All roadmaps
Roadmap
DevOps Engineer
From shell prompt to production on-call: the complete path to a job-ready DevOps Engineer.
17stages157topics~195hours
Curated from the best — MDN · Kubernetes · AWS · OWASP · Google SRE & more
One of the highest-demand engineering roles globally. Senior DevOps / Platform Engineers at companies like Cloudflare, Stripe, and Datadog command £90K–£160K+. The DORA research shows elite DevOps teams deploy 973× more frequently than low performers — organisations pay significantly for engineers who can build that capability.
The complete path — 13 of 157 topics have lessons here; the other 144 are marked learn anywhere. We won't pretend we cover everything.
01
Stage 1 / 17 · 8 topics · 0 lessons
Computing & OS Fundamentals
The bedrock every DevOps engineer is assumed to already know: how computers, operating systems, and processes actually work.
How Computers WorkCPU, memory, storage, and the fetch-decode-execute cycle at a high level. Wikipedia
Operating System ConceptsKernel vs userspace, system calls, and the role of the OS as resource manager. OSTEP (free book)
Processes & ThreadsProcess lifecycle, PIDs, threads, context switching, and scheduling. OSTEP (free book)
Memory ManagementVirtual memory, paging, swap, and the OOM killer. OSTEP (free book)
Filesystems & StorageInodes, mounts, block vs file vs object storage, ext4/xfs basics. Wikipedia
I/O & InterruptsrecBlocking vs non-blocking I/O, buffering, and disk vs network latency. OSTEP (free book)
Binary, Hex & Character EncodingoptionalNumber bases, ASCII/UTF-8, and why encoding bugs happen. MDN
Compiled vs InterpretedrecHow source becomes a running program; build artifacts and runtimes. Wikipedia
02
Stage 2 / 17 · 12 topics · 0 lessons
Linux & Command Line Mastery
Linux is the operating system of the cloud. Deep command-line fluency is non-negotiable for the role.
Shell Navigation & Filesystemcd, ls, find, the FHS layout, absolute vs relative paths. The Linux Command Line
File Manipulation & Text Toolscat, grep, sed, awk, cut, sort, uniq, tr, and pipelines. Microsoft DevOps
Permissions & Ownershipchmod, chown, setuid/setgid, sticky bit, umask, ACLs. Linux man pages
Users, Groups & sudo/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, sudoers, PAM basics. Linux man pages
Process Managementps, top/htop, kill, signals, nice, jobs, nohup, background tasks. OSTEP (free book)
Package Managementapt, yum/dnf, rpm/dpkg, repositories, and dependency resolution. Ubuntu docs
systemd & Service ManagementUnits, systemctl, journald, timers, and boot targets. systemd docs
Disk & Volume ManagementrecPartitions, LVM, mounting, fstab, df/du, and resizing. OSTEP (free book)
Networking Toolsip, ss, netstat, ping, traceroute, dig, curl, tcpdump. Cloudflare Learning
Logs & Troubleshooting/var/log, journalctl, dmesg, and systematic incident triage. Microsoft DevOps
Performance Analysisrecvmstat, iostat, sar, strace, lsof, and the USE method. Microsoft DevOps
Scheduling with cron & atcrontab syntax, systemd timers, and automating recurring jobs. OSTEP (free book)
03
Stage 3 / 17 · 12 topics · 0 lessons
Networking Fundamentals
Every outage eventually comes down to networking. Understand the stack from packets to load balancers.
OSI & TCP/IP ModelsThe layered model and where each protocol lives. Cloudflare Learning
IP Addressing & SubnettingIPv4/IPv6, CIDR, subnet masks, private vs public ranges. Cloudflare Learning
TCP vs UDPHandshakes, ports, connection state, and reliability trade-offs. Cloudflare Learning
DNSRecord types, resolution flow, TTLs, and common DNS failures. Cloudflare Learning
HTTP/HTTPSMethods, status codes, headers, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, keep-alive. Cloudflare Learning
TLS, SSL & CertificatesHandshake, PKI, X.509, cert chains, Let's Encrypt, mTLS. Cloudflare Learning
Load BalancingL4 vs L7, round-robin, least-connections, health checks, sticky sessions. Cloudflare Learning
Reverse Proxies & Web ServersNginx, HAProxy, Envoy; proxying, caching, and TLS termination. Cloudflare Learning
Firewalls, NAT & Routingreciptables/nftables, security groups, NAT, routing tables. Cloudflare Learning
VPNs & TunnelingoptionalWireGuard, IPsec, SSH tunnels, and private connectivity. Cloudflare Learning
CDNs & EdgerecContent delivery, caching at the edge, and origin shielding. Cloudflare Learning
Network DebuggingrecDiagnosing latency, packet loss, MTU, and connectivity issues. Cloudflare Learning
04
Stage 4 / 17 · 8 topics · 1 lessons
Version Control with Git
Git is the source of truth for code and infrastructure. Master it beyond the basic three commands.
Git Fundamentalsinit, clone, add, commit, the staging area, and the object model.
Branching & MergingBranches, merges, fast-forward vs three-way, and conflict resolution. Git docs
Rebasing & History RewritingrecInteractive rebase, squashing, cherry-pick, and when not to rewrite. Microsoft DevOps
Remotes & Collaborationpush, pull, fetch, forks, and pull/merge requests. Microsoft DevOps
Branching StrategiesGitFlow, trunk-based development, and feature branching trade-offs. Git docs
Git HooksrecPre-commit, pre-push automation and policy enforcement. Git docs
Monorepo vs PolyrepooptionalTrade-offs in scale, tooling, and CI implications. Microsoft DevOps
GitHub / GitLab / BitbucketHosted platforms, code review, protected branches, and CODEOWNERS. Microsoft DevOps
05
Stage 5 / 17 · 8 topics · 0 lessons
Programming & Scripting
DevOps engineers write code: glue scripts, automation, tooling, and sometimes services. Fluency in at least one scripting and one systems language is expected.
Bash ScriptingVariables, conditionals, loops, functions, exit codes, set -euo pipefail. The Linux Command Line
Python for AutomationScripting, stdlib, virtualenvs, requests, and boto3/SDKs. Python docs
Go FundamentalsrecThe language of cloud-native tooling; building static binaries and CLIs. Microsoft DevOps
YAML, JSON & TOMLConfig and data formats; jq, yq, and schema validation. json.org
Regular ExpressionsrecPattern matching for logs, parsing, and validation. MDN
Working with APIsREST, authentication, pagination, rate limits, and webhooks. restfulapi.net
Robust Scripting PracticesrecError handling, idempotency, logging, and retries in automation. Microsoft DevOps
Testing Your CoderecUnit tests, linting, and shellcheck for reliable automation. Martin Fowler
06
Stage 6 / 17 · 9 topics · 1 lessons
Containers & Docker
Containers are the universal packaging and runtime unit of modern infrastructure.
Container FundamentalsNamespaces, cgroups, and how containers differ from VMs. Docker docs
Docker CLI & Lifecyclerun, build, exec, logs, ps, and managing container lifecycle. Docker docs
Writing DockerfilesLayers, caching, ENTRYPOINT vs CMD, and build context. Docker docs
Image OptimizationrecMulti-stage builds, minimal/distroless bases, and layer reduction. Microsoft DevOps
Image RegistriesDocker Hub, ECR/GCR/ACR, tagging, and image promotion. GeeksforGeeks
Container Networking & VolumesBridge/host networks, port mapping, and persistent volumes. Docker docs
Docker ComposeMulti-container local environments and service definitions. Docker docs
Container SecurityrecNon-root users, image scanning, signing, and minimizing attack surface.
OCI & Alternative Runtimesoptionalcontainerd, runc, Podman, and the OCI standard. Cloudflare Learning
07
Stage 7 / 17 · 14 topics · 1 lessons
Kubernetes & Orchestration
Kubernetes is the de facto platform for running containers at scale and the centerpiece of most DevOps roles.
Cluster ArchitectureControl plane, etcd, scheduler, kubelet, and the node model. Kubernetes docs
Pods & WorkloadsPods, Deployments, ReplicaSets, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs. Kubernetes docs
Services & NetworkingClusterIP, NodePort, LoadBalancer, kube-proxy, and CNI. Cloudflare Learning
Ingress & Gateway APIIngress controllers, routing rules, TLS, and the Gateway API. Kubernetes docs
ConfigMaps & SecretsInjecting configuration and managing sensitive data. Kubernetes docs
Persistent StoragePVs, PVCs, StorageClasses, and CSI drivers. Kubernetes docs
Resources & SchedulingRequests/limits, QoS, affinity, taints/tolerations, priority. OSTEP (free book)
AutoscalingrecHPA, VPA, Cluster Autoscaler, and Karpenter. AWS docs
RBAC & SecurityServiceAccounts, Roles, bindings, and Pod Security Standards. Kubernetes docs
HelmCharts, templating, releases, and values for packaging apps. Helm docs
KustomizerecOverlay-based, template-free configuration management. Microsoft DevOps
Operators & CRDsrecCustom resources, controllers, and the operator pattern. Microsoft DevOps
Service MeshoptionalIstio/Linkerd: mTLS, traffic shaping, and observability.
Troubleshooting Clusterskubectl debug, events, CrashLoopBackOff, and pending pods. Kubernetes docs
08
Stage 8 / 17 · 13 topics · 1 lessons
Cloud Platforms
The cloud is where modern infrastructure lives. Master one provider deeply (AWS is the market leader) and understand the cross-cloud model.
Cloud Service ModelsIaaS, PaaS, SaaS, regions, AZs, and the shared responsibility model. Microsoft DevOps
Compute ServicesEC2/VMs, instance types, AMIs, autoscaling groups, spot/reserved. Microsoft DevOps
Cloud NetworkingVPCs, subnets, route tables, security groups, NAT, peering. Cloudflare Learning
Storage ServicesObject (S3), block (EBS), file (EFS), and lifecycle policies. Hugging Face
Identity & Access ManagementUsers, roles, policies, least privilege, and federation. Microsoft DevOps
Managed DatabasesRDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, and backup/replication. PostgreSQL docs
Serverless & FunctionsrecLambda, API Gateway, event-driven and FaaS patterns. Microsoft DevOps
Managed KubernetesEKS, GKE, AKS, and the managed control plane trade-offs. Kubernetes docs
Queues & MessagingrecSQS, SNS, Pub/Sub, Kafka, and event buses. GeeksforGeeks
Cloud DNS & CDNrecRoute 53, CloudFront, and edge services.
Cost Management & FinOpsrecBilling, tagging, budgets, right-sizing, and cost optimization. FinOps Foundation
Well-Architected FrameworkrecReliability, security, performance, cost, and operational pillars. AWS
Multi-Cloud & GCP/AzureoptionalProvider parity, lock-in trade-offs, and portability. Microsoft Learn
09
Stage 9 / 17 · 10 topics · 1 lessons
Infrastructure as Code
Provisioning infrastructure declaratively and reproducibly is a defining DevOps skill.
IaC PrinciplesDeclarative vs imperative, idempotency, and immutable infrastructure. Microsoft DevOps
Terraform CoreProviders, resources, plan/apply, and the resource graph. Terraform docs
Terraform StateRemote state, locking, backends, and import/move operations. Terraform docs
Modules & ReuseWriting modules, registries, and DRY infrastructure. Terraform docs
Environments & WorkspacesrecManaging dev/staging/prod and avoiding state sprawl. Terraform docs
OpenTofu & PulumioptionalTerraform alternatives and code-based IaC trade-offs. Pulumi docs
Configuration ManagementAnsible (and Chef/Puppet): playbooks, roles, idempotent config.
Image BuildingrecPacker and golden images for immutable infrastructure. Microsoft DevOps
Testing & Policyrectflint, checkov, terratest, OPA, and policy as code. Terraform docs
Cloud-Native IaCoptionalCloudFormation, CDK, and provider-native tooling. Cloudflare Learning
10
Stage 10 / 17 · 10 topics · 3 lessons
CI/CD & Automation Pipelines
Continuous integration and delivery turn code into running software safely and repeatedly — the heart of DevOps.
CI/CD ConceptsContinuous integration, delivery vs deployment, and the pipeline mindset. GitHub Actions docs
Build & Test StagesCompiling, unit/integration tests, artifacts, and fast feedback. GitHub Actions docs
GitHub ActionsWorkflows, jobs, runners, matrix builds, and reusable actions. GitHub Actions docs
GitLab CI / JenkinsrecPipelines as code, stages, runners, and shared libraries. GitHub Actions docs
Artifact & Package ManagementrecArtifactory, Nexus, and versioned artifact promotion.
Deployment StrategiesBlue-green, canary, rolling, and feature-flag releases.
GitOpsArgo CD and Flux: Git as the source of truth for deployment.
Pipeline SecurityrecSecrets in CI, OIDC, supply-chain integrity, and SLSA. GitHub Actions docs
Release ManagementrecSemantic versioning, changelogs, rollbacks, and approvals. Microsoft DevOps
Runners & Build InfrastructureoptionalSelf-hosted runners, caching, and ephemeral build agents. Microsoft DevOps
11
Stage 11 / 17 · 9 topics · 1 lessons
Observability & Monitoring
You can't operate what you can't see. Metrics, logs, and traces are how you understand systems in production.
Three Pillars of ObservabilityMetrics, logs, and traces and how they complement each other. OpenTelemetry docs
Metrics with PrometheusTime series, PromQL, exporters, and pull-based scraping. Prometheus docs
Dashboards with GrafanaVisualization, panels, variables, and unified data sources. Grafana docs
Centralized LoggingELK/OpenSearch, Loki, structured logging, and retention. GeeksforGeeks
Distributed TracingrecOpenTelemetry, Jaeger/Tempo, spans, and request flow. OpenTelemetry docs
AlertingAlertmanager, PagerDuty, on-call, and reducing alert fatigue. Microsoft DevOps
SLIs, SLOs & Error BudgetsDefining reliability targets and budget-driven decisions.
APM & Commercial ToolsrecDatadog, New Relic, and full-stack application monitoring. Microsoft DevOps
Synthetic & Real-User MonitoringoptionalUptime checks, synthetic probes, and frontend telemetry. Microsoft DevOps
12
Stage 12 / 17 · 9 topics · 2 lessons
SRE & Reliability Engineering
DevOps and SRE converge on keeping systems reliable. Learn the principles that prevent and resolve outages.
SRE PrinciplesToil reduction, error budgets, and reliability as a feature. Google SRE Book
Incident ManagementSeverity levels, incident commander, comms, and on-call rotations. Google SRE Book
Blameless PostmortemsRoot cause analysis, action items, and learning culture. Google SRE Book
Capacity PlanningrecForecasting demand, load testing, and headroom. Microsoft DevOps
High Availability & RedundancyFailover, multi-AZ/region, and eliminating single points of failure. AWS Builders Library
Disaster RecoveryRTO/RPO, backups, restore drills, and DR strategies.
Chaos EngineeringoptionalFault injection and proactively testing resilience.
Scalability PatternsrecHorizontal vs vertical scaling, caching, sharding, queues. System Design Primer
Resilience PatternsrecRetries, timeouts, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation. AWS Builders Library
13
Stage 13 / 17 · 9 topics · 1 lessons
Security & DevSecOps
Security is shifted left into every stage of the pipeline. DevOps engineers are expected to bake it in, not bolt it on.
Security FundamentalsCIA triad, threat modeling, and defense in depth. Microsoft DevOps
Secrets ManagementVault, cloud secret stores, rotation, and avoiding secrets in code. HashiCorp Vault docs
Identity & Least PrivilegeRBAC, IAM hardening, and zero-trust access. OWASP
Vulnerability ScanningSAST, DAST, dependency and container image scanning. OWASP
Supply Chain SecurityrecSBOMs, image signing (cosign), provenance, and SLSA.
Network SecurityrecSegmentation, WAFs, network policies, and DDoS mitigation. Cloudflare Learning
Compliance & GovernancerecSOC 2, PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, and audit trails. Google Cloud docs
Policy as CoderecOPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno, and automated guardrails. Microsoft DevOps
Encryption & Key ManagementAt-rest/in-transit encryption, KMS, and certificate management. Cloudflare Learning
14
Stage 14 / 17 · 7 topics · 0 lessons
Databases & Data Operations
DevOps engineers run the data tier: provisioning, scaling, backing up, and tuning the databases applications depend on.
Relational Databases & SQLTables, joins, indexes, transactions, and ACID. PostgreSQL docs
NoSQL DatabasesrecDocument, key-value, wide-column, and when to use each. MongoDB
Replication & HAPrimary/replica, failover, and read scaling. System Design Primer
Backups & RestoreSnapshots, PITR, and tested restore procedures. restfulapi.net
CachingrecRedis/Memcached, cache invalidation, and TTL strategy. Redis docs
Schema MigrationsrecZero-downtime migrations and managing schema in CI/CD. Microsoft DevOps
Performance & TuningoptionalQuery analysis, connection pooling, and slow-query diagnosis. Microsoft DevOps
15
Stage 15 / 17 · 6 topics · 1 lessons
Platform Engineering & Developer Experience
The frontier of the role: building internal platforms and golden paths that make every developer faster and safer.
Internal Developer PlatformsrecSelf-service platforms, golden paths, and paved roads. Microsoft DevOps
Service Catalogs & BackstageoptionalService catalogs, scaffolding, and developer portals. Microsoft DevOps
DORA MetricsrecDeployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, and change failure rate.
Ephemeral EnvironmentsoptionalOn-demand preview environments per pull request. Microsoft DevOps
Templating & AbstractionrecReusable scaffolds and abstracting infrastructure complexity. Microsoft DevOps
Platform as a ProductoptionalTreating internal platforms with product thinking and feedback loops. Microsoft DevOps
16
Stage 16 / 17 · 6 topics · 0 lessons
AI, Modern Tooling & Emerging Trends
The 2026 landscape: AI-assisted operations, eBPF, WebAssembly, and the next generation of infrastructure tooling.
AIOps & ML-Driven OpsoptionalAnomaly detection, predictive scaling, and incident automation. Microsoft DevOps
AI-Assisted DevOpsrecLLMs for runbooks, code review, IaC generation, and copilots. Hugging Face
MLOps & LLMOps BasicsoptionalDeploying and operating ML/LLM workloads and model pipelines. MLOps.org
eBPFoptionalKernel-level observability, networking, and security (Cilium). Microsoft DevOps
WebAssembly at the EdgeoptionalWasm runtimes as a lightweight alternative to containers. MDN
Green & Sustainable OpsoptionalCarbon-aware scheduling and efficiency-driven operations. Microsoft DevOps
17
Stage 17 / 17 · 7 topics · 0 lessons
Soft Skills, Process & Career
DevOps is a culture as much as a toolset. Collaboration, process, and communication separate good engineers from great ones.
DevOps Culture & CALMSCulture, automation, lean, measurement, sharing; breaking silos. Microsoft DevOps
Agile & LeanrecScrum, Kanban, and continuous improvement. Microsoft DevOps
Documentation & RunbooksRunbooks, ADRs, diagrams, and knowledge sharing. Google Technical Writing
Communication & CollaborationCross-team work, incident comms, and stakeholder management. Google Technical Writing
On-Call & Sustainable OpsrecHealthy on-call, blameless culture, and avoiding burnout. Google SRE Book
Certifications & PortfoliorecAWS/CKA/Terraform certs and building a demonstrable portfolio. AWS Certification
Interview PreparationrecSystem design, troubleshooting scenarios, and behavioral rounds. GitHub
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Clear every stage, earn the certificate, and walk into interviews prepared. The complete path — nothing hidden, no gaps.
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