Guys hi,
We will be adding DevOps person to our small team. What are some good questions/code challenges we can ask to weed out bad candidates?
Task Details:
We will need to develop set-up similar to one described here, but using Deployer instead of Capsitrano.
Ideally to add deployer into this docker-image we already using and which have lots of useful tools preinstalled.
p.s. Something simple but on the point, for example this simple CSS question
What is the difference between following CSS lines
T1 T2 {};
T1, T2 {};
T1 > T2 {};
T1 + T2 {};
Helped weed out lots of so called front end gurus. Something similar for DevOps.
IMPORTANT: The example question is not for DevOps candidate - it's just a sample of what we use to ask FE candidates. So looking for suggestion for something similar for DevOps.
UPDATE1: Since linux knowledge is important for out task i think it's good idea to include couple of questions from here.
UPDATE2: Thank you guys for all your great suggestions. Lots of you mentioned importance of open ended / big picture questions.
I've just searches passed similar threads on the topic and gathered some good ones:
Tell me about a time when you saved your production environment. How did you identify the problem? How did you fix the problem? What did you do to make sure it didn't reoccur?
.
What's the worst clusterfuck of a project you ever worked on? Was it a success or failure? What part did you play? Where did it all go wrong? How would you do it all over again?
.
Diagram the system you currently run. Do you have any criticism of the architecture you just outlined?
Also i really liked that one
That's actually how we conduct (a large part) our interview. We draw up a basic lamp stack from the early 2000's and then ask them to draw and discuss how they would scale it to modern days standards. We ask them to talk about various pieces and parts along the way, why they chose this over that, how are they securing things, important metrics, etc. There's no PASS/FAIL here, just a sense of how proficient someone is. I've found this approach VASTLY superior then launching a bunch of various textbook linux questions/scenarios at them.
I wonder what is good reply to that " basic lamp stack from the early 2000's" question?
Your statement of request from candidate seems very direct. You're targeting very specific techs/paradigms that are specific to your environment. You'll be limiting your search and frankly causing yourself issues. You need to interview for ability to adapt and learn. You need to learn to find people who can easily move between technologies and understand the underlying concepts, not specifics.
I fail half our initial phone calls based on one question:
send me a public ssh key.
FFS I’m still amazed at the number of applicants that can’t do that much.
How would you prepare for this DevOps Technical Interview (Coding test)?
Looking for a good devops interview test
Videos
I'm currently on my 2nd interview for a Sr. DevOps role at a startup company and I'm struggling with how to properly interpret this next step in the process.
The in-house recruiter scheduled me for a 45 minute "coding screen", which to me would imply solving some basic algorithms with the language of my choice. Pretty standard right? However when I asked him to clarify what kind of coding test it would be, he replied "you'll be doing basic file system navigation/manipulation. Please use Bash or an alternative shell for this interview." So I'm guessing instead that this is more of a practical focused on Linux OS commands. Things like changing file permissions, creating links, etc. Do you think I'm interpreting this correctly?
For my current role (DevOps Engineer), I had to do an AWS practical AND a coding test similar to how I mentioned earlier. I'm a little surprised that neither of these would be covered, which is why I was hoping for a 2nd opinion? I'm guess that since this is a startup, maybe they don't quite know how to interview for this kind of role yet?
Currently starting to look for some devops talent to join a small team, I'm a senior platform engineer with more roots in full stack development (infrastructure to front end). I'm looking for an interview test that covers kubernetes, a CI/CD tool, and a web project. Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks!
Edit -- Looking more for a test of skills. Think about a programming problem where you have to write the solution, build it, and run. Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!