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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:

  1. Say first: one sentence that answers the question directly.
  2. Proof: the command or output that shows it, ideally one you have run.
  3. 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