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DevOps Interview Questions in Pune

36 practice questions with answers for DevOps interviews in Pune.

DevOps jobs in Pune

Pune combines IT-services campuses in Hinjewadi and Kharadi with product, automotive and BFSI technology centres. It has a large mid-level job market for data and QA roles, and interviews are often practical and project-based.

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

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01

What is Kubernetes and why do companies use it?

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Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform. You declare the desired state, such as five replicas of an API, and it schedules containers across nodes, restarts failed ones, scales them, balances traffic and rolls out updates. Companies use it to run many microservices reliably on shared infrastructure, on any cloud or on-premises, through managed services like EKS, AKS and GKE.
02

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

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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.
03

When do you use a StatefulSet instead of a Deployment?

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Use a StatefulSet for stateful workloads such as databases, Kafka or Elasticsearch that need stable identity. Pods get fixed names like db-0 and db-1, start and stop in order, and each gets its own PersistentVolumeClaim that follows it after rescheduling. A headless service gives each pod a stable DNS name. Deployments treat pods as interchangeable, which suits stateless apps.
04

What are Terraform modules?

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A module is a reusable folder of Terraform files with input variables and outputs, for example a vpc module or an eks-cluster module. The root module calls child modules with different values for each environment. Modules reduce duplication and enforce standards across teams. They can come from local paths, Git or the Terraform Registry and should be pinned to versions.
05

How do you create a release tag and push it?

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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*.
06

How do you manage a service with systemd?

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systemctl status nginx sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl restart nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx # start at boot sudo systemctl disable nginx journalctl -u nginx -f # follow service logs sudo systemctl daemon-reload # after editing a unit file Unit files live in /etc/systemd/system. enable creates the symlink for the boot target, while start only runs it now.
07

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

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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.
08

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

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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.
09

What does idempotency mean in Ansible?

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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.
10

Write an IAM policy that gives read-only access to one S3 bucket.

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{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:ListBucket"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::acme-reports" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::acme-reports/*" } ] } ListBucket applies to the bucket ARN and GetObject to object ARNs, so both resources are needed.
11

Someone made an S3 bucket with customer files public. What do you do?

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Immediately block public access on the bucket and remove the public policy or ACLs. Check S3 server access logs or CloudTrail data events to see whether objects were downloaded, and involve security if customer data was exposed. Then enable Block Public Access at the account level, use AWS Config rules to detect public buckets, and require bucket changes through reviewed IaC.
12

What is load average in Linux and how do you read it?

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Load average is the average number of processes running or waiting for CPU (and uninterruptible I/O) over 1, 5 and 15 minutes, shown by uptime or top. Compare it with the number of CPU cores: a load of 4 on a 4-core machine means full use, while 12 means work is queuing. A high load with low CPU use often points to disk or network I/O waits.
13

How do you manage secrets in a CI/CD pipeline?

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Never store secrets in code or the Jenkinsfile. Use the CI tool's encrypted credentials store, such as Jenkins credentials or GitHub Actions secrets, or fetch them at runtime from HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager. Prefer short-lived credentials, for example OIDC federation from GitHub Actions to AWS instead of long-lived keys. Mask secrets in logs and give each pipeline only the permissions it needs.
14

What is remote state and state locking in Terraform?

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Remote state stores the state file in a shared backend such as an S3 bucket, Azure Storage or Terraform Cloud, so the whole team and CI use the same state. Locking prevents two runs from changing state at the same time, avoiding corruption; on S3 it uses a lock file or a DynamoDB table. Enable versioning and encryption on the backend for recovery and security.
15

What are the S3 storage classes and lifecycle policies?

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S3 Standard is for frequently accessed data. Standard-IA and One Zone-IA are cheaper for infrequent access but charge retrieval fees. Intelligent-Tiering moves objects automatically based on access. Glacier Instant, Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive are for archives with slower, cheaper access. Lifecycle rules move objects between classes after a set age and delete old versions or logs automatically.
16

When would you choose ECS, EKS or Lambda?

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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.
17

What is git stash and when do you use it?

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git stash saves your uncommitted changes and cleans the working directory, so you can switch branches for an urgent fix. git stash list shows saved entries, git stash pop reapplies the latest and removes it, and git stash apply keeps it. Use git stash -u to include untracked files. It is a short-term tool; for longer work, commit on a branch.
18

You pushed a broken commit to the shared main branch and the build is failing. What do you do?

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First restore a green main quickly: run git revert <hash> and push, which adds an undo commit without rewriting history that others have pulled. Tell the team in the channel. Then fix the issue on a branch with a proper pull request and tests. Avoid git reset with force push on main; branch protection rules should block it anyway.
19

How do you configure an S3 remote backend with locking?

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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

The application cannot connect to an RDS database. What do you check?

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Confirm the endpoint, port, username and password. Check that the RDS security group allows inbound traffic on the database port from the application's security group, and that both are in reachable subnets of the same VPC or peered networks. Test with nc -zv endpoint 5432 from the app host. Also check the instance status, max connections and SSL requirements.
21

How do you communicate with stakeholders during an outage?

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I post a short first update quickly saying what is affected, that we are working on it and when the next update will come. Then I update at a fixed interval, such as every 20 minutes, in plain language without guessing at causes. I keep technical detail in the engineering channel. After resolution, I send a summary with impact, cause and next steps.
22

What is the Terraform state file and why is it important?

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terraform.tfstate maps the resources in your code to real resources in the cloud, storing their IDs and attributes. Terraform compares code, state and reality to decide what to create, change or destroy. Without it Terraform would not know what it manages. It may contain secrets in plain text, so store it in a secure remote backend, never in Git.
23

Users complain the app is slow, but your dashboards look normal. What do you do?

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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.
24

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

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# ~/.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.
25

How do you use stored credentials inside a Jenkins pipeline?

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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.
26

Write a Prometheus alerting rule for a high error rate.

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groups: - name: api-alerts rules: - alert: HighErrorRate expr: | sum(rate(http_requests_total{job="api",status=~"5.."}[5m])) / sum(rate(http_requests_total{job="api"}[5m])) > 0.05 for: 10m labels: severity: page annotations: summary: "API error rate above 5 percent" runbook: "https://wiki.example.com/runbooks/api-errors" for: 10m ignores short spikes; Alertmanager routes by the severity label.
27

Explain the Jenkins controller and agent architecture.

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The Jenkins controller stores configuration, schedules jobs, serves the UI and keeps build history. Agents are separate machines or containers that actually execute build steps, connected over SSH or JNLP and selected by labels. Running builds on agents rather than the controller keeps the controller stable and secure, and lets you scale with dynamic agents on Kubernetes or cloud VMs that are created per build.
28

What does git cherry-pick do?

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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.
29

A worker node shows NotReady. What do you do?

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Run kubectl describe node to see conditions such as MemoryPressure, DiskPressure or a kubelet that stopped posting status. SSH in and check systemctl status kubelet, the container runtime, journalctl -u kubelet, disk space and network to the API server. Pods on the node are evicted after a timeout. Cordon and drain it, fix or replace the node, and in cloud setups let the node group recreate it.
30

How do containers work under the hood using namespaces and cgroups?

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Linux namespaces give each container its own isolated view of process IDs, network interfaces, mount points, hostname, users and IPC, so it believes it is alone on the machine. Control groups (cgroups) limit and account for CPU, memory and I/O usage. A container runtime such as containerd with runc sets these up, plus an overlay file system for image layers.
31

You suddenly cannot SSH into a Linux server. What do you check?

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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.
32

What is .gitignore and how do you stop tracking a file that is already committed?

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A .gitignore file lists patterns such as node_modules/, *.log or .env that Git should not track. It only affects untracked files, so a file already committed keeps being tracked. To stop tracking it, run git rm --cached <file>, add it to .gitignore and commit. If it held a secret, the old commits still contain it and the secret must be rotated.
33

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

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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.
34

How do you view the commit history in a compact graph form?

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git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all # last 10 commits by one author git log --oneline -10 --author="Ravi" # commits touching one file, with diffs git log -p -- src/app.py # who changed each line git blame src/app.py --graph draws branch and merge lines, and --decorate shows branch and tag names next to commits.
35

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

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#!/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.
36

How do Docker image layers and build caching work?

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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.

Companies with offices in Pune (14)

Frequently asked questions

Which companies hire DevOps professionals in Pune?

Companies with large offices in Pune include TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, IBM, Amazon, Microsoft. Use their company pages below to practise employer-specific sets.

Are DevOps interviews in Pune different from other cities?

The questions depend more on the company than the city. Pune's mix of employers decides the style: It has a large mid-level job market for data and QA roles, and interviews are often practical and project-based

How do I find DevOps jobs in Pune?

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