Intermediate DevOps Interview Questions
322 questions
Why does Ansible's --check mode skip most command/shell tasks by default, and what does that imply about how much you can actually trust --check --diff output?
IntermediateAnsible6 min
What's the risk of a task using check_mode: false to force it to always execute, even during a supposed dry run?
IntermediateAnsible6 min
How would you convince a team to invest time in an idempotency retrofit when the playbook "already works"?
IntermediateAnsible6 min
An Ansible playbook reports "changed" on the same tasks every single run, even when nothing about the target host actually changed. Why, and how do you fix it?
IntermediateAnsible8 min
What signals would tell you an Ansible shell task is safe to leave alone versus genuinely needs fixing?
IntermediateAnsible6 min
How would you clean up old, hash-named Argo CD migration Jobs so they don't accumulate indefinitely in the cluster?
IntermediateArgo CDKubernetes6 min
What would go wrong if you used content-hash naming for an Argo CD Job that's meant to run on every sync instead?
IntermediateArgo CDKubernetes6 min
If an Argo CD PreSync hook Job fails, does Argo CD retry it automatically? How would you make that retry behavior explicit instead of relying on defaults?
IntermediateArgo CDKubernetes6 min
How does Argo CD's syncPolicy.retry backoff configuration work, and how would you tune it for a slow-starting dependency?
IntermediateArgo CD6 min
How would you make the case for the cost of a separate AWS account, if leadership pushes back on the added complexity?
IntermediateAWS6 min
How does the approach to workload identity and least privilege differ if a workload runs on ECS or Lambda instead of EC2?
IntermediateAWSECSLambda7 min
How would you measure whether an IAM governance change (like an SCP blocking user creation) actually worked, six months later?
IntermediateAWS6 min
How would you detect, from CloudWatch metrics alone, whether a Lambda function's tail latency problem is cold-start-driven versus something else?
IntermediateAWSLambdaCloudwatch7 min
How does AWS Lambda's execution environment reuse actually work, and why does that make cold starts disproportionately affect low-traffic or bursty functions?
IntermediateAWSLambda7 min
Why does Lambda initialization code placed outside the handler function only run once per environment, and how would you use that intentionally?
IntermediateAWSLambda6 min
What's the cost/latency trade-off of using Provisioned Concurrency versus just increasing a Lambda function's timeout to absorb cold starts?
IntermediateAWSLambda6 min
How does Provisioned Concurrency eliminate Lambda cold starts on demand, and what does that actually cost?
IntermediateAWSLambda6 min
What's the difference between Lambda Provisioned Concurrency and Lambda SnapStart, and when would each be the better fit?
IntermediateAWSLambda6 min
How would you size Provisioned Concurrency for a Lambda function with a predictable daily peak but otherwise low traffic?
IntermediateAWSLambda6 min
A Lambda function times out for about 2% of invocations, seemingly at random, but works fine when you test it manually. How would you track down the cause?
IntermediateAWSLambda10 min
How would you handle the allowlisting process for intentionally-public S3 buckets so it doesn't become its own source of friction or forgotten debt?
IntermediateAWSS36 min
What's the difference between S3 Block Public Access and a restrictive bucket policy, and why is Block Public Access the stronger tool during an active exposure incident?
IntermediateAWSS36 min
What's the difference between S3's 'block public ACLs' and 'restrict public buckets' as individual Block Public Access settings?
IntermediateAWSS36 min
How would you measure whether an S3 public-exposure alerting system is actually working, short of waiting for a real incident?
IntermediateAWS6 min