TOP 502 devops interview questions for candidate screening in 2025

Why DevOps Interview Questions Matter More Than Ever in 2025

Finding the right DevOps engineer feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. You're not just looking for someone who can code or manage servers - you need that rare blend of technical expertise, collaboration skills, and problem-solving mindset that makes DevOps truly work. The right devops interview questions can be the difference between hiring someone who'll streamline your entire operation and someone who'll accidentally take down production on their first week. Trust me, every experienced DevOps engineer has their own production-stopping horror story, and if you haven't caused some major disaster yet, you probably don't have that much experience.

The DevOps Revolution is Real - And the Numbers Prove It

The statistics around DevOps adoption are honestly mind-blowing. More than 8 in 10 IT leaders now use DevOps practices in their workplace, and for good reason. Organizations that have embraced DevOps methodology are accomplishing tens to thousands of deployments in a single day - something that would have been impossible just a few years ago. Take Facebook, which serves 2 billion users with continuous deployment and code ownership models, implementing hundreds of lines of code daily without compromising quality, stability, or security. Netflix streams content to more than 100 million users worldwide using fully automated processes and systems that exemplify DevOps at scale.

The core of DevOps combines software development (Dev) with information technology operations (Ops), creating a methodology that helps improve deployment frequency, reduce failure rates of new releases, and speed up recovery time. The DevOps lifecycle typically includes 8 phases: Plan, Code, Build, Test, Integrate, Deploy, Operate, and Monitor. Multi-national companies like Amazon, Google, and Etsy have adopted this methodology, resulting in performance levels that were previously uncharted. The 7 most popular DevOps tools - Selenium, Puppet, Chef, Git, Jenkins, Ansible, and Docker - have become essential parts of modern infrastructure management.

The Challenge of Finding Quality DevOps Talent

Here's the reality: good DevOps engineers don't grow on trees, and they can be expensive. It takes a special kind of person to really do the job well - someone who's constantly learning, tinkering, working with others, and switching tasks. DevOps professionals need to understand concepts like containers sharing the host operating system's kernel, blue-green deployment using two identical production environments, and the difference between horizontal scaling (adding more machines) versus vertical scaling (enhancing existing machine power). They should know that CAMS stands for Culture, Automation, Measurement, and Sharing, and understand modern approaches like GitOps, which uses Git as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application management.

The technical depth required is substantial - from understanding that Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform to knowing how microservices work as small, loosely coupled, independently deployable services. They need to grasp deployment strategies like canary releases that gradually roll out to small subsets of users before full deployment. Key performance indicators matter too, with 3 important DevOps KPIs being meantime to failure recovery, deployment frequency, and percentage of failed deployments.

Your Complete Guide to 502 DevOps Interview Questions

Whether you're hiring for a fresh graduate or a senior DevOps architect, having the right questions ready is crucial. From understanding basic concepts like SSH (Secure Shell) to complex scenarios involving network configurations, port management, and system monitoring, comprehensive devops interview questions help you assess both technical knowledge and practical problem-solving abilities.

Now, let's dive into our carefully curated collection of 502 best practice DevOps interview questions for 2025 that will help you identify the perfect candidate for your team.

Because you're reading this article, you might be interested in the following article as well: Self Paced Video Interview: Tips for Employers.

🏆 The list of TOP 502 devops interview questions in 2025

What do you know about DevOps?

DevOps is becoming a key part of modern IT teams. It's not just a buzzword—it's a practice that helps companies release better software, faster. At its core, DevOps is all about improving collaboration between software developers and IT operations teams.

In traditional setups, development and operations work in silos, which can lead to delays and communication problems. With DevOps, both teams work together from start to finish—from planning and designing, to testing, deployment, and maintenance. This joint effort helps speed up software releases while reducing bugs and failures.

Best practice: Look for candidates who understand that DevOps isn’t just about tools like Jenkins, Docker, or Kubernetes. A strong candidate should talk about the culture and processes—like continuous integration, automated testing, and monitoring—that support a DevOps mindset.

Red flag: If a candidate only talks about DevOps in terms of tools and lacks an understanding of its purpose—like cross-team collaboration, faster delivery, and improved reliability—they may not be the right fit for a DevOps-driven environment.

Use this question to see if the candidate values teamwork, efficiency, and automation—the real goals of DevOps.

How is DevOps different from agile methodology?

DevOps and Agile are both popular approaches in software development, but they serve different purposes and focus on different areas.

Agile is a software development methodology focused on delivering small, incremental changes through collaborative, cross-functional teams. It emphasizes customer feedback, iterative progress, and the ability to respond quickly to change. Agile helps bridge the gap between business needs and development teams.

DevOps, on the other hand, is more of a collaborative culture that unites Development and IT Operations teams to ensure fast, reliable, and continuous software delivery. It focuses heavily on automation, continuous testing, integration, deployment, and monitoring.

Here’s how they differ:

• Focus: Agile focuses on development; DevOps focuses on delivery and operations.
• Goal: Agile aims to deliver functional software quickly; DevOps aims to shorten release cycles and maintain software stability.
• Team Collaboration: Agile encourages collaboration between developers and stakeholders; DevOps promotes collaboration between developers and IT ops.
• Tools & Automation: DevOps heavily relies on automation tools for CI/CD pipelines; Agile doesn’t focus much on tools.

Best practice tip: Candidates should clearly articulate that DevOps is not a replacement for Agile, but rather an extension that helps bring code from development to production reliably and quickly. Look for responses that show a practical understanding of how both can work together in modern software teams.

Which are some of the most popular DevOps tools?

When interviewing candidates for a DevOps role, it's essential to assess their familiarity with widely-used tools. A well-rounded DevOps engineer should be comfortable with tools that support automation, integration, and deployment processes.

Here are some of the most popular DevOps tools to listen for in their response:

• Selenium – Primarily used for automated testing of web applications.
• Puppet – An open-source configuration management tool to automate provisioning.
• Chef – Another powerful configuration management tool widely used in infrastructure automation.
• Git – A distributed version control system; knowledge of Git is essential for code collaboration.
• Jenkins – A popular choice for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD).
• Ansible – Known for simplicity in automation and configuration management.
• Docker – A leading containerization platform for building, sharing, and running applications.

Best practice: Look for candidates who not only list these tools but can also explain how and when they’ve used them. If they can compare two tools (e.g., Puppet vs. Ansible) and give situational use cases, that's a strong indicator of experience and critical thinking.

Also, be sure they can align tools with business outcomes, like faster deployments or more stable environments. That’s how you know they’re not just name-dropping—they’re problem-solving.

What are the different phases in DevOps?

Comment: The DevOps lifecycle is a structured process made up of several continuous phases, each serving a distinct purpose to ensure fast, efficient, and high-quality software delivery. Here’s a breakdown of each phase:

• Plan: In this initial phase, teams outline project goals and features. This step includes gathering requirements, setting timelines, and creating roadmaps. Best practice: Look for candidates who understand collaboration between business and engineering during the planning stage.

• Code: Developers start writing the application code. This phase is all about clean, maintainable, and scalable code. Candidates should be familiar with version control systems like Git.

• Build: All different code segments are compiled to create a working build of the application. Automation tools like Maven or Gradle are often used here. Ask if they’ve used CI/CD pipelines to automate builds.

• Test: One of the most crucial stages. Testing ensures the application is bug-free and works as expected. Candidates should know about unit tests, integration tests, and automated testing frameworks.

• Integrate: This step focuses on integrating code from multiple developers. CI tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI are used to manage this efficiently. Candidates should discuss how they’ve resolved code conflicts or integration issues.

• Deploy: The application is released to a production or staging environment. This stage may use tools like Docker or Kubernetes. Ask how they ensure smooth roll-outs without downtime.

• Operate: After deployment, the system is managed to make sure it runs smoothly. Candidates should understand server management, load balancing, and resource scaling.

• Monitor: The performance, usage, and reliability of the application are constantly monitored. Tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or New Relic come into play. Look for awareness of alerting systems and performance metrics.

Pro Tip: An ideal DevOps candidate should not only know each phase but also understand how they are interconnected. They must demonstrate a mindset of continuous improvement across the lifecycle.

What are some of the core benefits of DevOps?

DevOps offers a wide range of advantages for both technical teams and the business overall. It’s not just about automation—it’s about improving how teams build, test, and deliver software together.

Technical benefits:

• Continuous software delivery: Teams can release updates and features faster and more frequently.
• Lower complexity in managing issues: Problems become easier to detect and fix before they affect customers.
• Faster bug fixes: Early identification leads to quicker resolutions and improved product quality.

Business benefits:

• Faster time-to-market: Code changes make it into production more efficiently, which helps businesses stay competitive.
• Stable operating environments: Teams can push changes while reducing the risk of system downtime or disruption.
• Better collaboration: DevOps encourages communication between development and operations, removing silos and misalignment.

Comment:

When you're screening candidates for a DevOps-related role, listen for answers that cover both sides—technical and business benefits. A strong candidate won’t just mention automation; they’ll also talk about improved team collaboration, faster delivery cycles, and how these benefits translate to business value. Look for practical examples and real-world results where they've seen these benefits in action.

How will you approach a project that needs to implement DevOps?

This question helps uncover a candidate’s practical understanding of DevOps concepts and their ability to lead or contribute to a structured implementation of DevOps in real-world scenarios. A strong answer reflects organized planning, team collaboration, and a clear understanding of DevOps tools and practices.

What to listen for in a strong answer:

• Awareness of the DevOps lifecycle
• Focus on collaboration between development and operations
• Usage of automation, continuous integration, and delivery practices
• Ability to assess current infrastructure and processes
• A phased and strategic rollout

Best practice approach candidates might mention includes:

• Stage 1: Process Assessment

The candidate should talk about evaluating the current environment and workflows. This usually includes auditing existing systems, tools, and processes to pinpoint bottlenecks or inefficiencies. The goal here is to create a high-level strategy and road map specific to the project.

• Stage 2: Proof of Concept (PoC)

A prototype phase validates the proposed DevOps practices before full-scale adoption. Listen for mentions of testing out tools like Jenkins, Docker, GitLab, or Kubernetes within a controlled environment.

• Stage 3: DevOps Implementation Plan

Finally, they should describe rolling out the full DevOps strategy. This should include steps like:

• Setting up version control systems (e.g., Git)
• Implementing automated CI/CD pipelines
• Introducing infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
• Establishing robust monitoring and alerting
• Focusing on team training and collaboration

Red flags to watch for: Generic answers that skip over planning stages, no mention of assessment or PoC, or lack of teamwork and communication focus.

By asking this question, you're looking for someone who can think in systems and has hands-on experience driving DevOps transformations—not just someone who knows the buzzwords.

What is the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment?

This question helps you gauge a candidate’s understanding of modern software development practices. It's especially useful when hiring for roles like DevOps engineers, software developers, or tech leads.

A strong candidate should clearly explain the difference:

• Continuous Delivery means that code can be safely and reliably released to production at any time. However, the actual deployment is a manual decision.
• Continuous Deployment takes this one step further—every code change that passes automated tests is deployed to production automatically, without manual approval.

Comment:

Look for candidates who understand these core differences:

• Continuous Delivery focuses on rigorously tested and ready-to-deploy code, ensuring that all changes behave as expected in a production-like setting.
• Continuous Deployment eliminates the manual step entirely. Any change that passes through automated tests goes straight to production, which improves speed but requires strong monitoring and rollback strategies.

Best practice: A top candidate will mention cultural and tooling requirements—like strong CI/CD pipelines, real-time monitoring, and developer accountability—that make continuous deployment successful.

What is the role of configuration management in DevOps?

Configuration management plays a key role in DevOps by helping teams manage and automate the setup and maintenance of systems across different environments. It ensures that the IT infrastructure is consistent, reliable, and scalable by standardizing configuration files and managing system changes.

With configuration management tools like Ansible, Chef, or Puppet, teams can version-control infrastructure settings the same way they manage code. This makes it easier to track changes, roll back if needed, and maintain environment consistency from development to production.

Best practice: Ask candidates to explain how they’ve used configuration management tools in real-world scenarios. Look for answers that reference automating server setups, managing software deployments, or maintaining system integrity across environments.

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Comment:

Enables management of and changes to multiple systems. Standardizes resource configurations, which in turn, manage IT infrastructure. It helps with the administration and management of multiple servers and maintains the integrity of the entire infrastructure.

How does continuous monitoring help you maintain the entire architecture of the system?

As a DevOps professional, continuous monitoring plays a big role in keeping the entire architecture stable and secure. It helps identify faults early and automatically reports any threats across the infrastructure. This ensures that all services, applications, and resources are functioning as expected without delays or downtime.

A good candidate should mention:

• Real-time monitoring of servers, applications, and resources
• Use of tools to detect and alert on performance dips or failures
• Audit and compliance tracking across the system
• Ability to perform control monitoring and transaction inspections
• Strategies for preventive maintenance vs. reactive fixes

Best practice tip: Look for someone who talks about integrating monitoring into the CI/CD pipeline and using dashboards or alerts to maintain full visibility. That shows they think proactively.

What is the role of AWS in DevOps?

AWS plays a major role in enabling DevOps practices by offering a wide range of flexible, scalable, and automated services designed to simplify development and operations workflows. It helps teams build, test, and deploy applications faster and more reliably.

Comment:

When asking this question, you're trying to understand the candidate's hands-on experience with cloud platforms and continuous integration/delivery practices. The strongest candidates will highlight:

• Flexible services: AWS provides ready-to-use infrastructure tools like CodePipeline, Elastic Beanstalk, and EC2, reducing the need for manual setup.
• Built for scale: AWS lets you manage from a single instance to environments serving millions of users, showing how candidates scale applications in real life.
• Automation: Look for mentions of using services like CloudFormation or Lambda to automate deployments and configurations.
• Security: The best practice is using Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control user access. Candidates should understand these basics.
• Partner ecosystem: A candidate may talk about integrating third-party tools like Jenkins, Docker, or GitHub with AWS, which shows in-depth experience.

Candidates who provide real project examples, naming specific AWS tools they’ve used in DevOps pipelines, show a deeper level of understanding and practical experience.

Name three important DevOps KPIs.

When you're screening DevOps candidates, asking about key performance indicators (KPIs) helps you assess their real-world experience and understanding of success metrics in DevOps environments. A strong candidate should be able to clearly explain measurable metrics that reflect the effectiveness and health of a DevOps workflow.

Here are three essential DevOps KPIs they should mention:

• Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) – This measures how quickly a system recovers from a failure or downtime. A strong DevOps process prioritizes rapid incident resolution.

• Deployment Frequency – This indicates how often code is deployed to production. High deployment frequency typically shows automation maturity and a strong CI/CD pipeline.

• Change Failure Rate (CFR) – Sometimes called percentage of failed deployments, this KPI tracks the percentage of deployments that cause downtime or require immediate fixes. Lower rates suggest quality in code releases and testing processes.

Best practice approach: A qualified candidate won’t just list these KPIs—they’ll explain how they’ve monitored and improved them in past roles. Look for real-world applications instead of textbook answers.

Explain the term "Infrastructure as Code" (IaC) as it relates to configuration management.

As a candidate, explaining Infrastructure as Code (IaC) should involve how it uses code to automate the setup and management of IT infrastructure. The idea is to manage servers, databases, networks, and other systems through code — rather than manually configuring hardware or software. This approach helps teams be consistent, efficient, and repeatable when deploying and updating environments.

Candidates should touch on:

• Writing scripts or templates (often in tools like Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation) to set up infrastructure
• Managing provisioning, deployment, and configuration updates using version-controlled files
• The benefit of treating systems configuration similarly to application code — allowing features like testing, rollbacks, and documentation
• Supporting agility in cloud computing environments (like AWS, Azure, GCP) where resources are virtual and dynamic

Best practice: Look for answers showing the candidate knows that IaC boosts infrastructure consistency, reduces human error, and speeds up deployments. They should understand that it's not just about automation — it's about managing infrastructure in a modern, scalable way.

How is IaC implemented using AWS?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in AWS is designed to make building and managing cloud infrastructure just like writing software code. Traditionally, teams would manually write scripts or use command-line tools to deploy and test systems—often in separate environments before actual deployment. This method was time-consuming and error-prone.

With AWS and IaC, this entire process becomes automated, scalable, and repeatable.

AWS supports IaC through services like:

• AWS CloudFormation: Lets you define and provision infrastructure using declarative templates written in YAML or JSON.
• AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit): Allows defining cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages like TypeScript, Python, Java, and .NET.

A common best practice is to store these templates in version control systems like Git. This mirrors how software developers manage application code, letting you:

• Track changes
• Roll back to previous versions
• Automate deployments using continuous integration tools

Using IaC with AWS makes it easier to:

• Replicate environments (like dev, test, production)
• Standardize configurations
• Reduce the risk of manual errors
• Speed up infrastructure updates

In your candidate screening, look for responses that reflect this modern, version-controlled, testable approach to infrastructure. Candidates who can describe the use of AWS CloudFormation or CDK, and emphasize automation, repeatability, and security compliance, are ahead of the curve.

Why Has DevOps Gained Prominence over the Last Few Years?

In today’s fast-paced digital economy, companies are under constant pressure to deliver better software faster. Big tech players like Netflix and Facebook are leading the way with strong investments in DevOps, and for good reason.

Take Facebook, for instance. It uses a continuous deployment model backed by code ownership practices, allowing developers to push updates frequently without compromising stability. This means faster innovation, fewer bugs, and a smoother experience for users—all while keeping operational costs lean.

Netflix, too, relies heavily on automation and DevOps to deploy thousands of code changes every day without downtime. This speed and reliability are only possible because of their fully integrated DevOps pipelines.

So, why is DevOps gaining traction across industries? Here are some key reasons:

• Faster release cycles: DevOps enables rapid development and deployment, reducing time-to-market.
• Higher success rate of releases: Automated testing and deployment reduce human error.
• Continuous delivery: Updates are rolled out regularly, keeping products fresh and customers happy.
• Lower operational costs: Automation cuts down on manual tasks and reduces the need for large operations teams.
• Improved collaboration: DevOps breaks down silos between development and operations teams, promoting a shared responsibility culture.

Best practice approach: Ask candidates how they’ve embraced automation or improved deployment cycles in previous roles. Look for real-world applications and measurable results. A good answer should reflect not just knowledge of DevOps tools, but also a practical understanding of how DevOps empowers faster, safer, and leaner software delivery.

What are the fundamental differences between DevOps & Agile?

Understanding the key differences between DevOps and Agile is important when screening candidates for roles related to software development and operations. Here's how to break it down effectively:

• Work Scope

Agile focuses on agility—quick iterations, adaptability, and responding to change during software development. DevOps, on the other hand, covers end-to-end delivery with an added layer of automation, including infrastructure, operations, testing, and deployment.

• Focus Area

Agile teams prioritize speed and meeting tight deadlines. DevOps teams focus equally on speed and quality, ensuring that deployments are stable, secure, and efficient.

• Feedback Source

In Agile, feedback primarily comes from customers through demos, reviews, and iterations. In DevOps, feedback often comes from monitoring tools, system logs, and internal metrics, emphasizing continuous feedback throughout the lifecycle.

• Practices and Tools

Agile uses frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, and Lean. DevOps relies on practices like Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Infrastructure as Code, and Automated Testing.

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Best Practice Tip: When asking this question in an interview, look for answers that explain not just the definitions, but also how the two work together. Strong candidates should highlight how Agile can drive rapid development, while DevOps ensures reliable and repeatable delivery. A solid understanding of both is essential in today’s fast-paced tech environments.

What are the anti-patterns of DevOps?

Identifying DevOps anti-patterns is key to hiring candidates who really understand modern DevOps practices—not just the buzzwords. Ask candidates to explain these anti-patterns and how they’ve seen or avoided them in action.

Here are common DevOps anti-patterns your candidate should be aware of:

• Believing DevOps only works with the "right" people

Anti-pattern: Thinking DevOps only functions if your team is made up of elite engineers. Best practice: DevOps is more about collaboration and a culture of shared ownership—not about hiring rockstars only.

• Assuming DevOps = Agile

Anti-pattern: Treating DevOps as just an extension of Agile. Best practice: While related, they're not the same. Agile focuses on development cycles, DevOps bridges development and operations.

• Thinking DevOps is a team, not a mindset

Anti-pattern: Creating a separate DevOps team and thinking the job is done. Best practice: DevOps should be embedded into the team culture, not siloed.

• Putting tools before culture

Anti-pattern: Focusing only on automation tools without addressing team communication. Best practice: Tools support DevOps, but the foundation is collaboration, trust, and feedback.

• Belief that DevOps solves all problems

Anti-pattern: Expecting DevOps to fix project delays, bugs, and team conflicts overnight. Best practice: It’s a long-term shift in process, not a quick cure-all. Look for candidates who understand the gradual impact.

• Assuming "we’re too unique" for DevOps

Anti-pattern: Believing DevOps principles don’t apply because the business is ‘too different.’ Best practice: Every company can adopt DevOps in a way that fits their structure with the right mindset.

When screening candidates, listen for responses that go beyond theory. Strong candidates should demonstrate that they've seen these anti-patterns, know why they fail, and can offer better approaches. This shows real, hands-on DevOps experience—not just surface-level knowledge.

What are the benefits of using version control?

Using version control systems (VCS) like Git is essential for development teams managing code, content, or collaborative projects. It helps teams track changes, collaborate better, and maintain a clean version history.

Top benefits include:

• Collaboration without conflict: Everyone can work on the same files at once. The VCS merges updates, so team members don’t overwrite each other's work.

• Complete change history: It stores every version of your files and tracks what was changed, when, and by whom.

• Better backup and recovery: Mistakes happen. With VCS, you can roll back to previous versions if something breaks.

• Improved accountability: Each change includes a summary or commit message. This helps teams understand the why behind a change.

• Supports distributed teams: Systems like Git allow every team member to have a full local copy of the project history, making it ideal for remote or global teams.

Best practice tip: Ask candidates to explain not just what a version control system does, but how they've used it in real team environments. Look for examples that show both technical understanding and team collaboration experience.

This question helps evaluate a candidate’s experience with collaboration tools, problem-solving, and process discipline. A strong answer should go beyond definition and include practical use in real-world scenarios.

Describe the branching strategies you have used.

This question is great for evaluating a candidate’s practical experience with version control, especially in teams using Git. It helps you understand if they’ve really worked with collaborative coding environments or just have theoretical knowledge.

Look for answers that cover key branching models like:

• Feature branching – Each new feature is developed in its own branch, which keeps the main codebase stable.
• Task branching – Smaller, focused branches for specific tasks or bug fixes.
• Release branching – Creating a separate branch from the development branch for final testing and polishing before deployment.

Best practice: The candidate should be able to explain not just what types of branches they’ve used, but why they used them and how it helped maintain a clean workflow. Good responses usually include tools like Git, GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab, and describe how merging and pull requests were handled. That shows they’ve worked in a collaborative, real-world environment.

Can you explain the "Shift left to reduce failure" concept in DevOps?

The "Shift Left" concept in DevOps means moving tasks like testing, security checks, and code reviews to earlier stages of the development process. Instead of waiting until the deployment phase to catch bugs or security issues, teams check these things right from the design and development stages.

For example, instead of testing the application for vulnerabilities just before deployment, you shift left and start checking code for security issues during development. This helps catch errors early when they are cheaper and easier to fix.

By doing this:

• Teams reduce the risk of failure during production
• Speed up the delivery pipeline
• Improve quality and security
• Detect issues when they are easier to manage

Best practice: Integrate continuous testing, security scans, and code quality tools into the CI/CD pipeline from the start. This proactive approach helps build stronger, more reliable software.

Comment:

"Shift left" is all about catching issues early. Instead of waiting until the end of the pipeline, DevOps teams start validating code quality, performance, and security during development. This increases reliability and makes the whole process more efficient. It's a smart way to prevent failures before they even have a chance to happen.

What is the Blue/Green Deployment Pattern?

This is a deployment strategy commonly used in DevOps to reduce downtime and minimize risk during software updates. In a Blue/Green Deployment, two identical environments – called Blue (the current live version) and Green (the new version) – are set up. The idea is to deploy the new version to the Green environment, test it fully, and only then switch the traffic over from Blue to Green. If something goes wrong, it’s easy to switch back.

Why this matters when screening candidates:

You’re looking for candidates who understand how to update software with minimal impact to users. Ask them to explain how switching between environments works, and what rollback looks like. A strong candidate will mention:

• Risk-free deployment
• Zero-downtime transitions
• Quick rollback capability

Best practice tip:

Make sure the candidate talks about how they monitor both environments, and how they handle the cutover carefully. Candidates who’ve used this method in production settings are often more comfortable with modern DevOps methodologies.

What is Continuous Testing?

Continuous Testing is the process of running automated tests constantly throughout the software development lifecycle. Instead of waiting until the end of development, it tests code early and often to catch issues as soon as they appear. This approach gives fast feedback to developers and helps minimize bugs before they reach production.

It’s commonly used in DevOps and Agile environments where speed and quality go hand in hand. The goal is to reduce business risk by making sure every update or release is stable and functioning as expected.

Key things Continuous Testing involves:

• Automated tests run with every code change
• Integrates into the CI/CD pipeline
• Immediate feedback for developers
• Improves software quality and speed

Comment:

When screening candidates, this question helps evaluate their technical understanding and real-world experience in modern DevOps practices. A strong candidate should explain how Continuous Testing fits into a CI/CD pipeline, boosts team productivity, and reduces risks early in development. Look for answers that go beyond theory and touch on tools they’ve used or challenges they’ve faced. Best practice is to ask for examples of implementation or results gained.

What is Automation Testing?

Automation Testing is the process of using specialized software tools to run tests on an application automatically. Instead of manually checking each feature or function, automation testing uses scripts and tools to perform repetitive tasks faster and more accurately.

This type of testing helps catch bugs early, saves time on repeated test cases, and improves reliability in software delivery. It’s especially useful in projects that require frequent changes or have large-scale systems needing regular checks.

Common tools used in automation testing include:

• Selenium
• JUnit
• TestNG
• Cypress
• Appium

Best practice: Combine automation with manual testing to get the best of both worlds. Use automated tests for repetitive tasks, and manual testing for user experience checks and complex scenarios.

Comment:

Test automation, sometimes called manual testing automation, is all about reducing human effort in testing by scripting tasks that can run without interruption. It uses outside testing tools to create repeatable scripts—making sure your application works without needing someone watching over it every time.

What are the benefits of Automation Testing?

Automation Testing offers several clear benefits that make it a smart choice for modern software development teams:

• Saves time and cost: Automated tests can be run repeatedly at no extra cost and much faster than manual testing.
• Unattended execution: Once set up, tests can run on their own without any human supervision, even overnight.
• Supports large and complex test matrices: Automation tools can easily handle high volumes of tests across different browsers, devices, and environments.
• Enables parallel testing: Teams can run multiple tests at the same time, helping to speed up the development cycle.
• Improves accuracy: Reduces the chance of human error, resulting in more reliable and consistent testing outcomes.
• Efficient regression testing: Automates repetitive tasks, making it easier to test new features without breaking existing ones.

Comment:

When screening candidates for roles involving Automation Testing, ask them to clearly explain these benefits. Look for candidates who understand both the technical and business advantages. It's a good sign if they talk about time-saving, accuracy, and scalability. Candidates who mention real-world use cases and tools they've used show practical experience—always a plus.

How to automate Testing in the DevOps lifecycle?

Automating testing in the DevOps lifecycle is crucial for speed, consistency, and catching bugs early. To do it right, developers should commit all code changes into a shared source code repository, like GitHub or Bitbucket. Once committed, Continuous Integration (CI) tools like Jenkins detect these changes automatically.

From there, testing starts. Tools like Selenium, JUnit, or TestNG are triggered to run automated test scripts. These scripts simulate real-world scenarios to ensure everything works properly. The feedback loop is fast — developers quickly know if a build passes or fails, helping teams improve code continuously.

Best practice approach:

• Use CI tools to trigger automated tests on every commit.
• Include unit tests, integration tests, and UI tests in the pipeline.
• Use test reports and dashboards to monitor results in real time.

A solid automated testing setup ensures faster releases, better quality, and fewer surprises after deployment.

Comment: Developers are obliged to commit all source code changes to a shared DevOps repository. Every time a change is made in the code, Jenkins-like Continuous Integration tools will grab it from this common repository and deploy it for Continuous Testing, which is done by tools like Selenium.

Why is Continuous Testing important for DevOps?

Continuous Testing is a key part of a successful DevOps pipeline. It ensures that every code change is automatically and immediately tested, so issues are identified early—before they grow into bigger problems.

When teams rely on end-of-cycle or "big-bang" testing, they risk running into blockers like missed bugs, integration issues, or performance bottlenecks late in the game. This often leads to delays and lower-quality releases.

By integrating Continuous Testing into DevOps, you get:

• Faster feedback for developers
• Reduced risk of defects reaching production
• More frequent and reliable releases
• Higher overall product quality

Best practice: Test continuously at every stage—from unit tests to integration and acceptance tests. This keeps your pipeline clean and your releases stable.

Comment:

Continuous testing allows for immediate testing of any code modification. This prevents concerns like quality issues and release delays that might occur whenever big-bang testing is delayed until the end of the cycle. In this way, Continuous Testing allows for high-quality and more frequent releases.

What are the key elements of Continuous Testing tools?

To evaluate a candidate's understanding of Continuous Testing tools, ask them to explain the key elements involved. This kind of question reveals their technical knowledge, experience with automation, and ability to adapt to modern DevOps practices. Here's what to look for in a strong answer:

• Test Optimization – They should mention strategies that ensure tests are efficient, fast, and reliable. This includes removing redundant tests and prioritizing critical ones. Best practice: focus on creating tests that give fast feedback without sacrificing accuracy.

• Advanced Analysis – Strong candidates will explain how automation is used for analyzing test scope, impact of code changes, and static code quality. Look for insights into tools that predict where bugs might arise or how changes might affect existing features.

• Policy Analysis – The goal here is to confirm testing processes support the company’s strategic goals. Candidates should be able to explain how tools help align testing with ever-changing business requirements.

• Risk Assessment – They should understand how to evaluate and reduce risks using timely test coverage, flagging technical debt, and identifying weak spots. Look for mentions of risk-based testing approaches.

• Service Virtualization – A must-know aspect for testing complex systems. Candidates should explain how this enables testing of components that are incomplete or unavailable through mock services.

• Requirements Traceability – Ideal responses will include how testing tools tie directly back to business and system requirements to avoid rework and ensure completeness.

A good candidate should be able to touch on all or most of these areas, explaining their practical use and value in real-world test environments. Watch for vague or overly theoretical responses — practical know-how is what matters most here.

Explain the difference between a centralized and distributed version control system (VCS).

This is a strong technical question to ask when hiring for developer or DevOps roles. It helps you check if the candidate understands how code collaboration works—and more importantly, whether they’ve worked in environments that match your current tech setup.

Best Practice Tip: Use this question to not only test knowledge but also explore their real-world experience with tools like Git, SVN, or Mercurial.

A good candidate should give a clear comparison like this:

• Centralized VCS (e.g., SVN):
• All files and change history are stored on a central server.
• Developers must stay connected to the server to commit or update code.
• If the server goes down, the whole team may lose access or data.

• Distributed VCS (e.g., Git):
• Every developer has a full local copy of the entire codebase and its history.
• Developers can work offline, commit changes, even roll back on their own systems.
• There’s no single point of failure—if the central server crashes, backups exist on every developer's machine.

What to listen for: A solid answer should touch on reliability, collaboration, and autonomy. If a candidate has experience with Git, they’ll likely bring up terms like branching, merging, and offline work.

Red flag: If they can’t explain what happens when the central server crashes or how distributed systems support offline work, they might lack real hands-on experience.

What is the git command that downloads any repository from GitHub to your computer?

The git command that downloads any repository from GitHub to your computer is `git clone`.

Comment:

As a screening question, this is great for testing basic Git knowledge, especially if you're hiring developers, DevOps engineers, or technical roles that involve source code management. The best practice is to listen for clarity and confidence. The ideal candidate should say something like:

• "You use `git clone` followed by the repository URL. For example: `git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git`."

This shows they understand both the command and its usage in a real-world context. If a candidate fumbles this, it suggests they may lack hands-on experience with Git—something to keep in mind depending on the role's requirements.

How do you push a file from your local system to the GitHub repository using Git?

This question evaluates a candidate’s basic understanding of Git, which is a must-have skill for many technical roles like developers or DevOps engineers.

A strong answer should cover these key steps:

1. Initialize the Git repository (if not done yet): `git init`

2. Stage the file(s) for commit: `git add .` or `git add `

3. Commit with a message: `git commit -m "Your commit message"`

4. Connect the local repo to the GitHub repo: `git remote add origin https://github.com/your-username/repo-name.git`

5. Push the commit to GitHub (usually to master or main branch): `git push origin master` or `git push origin main` (depending on the default branch)

What to look for in a good response:

• The candidate should mention connecting the local repo to the remote using `git remote add origin...`.
• They should understand the order of operations: add → commit → push.
• Bonus points if they mention branch handling or using `git status` or `git log` for tracking changes.

Best practice tip: Many developers work on the `main` branch today instead of `master`. A candidate who's aware of this shows current Git knowledge.

How is a bare repository different from the standard way of initializing a Git repository?

This is a great technical screening question if you're hiring developers, DevOps engineers, or anyone expected to use Git in their workflow. It tests both practical knowledge and an understanding of Git's structure.

Standard method (git init):

• Creates a working directory with an actual file structure for developers to edit and test code.
• The Git metadata lives inside a hidden `.git/` folder.
• Used by developers locally for day-to-day development.

Bare repository (git init --bare):

• No working directory or actual files; it's just the contents of the `.git/` folder at the root.
• This type of repo can't be used to edit or test code directly.
• Best practice is to use bare repositories for shared remote locations — like on a Git server — since they serve as collaboration points for pushing/pulling code.

How to evaluate answers: Look for candidates who can explain both types and when to use each one. An ideal response will mention that bare repositories are used as central repositories (often on servers) and that you can’t make changes or run the project from a bare repo. That shows they understand the difference and its practical usage.

💡 Remaining 472 questions...

The online article only includes the first 30 questions to keep it digestible, but we’ve put together an ebook for you with all the questions we gathered through our extensive research.

Download E-Book here 👉

Real-World Success Stories: How Top Companies Handle DevOps Interview Questions

When it comes to understanding the impact of effective devops interview questions, looking at real-world success stories can provide valuable insights. Let's explore how some of the world's largest tech companies have leveraged DevOps practices and what this means for their hiring processes.

Facebook serves as an excellent example of DevOps excellence in action. With over 2 billion users worldwide, Facebook has successfully implemented continuous deployment and code ownership models that have helped them scale up while maintaining quality of experience. Their ability to deploy hundreds of lines of code without affecting quality, stability, and security demonstrates the kind of expertise that effective devops interview questions should identify. Facebook even migrated its infrastructure and backend IT to the Chef platform, showcasing their commitment to automation and efficiency.

Netflix, another DevOps success story, streams online content to more than 100 million users worldwide through fully automated processes and systems. Their approach mirrors Facebook's dedication to continuous delivery and automation - exactly the kind of experience that well-crafted devops interview questions should help identify in candidates.

Multi-national companies like Amazon, Google, and Etsy have adopted DevOps methodology, resulting in performance levels that were previously uncharted.

These organizations demonstrate how DevOps can help achieve:

• Higher success rates for releases
• Reduced lead time between bug fixes
• Streamlined continuous delivery through automation
• Reduced manpower costs overall

Expert Insights on DevOps Hiring

Industry experts have shared valuable perspectives on what makes effective devops interview questions and candidate evaluation:

Sara Willett, who runs a chunk of the DevOps team at MasterCard, has found success growing 'lazy engineers' into great DevOps hires. She looks for engineers who don't like doing the same task twice so they automate it, want to figure out how to use new tools to make their jobs easier, and aren't afraid to dig in and learn.

Kevin Allen, senior DevSecOps engineer at Nexient, emphasizes: "As with other coding interviews, the general goal is for the interviewee to demonstrate their technical approach and communication skills when presented with a new problem." Allen recommends ensuring candidates understand important coding concepts like breaking code into testable units, time complexity, and edge cases.

Zeeshan Arif, founder and CEO at Whizpool, stresses the importance of having "a good understanding of the role and what it entails." His interview questions often center around how candidates have handled team morale issues when working with software development teams and how they maintain open communication between developers, product managers, and non-technical stakeholders.

Why Video Screening Software is Revolutionizing DevOps Recruitment

The recruitment community is increasingly adopting video screening software for several compelling reasons, especially when it comes to evaluating candidates through devops interview questions:

Time Efficiency: Traditional in-person interviews can be time-consuming and difficult to coordinate across different time zones. Video screening allows recruiters to review candidate responses at their convenience while maintaining the personal touch of face-to-face interaction.

Consistency: Video screening ensures that all candidates receive the same devops interview questions and evaluation criteria, creating a fair and standardized assessment process that reduces bias and improves hiring quality.

Technical Assessment: For DevOps roles, video screening can effectively evaluate both technical knowledge and communication skills - two critical components for success in collaborative development environments.

Cost Reduction: By filtering candidates through initial video screenings, companies can significantly reduce the costs associated with multiple rounds of in-person interviews while still identifying top talent.

Global Reach: Video screening removes geographical barriers, allowing companies to tap into a global pool of DevOps talent without the logistical challenges of international interviews.

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