What is an Ansible role?

An Ansible role is an independent block of tasks, variables, files, and templates embedded inside a playbook.

This playbook installs tomcat on node1.

78. When should I use '{{ }}'?

Always use {{}} for variables, unless you have a conditional statement, such as "when: …". This is because conditional statements are run through Jinja, which resolves the expressions.

 For example:

      echo “This prints the value of {{foo}}”

      when : foo is defined

Using brackets makes it simpler to distinguish between strings and undefined variables.

This also ensures that Ansible doesn't recognize the line as a dictionary declaration.

79. What is the best way to make content reusable/redistributable?

There are three ways to make content reusable or redistributable in Ansible:

• Roles are used to managing tasks in a playbook. They can be easily shared via Ansible Galaxy.
• "include" is used to add a submodule or another file to a playbook. This means a code written once can be added to multiple playbooks.
• "import" is an improvement of "include," which ensures that a file is added only once. This is helpful when a line is run recursively.

80. How is Ansible different from Puppet?

We will now look at some DevOps interview questions on contanerization.

DevOps Interview Questions on Containerization

81. Explain the architecture of Docker.

Docker works with a client and a server. The client talks to the Docker daemon to build and run containers. Containers are just packages that include an app and everything it needs to run. Docker Registry is where these container images are stored and shared.

Image Representation: Docker Architecture Explained

82. What are the advantages of Docker over virtual machines?

Docker containers are small and start quickly. They don’t use much memory and can run on different systems easily. Because of this, they’re great for developing and scaling applications.

83. How do we share Docker containers with different nodes?

• It is possible to share Docker containers on different nodes with Docker Swarm.
• Docker Swarm is a tool that allows IT administrators and developers to create and manage a cluster of swarm nodes within the Docker platform.
• A swarm consists of two types of nodes: a manager node and a worker node.

84. What are the commands used to create a Docker swarm?

Use docker swarm init to create a swarm manager node, and docker swarm join --token <token> <manager-ip> to add worker nodes.

85. How do you run multiple containers using a single service?

• It is possible to run multiple containers as a single service with Docker Compose.
• Here, each container runs in isolation but can interact with each other.
• All Docker Compose files are YAML files.

86. What is a Dockerfile used for?

• A Dockerfile is used for creating Docker images using the build command.
• With a Docker image, any user can run the code to create Docker containers.
• Once a Docker image is built, it's uploaded in a Docker registry.
• From the Docker registry, users can get the Docker image and build new containers whenever they want.

87. Explain the differences between Docker images and Docker containers.

88. Instead of YAML, what can you use as an alternate file for building Docker compose?

To build a Docker compose, a user can use a JSON file instead of YAML. In case a user wants to use a JSON file, he/she should specify the filename as given:

Docker-compose -f Docker-compose.json up

89. How do you create a Docker container?

Task: Create a MySQL Docker container 

A user can either build a Docker image or pull an existing Docker image (like MySQL) from Docker Hub.

Now, Docker creates a new container MySQL from the existing Docker image. Simultaneously, the container layer of the read-write filesystem is also created on top of the image layer.

• Command to create a Docker container: Docker run -t –i MySQL 
• Command to list down the running containers: Docker ps

90. What is the difference between a registry and a repository?

91. What are the cloud platforms that support Docker?

The following are the cloud platforms that Docker runs on:

• Amazon Web Services
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform
• Rackspace

92. What is the purpose of the expose and publish commands in Docker?

Expose

• Expose is an instruction used in Dockerfile.
• It is used to expose ports within a Docker network.
• It is a documenting instruction used at the time of building an image and running a container.
• Expose is the command used in Docker.
• Example: Expose 8080

Publish

• Publish is used in a Docker run command.
• It can be used outside a Docker environment.
• It is used to map a host port to a running container port.
• --publish or –p is the command used in Docker.
• Example: docker run –d –p 0.0.0.80:80

Now, let's have a look at the DevOps interview questions for continuous monitoring.

DevOps Interview Questions for Continuous Monitoring

93. How does Nagios help in the continuous monitoring of systems, applications, and services?

Nagios enables server monitoring and the ability to check if they are sufficiently utilized or if any task failures need to be addressed. 

• Verifies the status of the servers and services
• Inspects the health of your infrastructure
• Checks if applications are working correctly and web servers are reachable

94. How does Nagios help in the continuous monitoring of systems, applications, and services?

95. What do you mean by Nagios Remote Plugin Executor (NPRE) of Nagios?

Nagios Remote Plugin Executor (NPRE) enables you to execute Nagios plugins on Linux/Unix machines. You can monitor remote machine metrics (disk usage, CPU load, etc.)

• The check_npre plugin that resides on the local monitoring machine
• The NPRE daemon that runs on the remote Linux/Unix machine

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96. What are the port numbers that Nagios uses for monitoring purposes?

Usually, Nagios uses the following port numbers for monitoring:

97. What are active and passive checks in Nagios?

Nagios is capable of monitoring hosts and services in two ways:

Actively

• Active checks are initiated as a result of the Nagios process
• Active checks are regularly scheduled

Passively

• Passive checks are initiated and performed through external applications/processes
• Passive checks results are submitted to Nagios for processing

98. What are active and passive checks in Nagios?

Active Checks:

• The check logic in the Nagios daemon initiates active checks.
• Nagios will execute a plugin and pass the information on what needs to be checked.
• The plugin will then check the operational state of the host or service, and report results back to the Nagios daemon.
• It will process the results of the host or service check and send notifications.

Passive Checks:

• In passive checks, an external application checks the status of a host or service.
• It writes the results of the check to the external command file.
• Nagios reads the external command file and places the results of all passive checks into a queue for later processing.
• Nagios may send out notifications, log alerts, etc. depending on the check result information.

99. Explain the main configuration file and its location in Nagios.

The main configuration file consists of several directives that affect how Nagios operates. The Nagios process and the CGIs read the config file.

A sample main configuration file will be placed into your settings directory:

/usr/local/Nagios/etc/resource.cfg

100. What is the Nagios Network Analyzer?

• It provides an in-depth look at all network traffic sources and security threats.
• It provides a central view of your network traffic and bandwidth data.
• It allows system admins to gather high-level information on the health of the network.
• It enables you to be proactive in resolving outages, abnormal behavior, and threats before they affect critical business processes.

101. What are the benefits of HTTP and SSL certificate monitoring with Nagios?

HTTP Certificate Monitoring

• Increased server, services, and application availability.
• Fast detection of network outages and protocol failures.
• Enables web transaction and web server performance monitoring.

SSL Certificate Monitoring

• Increased website availability.
• Frequent application availability.
• It provides increased security.

102. Explain virtualization with Nagios.

Nagios can run on different virtualization platforms, like VMware, Microsoft Visual PC, Xen, Amazon EC2, etc.

• Provides the capability to monitor an assortment of metrics on different platforms
• Ensures quick detection of service and application failures
• Has the ability to monitor the following metrics:
• CPU Usage
• Memory
• Networking
• VM status
• Reduced administrative overhead

103. Name the three variables that affect recursion and inheritance in Nagios.

Name: Template name that can be referenced in other object definitions so it can inherit the object's properties/variables.

Use: Here, you specify the name of the template object that you

want to inherit properties/variables from.

register: This variable indicates whether or not the object definition

should be registered with Nagios.

define someobjecttype{

              object-specific variables ….

              name template_name

              use name_of_template

              register [0/1]

              }

104. Why is Nagios said to be object-oriented?

Using the object configuration format, you can create object definitions that inherit properties from other object definitions. Hence, Nagios is known as object-oriented.

Types of Objects:

• Services
• Hosts
• Commands
• Time Periods

105. Explain what state stalking is in Nagios.

• State stalking is used for logging purposes in Nagios.
• When stalking is enabled for a particular host or service, Nagios will watch that host or service very carefully.
• It will log any changes it sees in the output of check results.
• This helps in the analysis of log files.

Version Control System Interview Questions

Here are some common interview questions and answers related to version control systems:

106. What is a version control system (VCS)?

A VCS is a software tool that allows developers to manage changes to the source code of a software project. It enables developers to track and manage different versions of code files, collaborate with others, and revert to earlier versions if necessary.

107. What are the benefits of using a VCS?

There are several benefits to using a VCS, including:

• The ability to track changes to code over time
• The ability to collaborate with other developers and share code
• The ability to revert to earlier versions of code if necessary
• The ability to branch code and work on different features or fixes simultaneously
• The ability to merge changes from other branches or contributors
• Increased confidence and control over code changes and deployments

108. What are the types of VCS?

There are two main types of VCS: centralized and distributed.

• Centralized VCS: A centralized VCS has a single central repository that stores all versions of the code files. Developers check out files from the central repository, make changes, and then commit the changes back to the warehouse.
• Distributed VCS: A distributed VCS allows developers to create their local repositories of code changes. Developers can work on code changes locally, commit changes to their local storage, and then push changes to a central repository or pull changes from other contributors.

109. What is the difference between Git and SVN?

Git and SVN are both popular VCS tools, but they have some key differences:

• Git is a distributed VCS, while SVN is a centralized VCS.
• Git is more flexible and allows easier branching and merging of code changes.
• SVN has better support for handling binary files.
• Git is generally considered faster than SVN.

Virtualization Interview Questions

110. What is virtualization?

Virtualization is a technology that allows multiple operating systems or applications to run on a single physical server or computer. It creates virtual instances of hardware resources such as CPU, memory, and storage, which can be allocated to different virtual machines.

111. What are the benefits of virtualization?

There are several benefits of virtualization, including:

• Reduced hardware costs
• Increased efficiency and utilization of resources
• Improved scalability and flexibility
• Increased reliability and availability of applications
• Simplified management and administration of IT infrastructure

112. What are the different types of virtualization?

There are several types of virtualization, including:

• Server virtualization: Running multiple operating systems on a single physical server.
• Network virtualization: Creating virtual networks that operate independently of physical network infrastructure.
• Storage virtualization: Combining physical storage resources into a single virtual storage pool.
• Desktop virtualization: Running multiple desktop environments on a single physical machine.

113. What is a hypervisor?

A hypervisor is a layer of software that enables virtualization by allowing multiple virtual machines to share a single physical server or computer. It allocates hardware resources to each virtual machine and isolates each virtual machine from the others.

As you can see, there’s a lot to master: Git, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, cloud, CI/CD, and more to land a rewarding DevOps role. While this guide helps you prepare for interviews, a structured learning path can accelerate your journey. Simplilearn’s DevOps Engineer Course combines expert-led classes, hands-on labs, and real-world projects to help you become job-ready faster.

Key Takeaways

• Employers want to see how you approach problems, solve issues, and apply DevOps principles in real scenarios
• Focus on building a strong foundation in Linux, CI/CD, cloud platforms, and containerization, rather than just memorizing commands or tools
• Work on projects, labs, or personal experiments to demonstrate practical knowledge, not just theory
• Explore different tools, try out real-world scenarios, and practice troubleshooting, as these skills are often what set candidates apart in interviews