I'm getting ready for an interview with a product-based company (not a big name) for a DevOps role, and they want strong Python scripting skills. What kinds of programs or skills should I focus on practicing? I'm thinking about things like palindromes, Docker and Kubernetes APIs, and how to get API responses from servers. Any advice?
5 Answers
Understanding how to use Python with cloud SDKs, like the AWS SDK, is really helpful. Being able to do automation tasks, like managing instance states or calling external APIs, can give you an edge in interviews. If you mention that you enjoy using tools like Polars for data manipulation, it shows you're keeping up with modern solutions!
In my recent interviews for DevOps roles, I faced real-time coding challenges like writing a simple in-memory key-value store or handling string comparisons. The hardest one was coding an LRU caching algorithm, which had some tricky aspects. Practicing these types of problems would really help you!
You'll want to get comfortable with using the requests library to get and post API data, parsing log files, working with dictionaries and lists, and implementing exception handling in your scripts. Additionally, learning how boto3 works can be beneficial. I've done around 40 interviews recently, mostly with product companies, and these skills were commonly tested.
Have you checked Glassdoor for any hints on interview questions? Some companies might just focus on algorithmic coding challenges, but you can't go wrong reviewing problems on LeetCode as well.
Check out GitHub for resources like the Python Koans. It's a great way to brush up your skills for interviews. Best of luck with yours!
That's a great suggestion! I've been using those too to prepare.