Here are 50 multiple-choice interview questions for a DevOps Engineer position.
These questions can serve as a preparation kit or a quick refresher before you appear in a DevOps Engineer interview.
(Refer the answer key at the end)
- What is the main goal of DevOps?
a) Faster software development
b) Lowering server costs
c) Increasing the number of developers
d) Eliminating the need for testing - What does CI/CD stand for in the context of DevOps?
a) Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery
b) Centralized Integration/Continuous Deployment
c) Complete Integration/Continuous Debugging
d) Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment - Which version control system is commonly used in DevOps for source code management?
a) SVN
b) Git
c) Mercurial
d) TFS - What is the primary purpose of containerization in DevOps?
a) To reduce the need for documentation
b) To isolate and package applications and their dependencies
c) To increase network latency
d) To simplify the DevOps toolchain - Which tool is used for container orchestration in DevOps?
a) Docker
b) Jenkins
c) Kubernetes
d) Ansible - What is the practice of treating infrastructure as code (IaC) in DevOps?
a) Ignoring infrastructure management
b) Treating infrastructure as a physical asset
c) Managing infrastructure using scripts and code
d) Outsourcing infrastructure to third-party providers - What is the main role of a configuration management tool in DevOps?
a) Managing application code
b) Monitoring server performance
c) Automating and controlling infrastructure configurations
d) Creating user documentation - Which metric is used to measure the lead time for changes in a DevOps pipeline?
a) Code quality
b) Uptime
c) Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
d) Lead Time for Changes - What is a “build artifact” in DevOps?
a) The source code of an application
b) A container image
c) A software component
d) A document - What is the purpose of automated testing in the DevOps pipeline?
a) To slow down development
b) To find and fix bugs early in the development process
c) To eliminate the need for manual testing
d) To increase the cost of development - Which tool is commonly used for continuous integration in DevOps?
a) Puppet
b) Terraform
c) Jenkins
d) JIRA - What is the role of monitoring and alerting in a DevOps environment?
a) To replace manual testing
b) To send notifications to developers when an issue occurs
c) To reduce the need for incident response
d) To slow down the development process - What is the term for the practice of introducing small, frequent code changes into the production environment?
a) Big Bang Deployment
b) Rolling Deployment
c) Blue-Green Deployment
d) Continuous Deployment - In a DevOps context, what is “infrastructure provisioning”?
a) Generating log files
b) Automatically configuring servers and resources
c) Debugging application code
d) Managing software licenses - Which practice aims to ensure that systems can be easily reproduced and scaled in a DevOps environment?
a) Continuous Integration
b) Continuous Deployment
c) Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
d) Continuous Monitoring - What is the primary goal of continuous feedback in a DevOps pipeline?
a) To eliminate the need for automated testing
b) To accelerate the development process
c) To provide information for continuous improvement
d) To replace version control systems - What is the role of a “repository” in version control systems like Git?
a) Storing user passwords
b) Tracking changes to source code files
c) Managing server configurations
d) Running automated tests - What is the primary function of a container image registry in DevOps?
a) Managing database connections
b) Storing and distributing container images
c) Handling user authentication
d) Automating deployment - Which practice involves making small, reversible changes to the production environment to test new features or configurations?
a) Continuous Integration
b) Continuous Deployment
c) Feature Toggling
d) Infrastructure as Code - What is the primary goal of “shift-left testing” in a DevOps pipeline?
a) To delay testing until after deployment
b) To test only the front-end of an application
c) To involve testing earlier in the development process
d) To test only the back-end of an application - What is the purpose of “blue-green deployment” in a DevOps environment?
a) To increase network latency
b) To replace physical servers
c) To provide a quick rollback mechanism
d) To ensure that only blue-themed applications are deployed - Which DevOps practice aims to automate the provisioning and management of infrastructure resources?
a) Continuous Integration
b) Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
c) Continuous Delivery
d) Feature Toggling - In a DevOps pipeline, what is the role of a “proxy server”?
a) To slow down network traffic
b) To manage user authentication
c) To act as an intermediary for requests to external services
d) To handle database connections - What is the primary purpose of “continuous monitoring” in a DevOps environment?
a) To stop monitoring after deployment
b) To replace automated testing
c) To identify issues and ensure system health
d) To eliminate the need for feedback - What is the key advantage of using version control for managing infrastructure as code (IaC) in DevOps?
a) It simplifies the development process
b) It allows infrastructure to be treated as code and versioned
c) It reduces the need for automated testing
d) It replaces configuration management tools - In a DevOps context, what does “scalability” refer to?
a) The ability of developers to write code quickly
b) The ability of an application to handle increased workloads or users
c) The speed of the deployment process
d) The ability to eliminate infrastructure costs - What is the primary goal of a “chaos engineering” practice in DevOps?
a) To introduce chaos into the production environment
b) To replace automated testing
c) To test the resilience of a system by introducing controlled failures
d) To eliminate the need for version control - In the context of DevOps, what is “log aggregation”?
a) The practice of generating log files
b) The process of analyzing log files
c) The consolidation of log data from multiple sources
d) The elimination of log data - Which term refers to the practice of limiting the number of work-in-progress items in a DevOps pipeline to improve efficiency?
a) Continuous Delivery
b) Feature Toggling
c) Continuous Integration
d) Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limit - What is the main benefit of “continuous improvement” in DevOps?
a) To replace automated testing
b) To slow down the development process
c) To accelerate the development process
d) To identify areas for improvement and make incremental changes - What is the purpose of “immutable infrastructure” in DevOps?
a) To continuously change the infrastructure configuration
b) To eliminate the need for infrastructure
c) To create infrastructure that cannot be modified after deployment
d) To increase infrastructure costs - What does “IaC” stand for in the context of DevOps?
a) Individual as Code
b) Infrastructure as Code
c) Isolation and Configuration
d) Integration and Collaboration - What is the role of “artifact repositories” in a DevOps pipeline?
a) Storing only source code
b) Storing only binary files
c) Storing and managing various artifacts, such as build outputs and dependencies
d) Storing user documentation - What is the main benefit of “continuous security” practices in DevOps?
a) To eliminate the need for testing
b) To delay the deployment process
c) To integrate security measures throughout the DevOps pipeline
d) To replace version control systems - What is the primary purpose of “continuous integration” in a DevOps pipeline?
a) To deploy code to production continuously
b) To merge code changes from multiple developers frequently
c) To prevent code changes
d) To replace the need for a repository - In the context of DevOps, what does “CD” stand for in “CI/CD”?
a) Continuous Deployment
b) Centralized Development
c) Continuous Debugging
d) Continuous Documentation - What is the practice of “blue-green deployment” in DevOps?
a) Deploying code without testing
b) Deploying code to only one server
c) Simultaneously deploying two identical environments and switching traffic
d) Deploying code with a blue-themed user interface - What is the primary benefit of “containerization” in DevOps?
a) Increasing the complexity of applications
b) Reducing the need for virtual machines
c) Isolating applications and their dependencies
d) Eliminating the need for monitoring - What is “shift-right testing” in DevOps?
a) Testing only the front-end of an application
b) Testing only the back-end of an application
c) Performing testing in the production environment
d) Delaying testing until after deployment - What is the role of “chaos engineering” in a DevOps environment?
a) Introducing chaos into production without control
b) Replacing automated testing
c) Testing the system’s resilience by introducing controlled failures
d) Eliminating the need for monitoring - What is the primary goal of “work-in-progress (WIP) limits” in a DevOps pipeline?
a) To maximize the number of concurrent tasks
b) To eliminate all work in progress
c) To limit the number of tasks in progress to improve efficiency
d) To eliminate the need for a repository - In a DevOps context, what is “serverless computing”?
a) A server configuration management tool
b) A practice of not using servers
c) A cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages servers
d) A method for configuring servers manually - What does “SRE” stand for in the context of DevOps and site reliability?
a) Software Requirement Engineer
b) System Reliability Engineer
c) Site Response Efficiency
d) Security and Risk Evaluation - What is the role of “incident management” in a DevOps environment?
a) To create incidents intentionally
b) To replace automated testing
c) To respond to and resolve incidents quickly and efficiently
d) To eliminate the need for version control - What is the primary goal of “feature flags” in a DevOps pipeline?
a) To increase development speed
b) To replace automated testing
c) To enable or disable specific features in an application at runtime
d) To delay the deployment process - What is the term for the practice of automatically deploying code to a production environment as soon as it passes automated tests?
a) Continuous Integration
b) Continuous Delivery
c) Continuous Deployment
d) Continuous Debugging - What is the main benefit of “infrastructure as code” (IaC) in DevOps?
a) To increase infrastructure costs
b) To eliminate infrastructure management
c) To automate and version infrastructure configurations
d) To slow down the development process - What is the purpose of “log shipping” in DevOps?
a) Transporting physical logs between data centers
b) Consolidating logs from various sources into a central repository
c) Replacing log data with new data
d) Eliminating log data entirely - What is the practice of “canary deployment” in DevOps?
a) Releasing code without testing
b) Simultaneously deploying two identical environments and routing a subset of traffic to the new version
c) Deploying code with a canary-themed user interface
d) Using only one server for deployment - In a DevOps context, what is the main role of “automation”?
a) To make the development process more complex
b) To increase manual work
c) To reduce errors, accelerate processes, and improve efficiency
d) To eliminate the need for version control systems
Answer Key:
- a) Faster software development
- a) Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery
- b) Git
- b) To isolate and package applications and their dependencies
- c) Kubernetes
- c) Managing infrastructure using scripts and code
- c) Automating and controlling infrastructure configurations
- d) Lead Time for Changes
- b) A container image
- b) To find and fix bugs early in the development process
- c) Jenkins
- b) To send notifications to developers when an issue occurs
- d) Continuous Deployment
- b) Automatically configuring servers and resources
- c) Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- c) To provide information for continuous improvement
- b) Tracking changes to source code files
- b) Storing and distributing container images
- c) Feature Toggling
- c) To involve testing earlier in the development process
- c) To provide a quick rollback mechanism
- b) Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- c) To act as an intermediary for requests to external services
- c) To identify issues and ensure system health
- b) It allows infrastructure to be treated as code and versioned
- b) The ability of an application to handle increased workloads or users
- c) To test the resilience of a system by introducing controlled failures
- c) The consolidation of log data from multiple sources
- d) Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limit
- d) To identify areas for improvement and make incremental changes
- c) To create infrastructure that cannot be modified after deployment
- b) Infrastructure as Code
- c) Storing and managing various artifacts, such as build outputs and dependencies
- c) To integrate security measures throughout the DevOps pipeline
- b) To merge code changes from multiple developers frequently
- a) Continuous Deployment
- c) Simultaneously deploying two identical environments and switching traffic
- c) Isolating applications and their dependencies
- c) Performing testing in the production environment
- c) Testing the system’s resilience by introducing controlled failures
- d) Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limit
- c) A cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages servers
- b) System Reliability Engineer
- c) To respond to and resolve incidents quickly and efficiently
- c) To enable or disable specific features in an application at runtime
- c) Continuous Deployment
- c) To automate and version infrastructure configurations
- b) Consolidating logs from various sources into a central repository
- b) Simultaneously deploying two identical environments and routing a subset of traffic to the new version
- c) To reduce errors, accelerate processes, and improve efficiency