I'm trying to understand the coding expectations in DevOps roles. Are Bash and Python scripting enough for most day-to-day work, or should I also spend significant time learning software-development concepts such as object-oriented programming? I'm especially curious about how much application code DevOps engineers typically write compared with infrastructure automation, debugging, and working with tools like Terraform or Ansible.
5 Answers
For many DevOps jobs, Bash and Python are enough to get started. The practical skills matter more than writing elaborate class hierarchies: calling REST APIs, parsing JSON, handling failed subprocesses, working with environment variables in CI pipelines, and reading Terraform or other infrastructure code. You may rarely write a class, but you should be comfortable understanding unfamiliar code and debugging it quickly.
Software fundamentals are important, but hiring interviews can demand more algorithm-heavy coding than the actual job. Some interviews include things like linked-list problems that rarely come up in normal DevOps work. In practice, architecture, troubleshooting, automation, reliability, and understanding systems are often just as important as coding ability.
You probably won’t write much user-facing application code, but you may write plenty of infrastructure code in Terraform, Ansible, cloud-specific tools, Bash, or PowerShell. Pick one or two general-purpose languages and become reasonably capable with them. Also prioritize reading and debugging code, since you’ll often need to understand several languages without actively writing all of them.
Bash and Python can handle a lot, but watch out for scripts that start as quick automation and gradually become critical infrastructure. Once a script grows large or handles complex logic, moving it to a better-structured language and adding proper error handling and tests can save a lot of pain. The key skill isn’t specifically object-oriented programming—it’s knowing when your automation needs stronger engineering practices.
The amount of coding varies a lot by company and team, not necessarily just by company size. Some organizations have DevOps engineers doing substantial development work, while others focus more on operations, automation, and platform tooling. There isn’t one universal definition of the role, so check the actual responsibilities when evaluating a position.
That makes sense. I’ll pay more attention to the tools and responsibilities listed for each role instead of assuming every DevOps job has the same coding expectations.