I've got a technical interview for a DevOps role coming up on Monday the 21st, and I'm feeling a little out of practice. I've been in a DevOps team for about two years, but my role changed last year, and now I'm trying to get back into the field. I don't have much information about the interview since the person I spoke to could only provide limited details. It will be held on Teams, last for 1.5 hours, and thankfully, there's no homework involved! I'd really appreciate any advice or resources I can use to refresh my skills and prepare for this interview.
4 Answers
Make sure to focus on the key areas relevant to the job description. DevOps covers a lot of territory, so it’s important to understand whether you’ll be working on CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, or SRE-type tasks. Since the job description is a bit of a mixed bag, try to cover all bases like containerization, scripting, and pipeline management. If there’s a specific tool you’ve used before that’s similar to what they want you to know, mention your experience and how you approach learning new tools. Being able to articulate how you would tackle new challenges can impress interviewers more than just having all the answers right off the bat.
It's great that you’re getting back into DevOps! Here’s my advice: If you mentioned any specific tech in your application, like Terraform or Docker, make sure you review those topics comprehensively. Check out your past projects for some practical insights. Remind yourself of the fundamentals and be honest if you feel rusty in any areas during the interview—most interviewers understand that. Also, if you get a challenging question, don’t hesitate to ask for permission to check documentation; it shows you know how to problem-solve under pressure. Ultimately, focus on the core concepts rather than memorizing every tiny detail. Companies that expect that from candidates may not be the best fit for you anyway.
Definitely review the fundamentals! Concepts like CI/CD, Docker, Terraform, and monitoring are crucial. Practice explaining how you’ve used these in your previous roles, even if you're a bit rusty. Remember that interviews usually focus more on your understanding and approach to problem-solving than on perfect implementation right there. If they bring up a tool you haven't used recently, confidently talk about your experience with similar tools and your willingness to learn. By the way, you might want to check out resources like interview practice platforms—there are some great tools out there like Interview Copilot that can help you prep.
For some hands-on practice, consider checking out live system design interviewing resources like leetsys.dev. It could really help you get used to the kind of questions you might face during your interview.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll definitely refresh my knowledge on my previous projects and focus on those core concepts.