Skip to content
DevOps
All coursesPlacement Report
‹ Back to previous sectionCourse homeAll page URLs

DevOps Interview Questions in Chennai

36 practice questions with answers for DevOps interviews in Chennai.

DevOps jobs in Chennai

Chennai is a long-standing IT-services and SaaS hub along OMR, with strong demand for testing, data and support-engineering roles. Many companies here hire freshers in large batches and train them on the job.

Below are 36 questions that match the mix of service, product and domain employers hiring junior devops engineers in Chennai.

Solved for ChennaiStart practicing
3 QUESTIONS FREESign up to unlock the full question bank and track your progress.Unlock every question and answer, then continue practising company-wise and package-wise.
3 questions free Unlock the rest in seconds
01

An EC2 instance in a private subnet cannot download packages from the internet. Why?

AWS Cloud for DevOpsMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
A private subnet has no direct route to the Internet Gateway. Check that its route table sends 0.0.0.0/0 to a NAT Gateway placed in a public subnet, that the NAT Gateway has an Elastic IP, and that the security group and NACL allow outbound traffic and return ports. For AWS services like S3, a VPC endpoint avoids NAT data charges.
02

What does git cherry-pick do?

Git and Version ControlEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
git cherry-pick <hash> applies the changes of one specific commit onto your current branch as a new commit. It is useful to bring a hotfix from main into a release branch without merging everything else. Overusing it creates duplicate commits with different hashes and can cause confusing conflicts later, so prefer merging when you need a whole set of changes.
03

What is the difference between volumes and bind mounts?

Docker and ContainersMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
A volume is storage managed by Docker under its own directory, created with docker volume create and referenced by name; it is portable and is the recommended way to persist data such as databases. A bind mount maps a specific host path into the container, which is handy for local development hot reload but depends on host directory layout and permissions.
04

Write a declarative Jenkinsfile with build, test and deploy stages.

CI/CD PipelinesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
pipeline { agent { label 'linux' } stages { stage('Build') { steps { sh 'mvn -B clean package -DskipTests' } } stage('Test') { steps { sh 'mvn -B test' } post { always { junit 'target/surefire-reports/*.xml' } } } stage('Deploy') { when { branch 'main' } steps { sh './deploy.sh staging' } } } post { failure { echo 'Build failed' } } }
05

How do you resolve a merge conflict?

Git and Version ControlMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
Git marks conflicting files and inserts markers showing both versions. Open each file, decide the correct final code, often combining both sides after talking to the other author, and remove the markers. Then git add the files and finish with git commit or git rebase --continue. Run tests before pushing, because a conflict resolved without errors can still break logic.
06

What is the AWS shared responsibility model?

AWS Cloud for DevOpsEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
AWS is responsible for security of the cloud: physical data centres, hardware, the network and the hypervisor. The customer is responsible for security in the cloud: IAM, data encryption, OS patching on EC2, security groups and application code. The split shifts with the service; for managed services like RDS or Lambda, AWS handles more of the underlying patching.
07

The host disk is filling up because of Docker. How do you clean up and prevent it?

Docker and ContainersMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
Check usage with docker system df. Remove stopped containers, dangling images and unused networks with docker system prune, and old build cache with docker builder prune; be careful with the volumes flag. Container logs are a common culprit, so configure log rotation with max-size and max-file in daemon.json. In CI agents, schedule regular pruning jobs.
08

How do you create a release tag and push it?

Git and Version ControlEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
git tag -a v1.2.0 -m "Release 1.2.0" git push origin v1.2.0 # push all tags git push origin --tags # list and inspect git tag -l "v1.*" git show v1.2.0 Annotated tags (-a) store author, date and message and are preferred for releases. Many CI pipelines trigger production builds on tags matching v*.
09

How do you build and push a Docker image from a pipeline?

CI/CD PipelinesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
# 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.
10

Write an EC2 user data script that installs and starts a web server on boot.

AWS Cloud for DevOpsEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
#!/bin/bash set -e dnf update -y dnf install -y nginx systemctl enable --now nginx TOKEN=$(curl -s -X PUT http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token \ -H 'X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds: 60') ID=$(curl -s -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token: $TOKEN" \ http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id) echo "<h1>Served by $ID</h1>" > /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html User data runs once as root on first boot; logs are in /var/log/cloud-init-output.log. This uses IMDSv2.
11

What are Git hooks and how are they used in DevOps?

Git and Version ControlMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.
12

How do you keep yourself updated with new DevOps tools and practices?

Docker and ContainersEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
I follow official release notes for tools I use, such as Kubernetes and Terraform, and read a few engineering blogs and CNCF updates weekly. I learn by doing, so I try new tools in a small home lab or free cloud tier before suggesting them. I also prepare for certifications to structure my learning, and share short notes with my team.
13

Builds fail randomly because of flaky tests. How do you handle it?

CI/CD PipelinesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
First identify flaky tests by tracking which tests fail and pass on the same commit. Quarantine them into a separate non-blocking job so the main pipeline stays trustworthy, and raise tickets with owners. Common causes are timing assumptions, shared test data, order dependence and external services. Blind automatic retries hide real bugs, so use them only briefly while fixing the root cause.
14

You need one pipeline that deploys to dev, staging and production with approval before production. How do you design it?

CI/CD PipelinesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
Build and test once, publish a versioned artefact, then promote it through environments. Dev deploys automatically on merge, staging deploys after dev smoke tests, and production waits for a manual approval from authorised people using a Jenkins input step or GitHub environment protection rules. Keep environment-specific settings in config files or parameters, not separate pipelines, and record who approved each release.
15

What are the Prometheus metric types?

Monitoring, Logging and SREMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
A counter only increases, such as total requests, and you use rate() on it. A gauge goes up and down, such as memory in use or queue length. A histogram counts observations into configurable buckets, such as request duration, and lets you compute percentiles with histogram_quantile across instances. A summary computes quantiles on the client side but cannot be aggregated across instances.
16

How do you prioritise when several teams ask you for infrastructure work at the same time?

AWS Cloud for DevOpsMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
I list the requests with their business impact and deadline, and check which are blocking production or a release. Production issues and security fixes come first. For the rest I agree priority with my lead and the requesting teams openly, give realistic timelines and share progress. Where requests repeat, I build self-service templates so teams are not waiting on me.
17

How do you count unique client IP addresses in an nginx access log?

Linux and Shell ScriptingMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.
18

Two features are in main but only one must go to production this week. How do you manage this?

Git and Version ControlHard
Save to ▾
Show answer
The cleanest approach is feature flags: both features merge to main, but the unfinished one stays switched off in production, so deployment is separated from release. Without flags, you cut a release branch and revert or exclude the second feature, which is error prone. For the future, keep branches short-lived and agree with product on flag-based releases.
19

How do you define variables and outputs in Terraform?

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)Easy
Save to ▾
Show answer
# variables.tf variable "instance_type" { type = string default = "t3.micro" description = "EC2 size" } # outputs.tf output "public_ip" { value = aws_instance.web.public_ip } # use them terraform apply -var="instance_type=t3.small" terraform apply -var-file=prod.tfvars terraform output public_ip Outputs also pass values between modules.
20

A pod is in CrashLoopBackOff. How do you troubleshoot it?

KubernetesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
The container starts and keeps crashing, and Kubernetes waits longer between restarts. Run kubectl describe pod to see events and exit codes, and kubectl logs <pod> --previous for the crashed container's output. Common causes are missing environment variables or secrets, bad config, failing database connections, a wrong command, an aggressive liveness probe, or exit code 137 meaning OOM kill.
21

Explain Linux file permissions and what chmod 755 means.

Linux and Shell ScriptingEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
Every file has read (4), write (2) and execute (1) bits for three classes: owner, group and others. chmod 755 gives the owner 7 (read, write, execute) and gives group and others 5 (read, execute). It is typical for scripts and directories that everyone may run or enter but only the owner may change. Use ls -l to see permissions.
22

Explain liveness, readiness and startup probes.

KubernetesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
A liveness probe checks whether the container is healthy; if it fails, the kubelet restarts it. A readiness probe checks whether it can serve traffic; if it fails, the pod is removed from service endpoints but not restarted. A startup probe gives slow-starting apps time to boot and holds off the other probes until it succeeds. Wrong liveness probes can cause restart loops.
23

How do you assume an IAM role in another account using the AWS CLI?

AWS Cloud for DevOpsMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
# ~/.aws/config [profile prod-admin] role_arn = arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DevOpsAdmin source_profile = default region = ap-south-1 aws s3 ls --profile prod-admin # manual way aws sts assume-role \ --role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DevOpsAdmin \ --role-session-name ravi-session The role's trust policy must allow your account. Temporary credentials expire, usually after an hour.
24

How do you perform a rolling update and roll back a Deployment?

KubernetesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
# update the image kubectl set image deployment/api api=registry.example.com/api:1.5.0 kubectl rollout status deployment/api # history and rollback kubectl rollout history deployment/api kubectl rollout undo deployment/api kubectl rollout undo deployment/api --to-revision=3 # pause or restart kubectl rollout pause deployment/api kubectl rollout restart deployment/api In GitOps setups, you change the image tag in Git instead and let Argo CD apply it.
25

A container exits immediately after it starts. How do you debug it?

Docker and ContainersEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.
26

What is the difference between CMD and ENTRYPOINT?

Docker and ContainersMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
ENTRYPOINT defines the main executable that always runs, while CMD provides default arguments or a default command that can be overridden from docker run. For example, ENTRYPOINT ["python", "app.py"] with CMD ["--port", "8000"] lets users change only the port. Use the exec (JSON array) form so the process runs as PID 1 and receives signals properly.
27

You need to bring existing manually created cloud resources under Terraform. How?

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)Medium
Save to ▾
Show answer
Write the resource blocks in code, then import the real resources into state. Since Terraform 1.5 you can declare import blocks with the resource ID and run plan; terraform plan -generate-config-out can even draft the configuration. Older versions use the terraform import CLI command. Run plan until it shows no changes, which proves code matches reality.
28

What are AWS Regions, Availability Zones and edge locations?

AWS Cloud for DevOpsEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
A Region is a geographic area such as ap-south-1 in Mumbai or ap-south-2 in Hyderabad, fully independent from others. Each Region has multiple Availability Zones, which are separate data centres with independent power and networking, linked by low-latency connections. Edge locations are smaller sites used by CloudFront and Route 53 to cache content and answer DNS close to users.
29

What does idempotency mean in Ansible?

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)Medium
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.
30

Write a script that alerts when any disk partition is above 80 percent used.

Linux and Shell ScriptingMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
#!/bin/bash THRESHOLD=80 df -hP | awk 'NR>1 {gsub("%","",$5); print $5, $6}' | while read -r used mount; do if [ "$used" -ge "$THRESHOLD" ]; then echo "WARNING: $mount is ${used}% full on $(hostname)" fi done df -P keeps each entry on one line, awk strips the percent sign, and the loop compares each value with the threshold.
31

You get an alert that the company website is down. What are your first steps?

Monitoring, Logging and SREEasy
Save to ▾
Show answer
Acknowledge the alert so others know you are on it. Check whether it is really down from outside with curl or an uptime checker, and whether it is all users or one region. Look at recent deployments or changes, then load balancer health, application logs and the database. If a recent change caused it, roll back first. Inform the team and escalate if you cannot fix it quickly.
32

What is the difference between an Ingress and a Service?

KubernetesMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
A Service exposes a set of pods at layer 4. An Ingress is a layer 7 HTTP routing resource that maps hostnames and paths to services, for example api.example.com to the api service and /admin to another. It needs an ingress controller such as NGINX or a cloud controller to work. One Ingress with one load balancer can serve many services, and it handles TLS termination.
33

How do Docker image layers and build caching work?

Docker and ContainersMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.
34

Tell me about a blameless post-mortem you were part of.

Monitoring, Logging and SREMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
Situation: a certificate expired and our API was down for 40 minutes. Task: I wrote the post-mortem. Action: I built a timeline from logs and chat, and we focused on why the system allowed it rather than who forgot: renewal was manual and nothing alerted. Result: we automated renewal with cert-manager, added expiry alerts 21 days ahead, and tracked actions to closure.
35

Explain git reset --soft, --mixed and --hard.

Git and Version ControlMedium
Save to ▾
Show answer
All three move the current branch pointer to another commit. --soft keeps your changes staged, useful for recombining commits. --mixed, the default, keeps changes in the working directory but unstaged. --hard discards changes in both staging and working directory, so uncommitted work is lost. Lost commits can usually still be found with git reflog for a while.
36

What is the difference between count and for_each in Terraform?

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform and Ansible)Medium
Save to ▾
Show answer
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.

Companies with offices in Chennai (10)

IT services

TCS

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Mumbai, Chennai, Pune +2

View questions
IT services

Infosys

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Bengaluru, Mysuru, Pune +2

View questions
IT services

Wipro

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune +2

View questions
IT services

Cognizant

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune +2

View questions
IT services

Capgemini

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune +2

View questions
IT services

HCLTech

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Noida, Chennai, Bengaluru +2

View questions
IT services

Tech Mahindra

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 4 rounds

Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru +2

View questions
Product

Amazon

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 5 rounds

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai +2

View questions
Consulting

Thoughtworks

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 5 rounds

Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai +2

View questions
Product

Freshworks

DevOps interview questions

  • 30 questions
  • 5 rounds

Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad

View questions

Frequently asked questions

Which companies hire DevOps professionals in Chennai?

Companies with large offices in Chennai include TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Capgemini, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Amazon, Thoughtworks, Freshworks. Use their company pages below to practise employer-specific sets.

Are DevOps interviews in Chennai different from other cities?

The questions depend more on the company than the city. Chennai's mix of employers decides the style: Many companies here hire freshers in large batches and train them on the job

How do I find DevOps jobs in Chennai?

Shortlist companies with Chennai offices, keep your CV focused on DevOps projects, apply on company career pages and job portals with the Chennai filter, and practise the questions on this page before each interview.

Other cities

DelhiNoidaGurgaonBangaloreHyderabadPuneMumbaiKolkataAhmedabadJaipurLucknowChandigarhIndoreKochiCoimbatoreBhubaneswarNagpurVisakhapatnamThiruvananthapuram

More ways to practise

Company-wise DevOps questionsExperience-wise DevOps questionsRole-wise DevOps questionsCity-wise DevOps questionsMost asked DevOps questionsScenario-based questionsPractical / hands-on questionsHR & behavioural questionsDevOps mock interviewOnline assessment questionsTechnical round questionsManagerial round questionsDevOps topic sheets