Interview Preparation¶
Linux interviews for DevOps, SRE and platform roles move through rounds that get deeper each time. This folder follows that structure: each round page collects questions at one level, and the scenarios drill the troubleshooting round.
Rounds¶
| Round | Level | What is tested | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1: Screening | L1 | Fundamentals: explain, why, difference | Correct, short answers without hesitation |
| Round 2: Hands-On | L2 | Doing a task in a live shell, reading real output | The right command, first time, and knowing its flags |
| Round 3: Troubleshooting | L3 | An open symptom on a broken server | The path: questions, hypotheses, ordered checks |
| Round 4: Internals | L4 | What happens inside the kernel and the tools | Mechanism-level explanations and trade-offs |
The mock interviews mix all four rounds into three timed 45-minute sessions.
Answer Method¶
Every checkpoint in the topic files uses the same shape, and the same shape works in a live interview:
- Say first: one sentence that answers the question directly.
- Proof: the command or output that shows it, ideally one you have run.
- Follow-up: the next question the interviewer is likely to ask; preparing it is how an L1 answer leads into an L3 discussion.
A Don't say line records a common wrong answer worth avoiding.
Study Paths¶
| Time available | Path |
|---|---|
| 15 minutes | Must-Know Facts, read once |
| 1 hour | Must-Know Facts, then Round 1 aloud, then one scenario |
| 1 day | Every High-weight topic's checkpoints, all scenarios, one lab |
| 1 week | One module per day: topic files, checkpoints, the module lab |
Scenarios¶
| Scenario | Modules |
|---|---|
| Cannot Log In or Use Sudo | 04 Users and Access |
| Binary Won't Execute | 01 Shell and CLI, 06 Package Management |
| Process Won't Die | 07 Processes, 08 Systemd and Services |
| Service Won't Start | 08 Systemd and Services, 09 Logging |
| Cron Job Not Running | 01 Shell and CLI, 10 Scheduling |
| Disk Full | 02 Files and Filesystem, 07 Processes, 12 Storage |
| DNS Not Resolving | 13 Networking |
| Cannot SSH | 14 SSH, 15 Security |
| Service Unreachable | 13 Networking, 15 Security |
| Cannot Reach Host | 13 Networking, 15 Security |
| TLS Certificate Errors | 13 Networking, 15 Security |
| Permission Denied | 05 Permissions, 12 Storage, 15 Security |
| Suspected Compromise | 07 Processes, 13 Networking, 15 Security |
| Server Slow | 07 Processes, 17 Performance |
| Too Many Open Files | 02 Files and Filesystem, 17 Performance |
| Cannot Fork | 07 Processes, 17 Performance |
| Boot Failure | 12 Storage, 16 Boot and Recovery |
| High Load, Low CPU | 07 Processes, 17 Performance, 18 Network Storage |
| High Memory and OOM | 07 Processes, 17 Performance, 19 Containers |