Top DevOps Interview Questions with Answers

According to Wikipedia, “DevOps (a clipped compound of “software DEVelopment” and “information

technology OPerationS”) is a term used to refer to a set of practices that emphasize the collaboration and
communication of both software developers and information technology (IT) professionals while automating
the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.”

In short, DevOps is the intersection point of software development, operations and quality assurance (QA).

Organisations around the world are fast adapting to the DevOps culture to streamline their business
strategy. If you are an expert DevOps professional, there is a great chance that some of the top companies
are looking for candidates like you. If you are new to the field, you can do a DevOps certification course to
improve your chances of getting a good job.
Essential Skills Required

 Experience in infrastructure automation tools like Docker, Windows PowerShell, etc.

 Fluent in programming language like Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, etc.
 Familiarity with CI (continuous integration) tools.
 Soft skills for interpersonal communication and business understanding.

Here are some of the following DevOps interviews questions and answers
that are generally asked in DevOps interviews:

Q1. What is Version control?

Ans. It is a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific
versions later.

Q2. What are containers?

Ans. Containers are form of lightweight virtualization, heavier than ‘chroot’ but lighter than ‘hypervisors’.
They provide isolation among processes while using same kernel as the host machine, and ‘cgroups’
functionality within kernel.

Q3. What is Continuous Delivery?

Ans. It is practice of delivering the software for testing as soon as it is built by CI (Continuous Integration)
servers.
 Q4. What are the uses of Version control?

Ans.

 Revert files back to a previous state.

 Revert the entire project back to a previous state.
 Compare changes over time.
 See who last modified something that might be causing a problem.
 Who introduced an issue and when.

Q5. What are the core operations of DevOps in terms of development and
Infrastructure?

Ans. The core operations of DevOps are: application development, code developing, code coverage, unit
testing, packaging, deployment with infrastructure, provisioning, configuration, orchestration, and
deployment.

Q6. Can one consider DevOps as an Agile methodology?

Ans. DevOps can be considered complementary to the agile methodology, but not completely similar.

Q7. Name some of the top tools used in DevOps? What are the tools that you have
used?

Ans. Some of the common tools are – Docker, Git, Selenium, Puppet, Nagios and Chef

Q8. What is Git?

Ans. Git is a Distributed Version Control system (DVCS). It can track changes to a file and allows you to
revert back to any particular change.

Q9. In Git how do you revert a commit that has already been pushed and made
public?

Ans. It can be done in two ways:

 By removing or fixing the bad file in a new commit and pushing it to the remote repository. Once the
necessary changes to the file has been made, commit it to the remote repository. Use: git commit -m
“commit message”
 By creating a new commit that undoes all changes that were made in the bad commit. To do this, use
command: git revert <name of bad commit>
Q10. What is Git bisect?

Ans. Git bisect is used to find the commit that introduced a bug by using binary search.

Q11. Why do you need a Continuous Integration of Dev & Testing?

Ans. Continuous Integration of Dev and Testing improves the quality of software, and reduces the time
taken to deliver it, by replacing the traditional practice of testing after completing all development.

Q12. Which is the most popular scripting language in DevOps?

Ans. Python.

Learn DevOps Now>>

Q13. What is Vagrant and what is it used for?

Ans. Vagrant is a tool that can create and manage virtualized (or containerized) environments for testing
and developing software.

Q14. What is post mortem meetings?

Ans. It is done to discuss what went wrong and what steps should be taken so that failure doesn’t happen
again.

Q15. What is meant by Continuous Integration?

Ans. It is a development practice that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository several
times a day.

Q16. What’s a PTR in DNS?

Ans. Pointer (PTR) record is used for revers DNS (Domain Name System) lookup.

Q17. What testing is necessary to insure a new service is ready for production?

Ans. Continuous testing

Also Read>> Top Python Interview Questions with Answers

Q18. What is Continuous Testing?

Ans. Continuous Testing is the process of executing automated tests as part of the software delivery
pipeline to obtain immediate feedback on the business risks associated with in the latest build.

Q19. What is Automation Testing?

Ans. Automation testing or Test Automation is a process of automating the manual process to test the
application/system under test.

Q20. What are the key elements of continuous testing?

Ans. Risk assessment, policy analysis, requirements traceability, advanced analysis, test optimisation, and
service virtualisation

Q21. What are the Testing types supported by Selenium?

Ans. Regression testing and functional testing

Also Read>> Top Selenium Interview Questions & Answers

Q22. Differentiate between Asset Management and Configuration Management

Ans. Asset Management, broadly defined, refers to any system that monitors and maintains things of value
to an entity or group.
Configuration Management is the process of planning for, identifying, controlling and verifying the
Configurations Items (CIs) within a service, recording their status and, in support of Change Management,
assessing the potential IT impact of changing those items.

Q23. What is Puppet?

Ans. It is a Configuration Management tool which is used to automate administration tasks.

Q24. How does HTTP work?

Ans. The HTTP protocol works in a client and server model like most other protocols. A web browser using
which a request is initiated is called as a client and a web server software which responds to that request
is called a server. World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force are two important
spokes in the standardization of the HTTP protocol.
Q25. Describe two-factor authentication?

Ans. Two-factor authentication is a security process in which the user provides two means of identification
from separate categories of credentials; one is typically a physical token, such as a card, and the other is
typically something memorized, such as a security code.

These are some of the popular questions asked in DevOps interviews. Always be prepared to answer
all types of questions — technical skills, interpersonal, leadership or methodology. If you are someone who
has recently started your career in DevOps, you can always get certified in the various tools and skills
needed to be an expert in the field.

Learn more about Top DevOps courses