Intermediate DevOps Interview Questions
322 questions
A teammate used 'cache' to pass compiled build output from the build job to the deploy job, and it intermittently fails to find the files. What did they get wrong?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
A shared library lives in its own GitLab project, consumed by 5 downstream application projects. How would you trigger those downstream pipelines automatically when the library changes?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
Your GitLab pipeline runs 6 stages sequentially, but half your jobs don't actually depend on each other. How would you use 'needs' to speed this up?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
How do you make sure a production deployment token stored as a CI/CD variable can only ever be used by pipelines running against your main branch, not a random feature branch?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
What's the difference between a branch pipeline and a merge request pipeline in GitLab CI, and why does it matter which one actually runs for a given push?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD7 min
What debugging challenge does a GitLab merged results pipeline introduce that a plain branch pipeline doesn't, when a job fails?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
How would you write .gitlab-ci.yml rules to prevent duplicate pipelines from firing for both a branch push and its merge request?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
How does GitLab's pipeline trigger distinction compare to GitHub Actions' push vs pull_request trigger?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CDGitHub Actions6 min
How would you configure GitLab merge request approval rules so that changes to a payments module always require sign-off from the payments team specifically, not just any two approvers?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
Two approved merge requests are merged to main within minutes of each other, and the second one breaks the build even though it passed CI on its own branch. How does GitLab's merge trains feature prevent this?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
Reviewers keep approving frontend PRs based on reading the diff alone, and subtle visual bugs keep slipping through to production. How would GitLab Review Apps address this?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
A merge request's 'Merge' button is greyed out with the widget stuck on 'Checking if merge request can be merged...' indefinitely, even though the pipeline passed. How do you debug this?
IntermediateGitLab CI/CD6 min
How do GitLab's group-level and project-level roles interact when a user has different roles assigned at each level?
IntermediateGitLab6 min
How would you structure GitLab protected branch rules differently for a fast-moving startup versus a regulated environment requiring strict change control?
IntermediateGitLab6 min
An Argo CD application shows OutOfSync even though the pods running in the cluster look correct and healthy. What would you check?
IntermediateArgo CDKubernetesGitOps8 min
What's the difference between Argo CD's Sync status and Health status, and why does treating them as the same thing cause confusion?
IntermediateArgo CDKubernetes6 min
What problem does the 'app of apps' pattern actually solve in GitOps, and when would you reach for it instead of just managing each application independently?
IntermediateGitOpsArgo CD6 min
An engineer manually ran kubectl edit against a production Deployment to fix an urgent issue, bypassing Git. What happens next in a GitOps-managed cluster, and why does that matter?
IntermediateGitOpsKubernetes6 min
In a GitOps setup, how do you actually promote a change from staging to production — is it a separate deploy, or literally the same Git commit moving between environments?
IntermediateGitOps7 min
Should GitOps principles apply to your underlying cluster/infrastructure configuration, or just to application deployments? What's actually different about managing infrastructure this way?
IntermediateGitOpsTerraformKubernetes6 min
For a GitOps setup managing 50 services, would you use one shared config repository or a separate repository per service? What actually drives that decision?
IntermediateGitOpsKubernetes7 min
What's the difference between a helm test resource and a Helm lifecycle hook, and when would you use each?
IntermediateHelm5 min
What's the fundamental difference between Helm's templating approach and Kustomize's overlay/patching approach, and when would you choose each?
IntermediateHelmKustomize6 min
How would you set up and manage a private Helm chart repository for an organization's internal charts?
IntermediateHelm6 min