What should I learn before starting my first DevOps internship in 15 days?

Try to learn by doing rather than trying to memorize the entire DevOps field. Set up a Linux environment, write a few shell commands or scripts, use Git branches and pull requests, build and run a Docker container, and deliberately break and fix a simple pipeline. Those exercises will give you useful context when your team introduces its own tools and processes.

With only 15 days, prioritize the fundamentals you’re most likely to use immediately: Linux commands and permissions, navigating files, processes and services, SSH, Git, Docker basics, and reading CI/CD logs. Also learn enough YAML to understand a pipeline configuration. You don’t need to master every cloud service before your first day; aim to be comfortable troubleshooting and learning from documentation.

Since you already have the internship, focus less on watching tutorials and more on completing one small project from start to finish. Build a simple web app in Python or another language you know, containerize it with Docker, and put the code in a Git repository. Then create a basic CI workflow that builds the Docker image whenever you push changes. Finally, deploy it to the cloud provider your company uses, using a virtual network and a small virtual machine. Install Docker there and run your application. If you finish early, try adding Nginx or learning about load balancers, but one complete project is more valuable than many unfinished tutorials.