Interviews Analyzed
2,847
What DevOps Engineers are actually asked in interviews.
Based on 2,847 real interview reports from DevOps Engineer candidates at top tech companies.
Average Prep Time
12weeks
foundations
deep
system
polish
Offers Landed
72%
Among candidates following the plan
Avg Salary Bump
+$38k
Pre-offer vs post-offer base + equity
We pull jobs from sources most job seekers never check
01 — Companies
What top companies emphasize.
Different company types prioritize different aspects of DevOps engineering skills and cultural fit.
FAANG
HighGoogle · Meta · Amazon · Apple · Netflix
100%
- Algorithms 25%
- System design 45%
- Behavioral 30%
Heavy focus on large-scale infrastructure design and operational excellence.
ScaleReliability
FINTECH
HighStripe · Square · Coinbase · Robinhood · Plaid
100%
- Algorithms 20%
- System design 40%
- Behavioral 25%
- Domain / fit 15%
Emphasis on security, compliance, and financial system reliability.
SecurityCompliance
EARLY-STAGE · SERIES A-B
MediumVarious startups · Scale-ups
100%
- Algorithms 15%
- System design 30%
- Behavioral 25%
- Domain / fit 30%
Focus on versatility, cost optimization, and rapid deployment capabilities.
VersatilityCost-efficiency
02 — Topics
Most frequently tested topics
64% of interviews containing topic
01
CI/CD Pipelines
82%Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Pipeline design, Deployment automation
Design and troubleshoot continuous integration and deployment workflows
02
Cloud Infrastructure
78%AWS, Azure, GCP, Terraform, CloudFormation
Provision and manage cloud resources using infrastructure as code
03
Containerization
71%Docker, Kubernetes, Container orchestration, Microservices
Container deployment, scaling, and orchestration strategies
04
Monitoring & Logging
65%Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Observability, Alerting
Implement comprehensive monitoring and logging solutions
05
Scripting & Automation
58%Python, Bash, PowerShell, Configuration management, Ansible
Automate operational tasks and system configuration
06
Security & Compliance
45%Security scanning, Secrets management, Compliance, Vulnerability assessment
Implement security best practices and compliance requirements
03 — Interview loop
Typical DevOps Engineer interview process
System design rounds are often the bottleneck, where candidates struggle with infrastructure architecture at scale.
Pass-rate funnel
Phone Screen · 78%
Technical Screen · 65%
System Design · 42%
Infrastructure Deep Dive · 58%
Behavioral · 72%
Final Round · 85%
Offer rate compounded ≈ 1.3%
01
Phone Screen
30-45 min · pass 78%
Basic technical questions and experience discussion
02
Technical Screen
60 min · pass 65%
Coding and scripting problems, infrastructure scenarios
03
System Design
BOTTLENECK60-90 min · pass 42%
Design scalable infrastructure and deployment systems
04
Infrastructure Deep Dive
60 min · pass 58%
Detailed discussion of past infrastructure projects
05
Behavioral
45 min · pass 72%
Leadership, collaboration, and incident response scenarios
06
Final Round
30-45 min · pass 85%
Culture fit and final technical validation
04 — Question bank
Real questions you'll encounter.
Curated from actual DevOps Engineer interviews at top companies.
SCRIPTING & AUTOMATION
Easy → MediumParse log files
- extract error patterns
- count occurrences
- filter by timestamp
- aggregate metrics
CI/CD DESIGN
Medium → HardDesign deployment pipeline
- multi-environment promotion
- rollback strategy
- automated testing
- approval gates
INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE
MediumTerraform configuration
- resource dependencies
- state management
- module design
- environment separation
MONITORING SYSTEMS
Medium → HardDesign observability stack
- metrics collection
- alerting rules
- dashboard design
- log aggregation
CONTAINER ORCHESTRATION
MediumKubernetes deployment
- pod scaling
- service discovery
- config management
- health checks
INCIDENT RESPONSE
HardProduction outage scenario
- root cause analysis
- mitigation strategy
- communication plan
- post-mortem process
892 questions in the bank
Open the full bank →05 — Prep roadmap
12-week preparation roadmap
Structured approach to master DevOps engineering interviews, from fundamentals to advanced infrastructure design.
Hours / week
Total: 78 hrs
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
W7
W8
W9
W10
W11
W12
Weeks 1-3
5 hrs/wk
Foundations
Master core DevOps concepts, basic scripting, and fundamental cloud services.
Linux fundamentalsBasic scriptingCloud basicsVersion control
Weeks 4-7
7 hrs/wk
Infrastructure & Automation
Deep dive into infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization.
TerraformDockerKubernetesCI/CDConfiguration management
Weeks 8-10
8 hrs/wk
System Design
Practice designing scalable infrastructure, monitoring systems, and deployment architectures.
Infrastructure designMonitoringScalabilitySecurityCost optimization
Weeks 11-12
8 hrs/wk
Interview Polish
Mock interviews, behavioral preparation, and final review of key concepts.
Mock interviewsBehavioral prepIncident scenariosFinal review
06 — Tools & resources
Tools & resources that work.
Battle-tested by candidates who landed offers.
Mix of free + premium.
InterviewPal
Guided interview prep with mentorship and structured paths.
Best for: Structured prep
Visit InterviewPal
LeetCode
2,000+ coding problems. Premium unlocks company-tagged sets.
Best for: Algorithms & DS
Visit LeetCode
System Design Primer
Free comprehensive guide. The de-facto starting point.
Best for: SD fundamentals
Visit System Design Primer
Blind
Anonymous tech community. Real interview experiences and insights.
Best for: Real signal
Visit Blind
Levels.fyi
Salary and interview data, by company and level.
Best for: Company intel
Visit Levels.fyi
Pramp
Peer mock interviews. Live practice with real people.
Best for: Live practice
Visit PrampFrequently Asked Questions
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