We don't require live-coding during our interviews, primarily because we're not software developers, and they're intimidating for people being interviewed. We offer candidates an option of live-coding interview if they want it, or a take-home assignment instead which most people take. We need some way to know that people applying can do what they're talking about (i.e. they have practical knowledge not just theoretical knowledge), so that's why some form of coding is required during the interview process. Our take-home / live coding is generally terraform / ansible / bash, maybe some minimal python. On my team, most engineers can't write well-optimized python code, since they have an IT background (not a CS background) and didn't learn things like time and space complexity, multithreading / multiprocessing and advanced data structures. It's going to depend on where you work if you need more than just basic python knowledge to land a job, depending generally on how much automation your team needs to write. I do most of the python automation on our team since I have both IT and programming background, and we don't have enough automation workload that multiple engineers are required. We would rather have additional engineers that can do more common tasks for our org, such as advanced networking, kubernetes, etc. Not every engineer is going to know everything. More on reddit.com

Yes, coding is often asked in DevOps interviews, though it may not be as intense as in traditional software development roles. The coding questions are typically aimed at testing your ability to automate tasks, write scripts, and solve problems efficiently. More on designgurus.io

Knowing how to use Linux and writing Bash scripts is pretty important. Also writing CI/CD automations in something like Jenkins / GitHub Actions / CircleCI etc... More on reddit.com

We do a 3-part tech segment that spans 2h max. It consists of: Architecture discussion: describe a stack or app you have experience with, explain network routes and deployment. Looking for some understanding of security practices, DNS, OSI model, and knowledge of how and where things can be scaled in any direction. Good candidates often naturally start drawing diagrams. Live troubleshooting in a broken app, either Terraform or Docker or a K8s cluster depending on the role. Looking for understanding of how scheduling and labels and annotations work, ability to navigate the CLI, ability to probe granular pieces (curl container/service/ingress) and knowledge of where to find logs when things crash. Programming: not leetcode, but write in any language a very basic script (with some goal/task) that involves loops and conditionals. The candidates that struggle the most are those that get locked into their own heads. This interview isn't just about being technically competent - it's also about the candidates ability to communicate and ask questions, and for the interviewers to get a sense of what the candidate might be like to work with. Asking questions or admitting that you don't know something isn't a fail - it's acknowledgement of a boundary and a demonstration that you won't spin your wheels in silence. This role requires people to learn on their feet, and we look for that from day 0. More on reddit.com