Although it is much more than hype, DevOps is one of the hottest phrases in technology right now. In order to provide a product more quickly and effectively, the development and operations teams collaborate. DevOps engineer job listings have significantly increased during the last few years. Multiple open openings for DevOps engineer Experts are routinely available at multinational corporations like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Although the employment market is extremely competitive, a DevOps engineer interview might cover a wide range of difficult topics.
If you've begun to train for development and operations responsibilities in the IT sector, you are aware that it is a difficult field that will require serious training to break into. Here are some of the most typical DevOps interview questions and responses for 2024 to guide you as you get ready to apply for DevOps positions in the business.
Your response must be clear-cut and easy to understand. Start by describing how DevOps is becoming more and more crucial in the IT sector. In order to accelerate the delivery of software products with a low failure rate, explain how such a strategy tries to synchronise the efforts of the development and operations teams. Include a description of how DevOps is a practise that adds value in which development and operations engineers collaborate throughout the lifespan of a product or service, from the point of design to the point of deployment.
This response, in my opinion, need to begin by outlining the broad market trend. Companies are attempting to determine whether tiny features may be delivered to their customers through a succession of release trains rather than delivering large sets of features. This provides several benefits, such as quick customer feedback, higher software quality, etc., which ultimately results in great customer satisfaction. In order to do this, businesses must:
Increase the number of deployments
fewer new releases fail than they did
lowered the gap between fixes
DevOps, which also helps with the uninterrupted supply of software, fulfils all of these requirements. You may cite examples of businesses using DevOps to attain levels of performance that were unimaginable even five years ago, such as Etsy, Google, and Amazon. They are deploying tens, hundreds, or even thousands of lines of code per day while maintaining the highest levels of security, reliability, and stability.
You should understand the distinction between Agile and DevOps if I had to test your understanding of DevOps. The following query focuses on that.
Secure Shell, or SSH, is a command-line administrative protocol that enables users to connect to and manage remote servers over the Internet.
The previously popular and insecure Telnet has been replaced with the secure and encrypted SSH protocol. By doing this, it was made sure that the communication with
the remote server is encrypted.
SSH also offers a means for transmitting output back to the client, input communication between the client and host, and remote user authentication.
Culture, Automation, Measurement, and Sharing is referred to as CAMS. It stands for the fundamental actions of DevOps.
Agile is a set of values and guidelines for creating things, such as software. As an illustration, you can apply the Agile values and principles to transform your creative ideas into functional software. However, it's possible that the software is only functional on a developer's laptop or in a test environment. You need a method for rapidly, simply, and repeatedly integrating the software into the infrastructure used for production. You'll need DevOps tools and methods to accomplish it.
The following are the different stages of the DevOps lifecycle:
Plan - Prior to beginning, a sort of application development project should have a plan in place. It's always wise to get a general idea of the development process.
Application code has been written to meet the needs of the end user.
Build - Create the programme by combining the numerous codes that were created in the earlier steps.
The most important stage of developing an application is the test. If required, test the programme and recompile it.
Integrate: To combine several programmes' codes into a single one.
Deploy - To be used later, code is placed into a cloud environment. It is made sure that any fresh adjustments won't interfere with a popular website's functionality.
Operate - If necessary, operations are carried out on the code.
Performance of the application is being watched. To adapt to end-user needs, changes are made.
Configuration management (CM) is essentially the technique of handling changes systematically so as to maintain the integrity of the system over time. This
calls for specific guidelines, methods, approaches, and tools for assessing, managing, and tracking the progress of change proposals as well as maintaining the necessary records.
CM assists in giving administrative and technical guidance for the appreciation's design and development.
Configuration management (CM) assists the team in automating time-consuming and monotonous tasks, improving the performance and agility of the organisation.
Through the use of methods like design streamlining, thorough documenting, control, and change implementation during multiple project phases/releases, it also aids in bringing
uniformity and optimising the product development process.
You might utilise your prior experience to support your response by describing how DevOps aided you in your previous position. If you lack this experience,
you can mention the benefits listed below.
Tech Benefits
distribution of software continuously
simpler issues to solve
faster problem resolution
Business benefits
faster feature delivery
more reliable working conditions
Having more time to innovate (rather than fix/maintain)
As soon as they finish working on a feature, developers must integrate their code into a shared repository using the continuous integration (CI) practise. Each integration is checked using an automated build process, which enables teams to identify issues with their code much earlier than after the release.
It has been discovered that by implementing Continuous Integration for both development and testing, the software quality has increased and the time required to deliver the features of the product has significantly decreased. Due to the automatic building and testing of every contribution to the shared repository, the development team is also able to identify and correct mistakes at the earliest stage of unit and integration testing.
Continuous Testing (CT) is the DevOps phase that entails running automated test cases as a component of an automated software delivery pipeline with the sole purpose of receiving immediate feedback regarding the quality and validation of business risks connected with the automated build of code developed by the developers.
By using this phase, the team will be able to test every build constantly (as soon as the created code is pushed), allowing the development teams the chance to receive immediate feedback on their work and preventing these issues from cropping up later in the SDLC cycle.
The essential elements of DevOps are as follows:
Continuous Integration
Continuous Delivery
Microservices
Infrastructure as Code
Monitoring and Logging
Communication and Collaboration
A DevOps toolchain is a collection of tools that automates processes like application development and deployment. DevOps may be carried out manually with a few easy steps, but as it becomes more sophisticated, the demand for automation quickly rises, and toolchain automation is crucial for continuous delivery. The main part of a DevOps toolchain is GitHub, a version control repository. Additional tools can include delivery pipelines, backlog tracking, etc.
AWS facilitates crucial services that are created to be used in conjunction with AWS and that assist you in implementing DevOps at your business. These services enable teams manage complicated infrastructures at scale, automate tedious tasks, and protect engineers from the high velocity created by DevOps.
A pattern is something that several different entities frequently do in large groups. A pattern turns into an anti-pattern when it is followed by an organisation merely because it is followed by others, without taking into account the needs of the organisation. Similar to this, there are several DevOps fallacies that can lead to antipatterns, including the following:
DevOps is a method, not a way of life.
Nothing but Agile is DevOps.
A distinct DevOps group should exist.
Every issue is resolved via DevOps.
Developers managing a production environment is what is meant by "DevOps."
Development-driven management is used by DevOps.
Development is not a big part of DevOps.
We are a unique company that doesn't do things the way everyone else does, thus we won't use DevOps.
Software tools known as version control systems track changes to the code and incorporate those changes into the existing code. These kinds of technologies are useful in integrating new code easily without interfering with the work of other team members because the developer constantly makes modifications to the code. In addition to integration, it will test the new code to prevent issues from being introduced.
The three main types of version control systems are as follows:
Systems for Local Version Control
Systems for centralised version control
Systems for Distributed Version Control
The following are the main advantages of using a version control system:
Every file's whole long-term alteration history is accessible.
Through branching, all previous versions and variants are maintained separate from one another inside the VCS. When necessary, you can merge back with the file's
content to check the modifications.
The technique of branching is used to isolate code. Simply put, it duplicates the source code to produce two copies that are independently produced. There are numerous branching options available. As a result, the DevOps team must decide based on the needs of the application. A branching strategy is the name for this option.
Continuous Delivery is a method that produces high-quality software quickly and consistently with little manual labour required. It uses continuous integration, automated testing,
and automated deployment capabilities.
Continuous Deployment is a procedure that deploys approved modifications to the architecture or software code without human intervention as soon as they are ready.
Component-Based Development is known as CBD. This method of approaching product creation is different. Developers can avoid having to start from scratch by continuing to hunt for well-defined, tested, and verified existing code components.
Software resilience testing examines how an application will behave under chaotic and uncontrolled situations. Additionally, it makes sure that after a failure, the data and functionality are not destroyed.
In general, a pipeline is a series of automated tasks or processes that the software engineering team has created and is using. DevOps pipeline is a pipeline that enables the software developers and DevOps engineers to quickly and easily compile, build, and deploy the software code to production settings.
Following is the flow:
Developing a functionality is the focus of the developer.
Code is deployed by the developer to the testing environment.
The feature is being validated by testers. The business team might also step in and offer criticism.
Developers continuously collaborate on test results and business feedback.
The code is then put into production after another validation.
When new apps or modifications to existing applications are found, the auto-deployment capability is employed to dynamically deploy them.
For servers operating in development mode, it is enabled.
One of the procedures for putting servers in production mode should be used to disable the auto-deployment feature:
Click the domain name in the left pane of the Administration Console, and then in the right pane, tick the Production Mode box.
When launching the domain's Administration Server, add the following parameter to the command line:
-Dweblogic.ProductionModeEnabled=true
Post-mortem meetings are scheduled to talk about what went wrong when adopting the DevOps technique. The team must determine the actions that must be made during this meeting in order to prevent the failure(s) in the future.
Sudo stands for "superuser do," with the root user of Linux serving as the superuser. This software allows users with superuser privileges to execute specific system commands at the root level on Linux/Unix-based systems.
A blue-green pattern is a kind of continuous deployment, application release methodology that concentrates on gradually moving user traffic from a previously functional version of the programme or service to an almost identical new release—both versions running on production.
The blue environment would represent the old version of the application, and the green environment would represent the current version.
Once the production traffic has been completely migrated from the blue to the green environments, the blue environments are maintained on hold in case a rollback is required.
The practise of tying together an application and the environment it needs is known as containerization. Any computational environment can run the application thanks to binding.
The primary objective of DevOps is to eliminate the divide between the operations and development teams. Both sides should be forced to operate in the same setting in order to
bridge the gap between them. Containerization facilitates the speedy creation of identical environments and facilitates simple access to operating system resources. Containerization
in DevOps is frequently implemented using the Docker tool.
They offer a more efficient means of developing, testing, deploying, and redeploying applications across many environments.
Here are some advantages of containers:
reduced overhead,
increased output
more reliable performance
more effective application deployment
higher effectiveness
The essentials of continuous testing are:
Test optimization ensures that experiments yield accurate findings and useful data. Examples of elements include test data management, test optimization management, and test maintenance.
Advanced Analysis - It uses automation in areas like scope assessment/prioritization, changes effect analysis, and static code analysis in order to prevent issues from arising
in the first place and to accomplish more during each cycle.
Policy analysis ensures that all procedures are in line with the organization's shifting operational needs and that all legal obligations are upheld.
Risk assessment - To ensure that the build is prepared to go to the next stage, test coverage optimization, technical debt, risk mitigation responsibilities, and quality review are all covered.
Service virtualization: Assures the availability of real-world testing situations. Service visualisation ensures its availability and cuts down on the time needed to set up the test
environment by giving access to a virtual representation of the necessary testing phases.
Requirements Traceability – It ensures that genuine criteria are met and that no additional work is required. An object assessment is used to identify the needs that need more
validation, are at risk, and are operating as planned.
The configuration information for each Puppet Node or Puppet Agent is stored in the Puppet Master in the native Puppet language. These details are known as puppet manifests and are expressed in a language the puppet can comprehend. These manifests have the.pp file extension and are written in Puppet code. For instance, we can use the Puppet Master to generate a manifest that instals Apache and creates a file on every Puppet Agent or slave that is linked to the Puppet Master.
For Unix/Linux-based systems, Sudo is a tool that enables the ability to grant specific users access to particular system commands at the root level. It stands for "superuser do," where "super user" refers to the "root user."
The process of searching the log data is made easier by Nagios Log Server. The ideal option for tasks like setting up alarms, alerting when potential dangers appear, easily querying the log data, and swiftly auditing any system is Nagios Log Server. We can get all of our log data in one place with high availability using Nagios Log Server.
Scrum is utilised to employ iterations and increasing processes to break down complex software and product development tasks into smaller pieces. There are three roles in Scrum, including:
Product owner
Scrum master
Team
Any organisation that adopts the DevOps pipeline primarily uses open source technologies because DevOps was founded with the goal of automating multiple organisation build, release, change management, and infrastructure management domains.
In order to make sure that each node has access to the correct data, SSL certificates are necessary between the client and the Chef server. The public key pair of each node is kept on the Chef server at the time an SSL certificate is given to the server. The server then grants access to the necessary data after comparing this against the node's public key for identification.
A general-purpose distributed memory caching system is Memcached. It is a solution that is free and open-source that aids in improving response times for data that would otherwise need to be recovered or built from another source or database.
Memcache aids in:
accelerate the application process
Decide what you should and shouldn't store.
Reduce the amount of database retrieval requests.
reduces access to I/O (Input/Output) (hard disk)
Memcache - It lowers database load in dynamic web applications and gives users access to convenient procedural and object-oriented interfaces.
Memcached - It makes use of the libmemcached library to offer an API for interacting with Memcached servers. The newest API is what reduces database load.