Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About Flipkart hiring for DevOps roles
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company and part of the Walmart group, with businesses including Flipkart, Myntra, Cleartrip and Ekart logistics. Its engineering and analytics teams work on search, recommendations, supply chain, pricing and fraud detection. It hires for software development engineers, SDETs, business analysts, data analysts and data scientists.
For DevOps roles, this Flipkart practice set focuses most on Linux and Shell Scripting (6), CI/CD Pipelines (5), Monitoring, Logging and SRE (4), Docker and Containers (4). It has 6 easy, 18 medium, 6 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
E-commerce & consumer tech
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Main India offices
Bengaluru, Hyderabad
Flipkart DevOps interview process
Online coding assessment
Machine coding round
Problem solving and DSA round
Hiring manager round
HR round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
Solved for FlipkartStart practicing
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An IAM user is an identity for a person or app with long-term credentials. Groups collect users so permissions are managed together. Policies are JSON documents that allow or deny actions on resources. Roles are identities with temporary credentials that are assumed by services, such as EC2 or Lambda, or by users from other accounts. Prefer roles over access keys wherever possible.
02
How do you count unique client IP addresses in an nginx access log?
awk '{print $1}' /var/log/nginx/access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -10
# total number of unique IPs
awk '{print $1}' access.log | sort -u | wc -l
The first field in the default log format is the client IP. uniq -c only collapses adjacent lines, so sort must run before it; the final sort -rn shows the busiest IPs first.
03
Write a Prometheus alerting rule for a high error rate.
A hard link is another directory entry pointing to the same inode, so the data survives until every hard link is deleted; it cannot cross file systems or point to directories. A soft (symbolic) link is a small file that stores a path to the target; it can cross file systems and point to directories, but it breaks if the target is moved or deleted.
05
The build works on your laptop but fails on the CI server. How do you debug it?
The environments differ. Compare tool versions such as JDK, Node or Python, environment variables, and dependency versions, especially if there is no lock file. Check for files present locally but not committed, and for hard-coded paths. Reproduce by running the build inside the same Docker image the CI agent uses. Long term, build inside containers so local and CI match.
06
How do you build and push a Docker image from a pipeline?
# shell steps in any CI tool
IMAGE=registry.example.com/shop/api
TAG=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
echo "$REG_PASS" | docker login registry.example.com -u "$REG_USER" --password-stdin
docker build -t $IMAGE:$TAG .
docker push $IMAGE:$TAG
Tag with the commit SHA so each image is traceable and immutable; avoid relying on latest. Credentials come from the CI secret store, and --password-stdin keeps them out of process lists.
07
You suddenly cannot SSH into a Linux server. What do you check?
Check reachability with ping and whether port 22 is open with nc -zv host 22. Then look at security groups, firewall rules and whether the sshd service is running, using the cloud console or serial access. Run ssh -vvv to see whether it fails at key exchange or authentication. Common causes are wrong key permissions, a full disk, a changed IP, or fail2ban blocking you.
Idempotency means running the same playbook many times gives the same result without unwanted changes. Modules check current state first: the apt module installs a package only if missing and reports ok instead of changed. The shell and command modules are not idempotent by default, so use creates, removes or changed_when conditions, or prefer a dedicated module.
The control plane has the kube-apiserver, the front door for all requests; etcd, the key-value store holding cluster state; the scheduler, which places pods on nodes; and the controller manager, which runs reconciliation loops. Each worker node runs the kubelet, which starts and monitors pods; kube-proxy, which handles service networking; and a container runtime such as containerd.
10
How would you plan disaster recovery for a complete AWS region failure?
Start from business RTO and RPO. Options range from backup and restore, which is cheapest and slowest, to pilot light, warm standby and multi-region active-active. Replicate data with S3 cross-region replication, Aurora Global Database or DynamoDB global tables, keep infrastructure in Terraform so it can be rebuilt, use Route 53 failover routing and rehearse failover drills.
11
What is the difference between count and for_each in Terraform?
count creates N copies indexed by number, such as aws_instance.web[0]. Removing an item in the middle shifts indexes and can destroy and recreate resources unexpectedly. for_each iterates over a map or set of strings and keys each instance by name, such as aws_s3_bucket.b["logs"], so adding or removing one item affects only that item. Prefer for_each for named collections.
12
How do you use stored credentials inside a Jenkins pipeline?
pipeline {
agent any
environment {
SONAR_TOKEN = credentials('sonar-token')
}
stages {
stage('Push') {
steps {
withCredentials([usernamePassword(credentialsId: 'docker-hub',
usernameVariable: 'USER', passwordVariable: 'PASS')]) {
sh 'echo $PASS | docker login -u $USER --password-stdin'
}
}
}
}
}
Jenkins masks these values in console output. Use single quotes in sh so Groovy does not interpolate the secret.
13
How do you quickly search logs for errors from the last hour on a server or in Kubernetes?
Each Dockerfile instruction like RUN, COPY or ADD creates a layer. Docker caches layers and reuses them if the instruction and its inputs have not changed; once one layer changes, all later layers rebuild. So copy dependency files and install dependencies first, then copy source code. That way code changes do not reinstall all packages, and builds become much faster.
15
A pod is stuck in Pending state. What could be the reasons?
Pending means it has not been scheduled or its volumes are not ready. kubectl describe pod shows the scheduler's reason. Common causes are insufficient CPU or memory on nodes for the requests, node selectors, affinity or taints that no node satisfies, a PersistentVolumeClaim that cannot bind, or a resource quota being exceeded. Fix the spec or add nodes with the cluster autoscaler.
Lambda runs functions without servers, billed per request and duration, ideal for event-driven tasks with short runtimes up to 15 minutes. ECS is AWS's simpler container orchestrator, good when you want containers without Kubernetes complexity, often with Fargate. EKS is managed Kubernetes, chosen for portability, a rich ecosystem and existing Kubernetes skills, but it needs more operational knowledge.
docker run -d --name api \
--memory=512m --memory-swap=512m \
--cpus=1.5 \
--restart=unless-stopped \
myapp:1.0
# change limits on a running container
docker update --memory=1g --memory-swap=1g api
If the process exceeds the memory limit it is OOM killed, so set application heap sizes below the limit. --cpus caps CPU time rather than reserving cores.
18
A developer accidentally pushed an AWS access key to a public repository. What do you do?
Treat the key as compromised immediately: deactivate and rotate it in IAM, then check CloudTrail for misuse. Removing it from history comes second, using git filter-repo or BFG and a force push, and asking everyone to re-clone. Then prevent repeats with secret scanning in CI, pre-commit hooks like gitleaks and storing secrets in a vault or secrets manager instead of code.
19
How do you configure an S3 remote backend with locking?
terraform {
backend "s3" {
bucket = "acme-terraform-state"
key = "prod/network/terraform.tfstate"
region = "ap-south-1"
encrypt = true
use_lockfile = true
}
}
Then run terraform init (add -migrate-state if moving local state). Enable versioning on the bucket. Older setups use dynamodb_table = "tf-locks" instead of use_lockfile for locking.
20
Users complain the app is slow, but your dashboards look normal. What do you do?
Averages can hide pain, so check p95 and p99 latency, not mean. Find out which users, regions or features are affected; it may be one endpoint, a third-party API or client-side slowness. Use traces to follow a slow request and check DNS, CDN and front-end metrics through real user monitoring. Then add the missing signal to dashboards so it is visible next time.
21
Your CI pipeline takes 40 minutes. How would you speed it up?
Measure first: find which stages take longest. Then cache dependencies and Docker layers, run independent stages and test suites in parallel, split tests across agents, and run only affected modules in a monorepo. Move slow end-to-end tests to a later stage or nightly run while keeping fast unit tests on every commit. Use bigger or autoscaled agents if they are the bottleneck.
22
How much downtime does a 99.9 percent availability SLO allow?
Allowed downtime = (1 - SLO) x period
99.9 percent over 30 days:
0.001 x 30 x 24 x 60 = 43.2 minutes per month
99.9 percent over a year = about 8.76 hours
99.95 percent per month = about 21.6 minutes
99.99 percent per month = about 4.3 minutes
Each extra nine cuts the budget tenfold and usually needs much more redundancy and automation, so pick an SLO that matches real user needs.
23
How do you find files larger than 100 MB and older than 7 days under /var/log?
find /var/log -type f -size +100M -mtime +7 -exec ls -lh {} +
# compress them instead of just listing
find /var/log -type f -size +100M -mtime +7 -exec gzip {} +
-size +100M matches files above 100 MB, -mtime +7 means modified more than 7 days ago, and -exec with + passes many files to one command call, which is faster than running it once per file.
24
A production server is very slow. How do you troubleshoot high CPU usage?
Start with uptime and top or htop to see load and which processes use CPU. Check whether it is user, system or iowait time, and use pidstat or ps -eo pid,pcpu,cmd --sort=-pcpu for detail. For a Java process, take thread dumps; for others, use perf or strace. Correlate with recent deployments, cron jobs or traffic spikes before deciding to scale, roll back or fix code.
25
Describe how you handled an on-call incident late at night.
Situation: at 2 AM I got an alert that checkout error rates crossed 10 percent. Task: restore service as on-call engineer. Action: I checked dashboards, saw a node pool had scaled down and pods were pending, scaled it manually, and posted updates in the incident channel. Result: errors cleared in 20 minutes, and next day I fixed the autoscaler settings and wrote the post-mortem.
26
What are Git hooks and how are they used in DevOps?
Hooks are scripts Git runs at events such as pre-commit, commit-msg and pre-push on the client, or pre-receive on the server. Teams use them to run linters, format code, block secrets or enforce commit message formats before code leaves a laptop. Client hooks are not shared by default, so tools like pre-commit or Husky manage them, and CI repeats the checks.
27
Your container takes 10 seconds to stop and does not shut down gracefully. Why?
docker stop sends SIGTERM to PID 1 and waits 10 seconds before SIGKILL. If the Dockerfile uses shell form like CMD node app.js, PID 1 is a shell that does not forward signals, so the app never gets SIGTERM. Use exec form CMD ["node", "app.js"], use exec in entrypoint scripts, or add an init such as tini with --init, and handle SIGTERM in code.
The process has hit its file descriptor limit. Check usage with ls /proc/<pid>/fd | wc -l and the limit in /proc/<pid>/limits. Raise it through LimitNOFILE in the systemd unit or /etc/security/limits.conf, then restart. But also look for a leak: sockets or files not closed in code keep growing and will hit any limit. Raising the limit alone only buys time.
30
A container exits immediately after it starts. How do you debug it?
Run docker ps -a to see the exit code and docker logs <id> for output. Exit code 0 usually means the main process finished, for example a script that ran once or a service started in background mode, so the container has nothing to keep it alive. Non-zero codes point to errors such as missing config. Start an interactive shell with docker run -it --entrypoint sh to inspect.
Tips to crack the Flipkart DevOps interview
Practise machine coding problems where you build a small working system, such as a parking lot or splitwise, in about 90 minutes.
For analyst roles, prepare guesstimates and cases on topics like Big Billion Days sales, returns or delivery delays.
Learn about Flipkart's supply chain and Ekart operations, as many data problems relate to logistics in Indian conditions.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; Flipkart interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the Flipkart DevOps interview?
Candidates usually go through 5 stages: Online coding assessment; Machine coding round; Problem solving and DSA round; Hiring manager round; HR round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the Flipkart DevOps interview?
This practice set leans on Linux and Shell Scripting (6), CI/CD Pipelines (5), Monitoring, Logging and SRE (4), Docker and Containers (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Flipkart interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at Flipkart?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in e-commerce & consumer tech interviews like Flipkart's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does Flipkart hire DevOps professionals in India?
Flipkart has large teams in Bengaluru, Hyderabad. Openings and locations change often, so check the Flipkart careers page and filter by city and experience.