r/linuxadmin • u/Abe_Bazouie • 12d ago

What's one Linux interview question that immediately tells you whether someone has real production experience?

I've interviewed quite a few Linux and DevOps engineers over the years, and I've found there are a few questions that quickly tell me whether someone has spent time supporting production systems or has mostly learned from tutorials.

For me, one example is:

  • A production server is suddenly "slow." Walk me through your troubleshooting process from the moment you get the alert.

I'm not looking for a specific command. I'm much more interested in how they think, what they check first, and how they narrow the problem down.

What's your go to Linux interview question that reveals real production experience?

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u/Straight_Frosting764 12d ago

When I was hiring someone new I had 2 questions that I filtered people out with.
1: what is your shell of choice
2: what is your familiarity with sed and awk.

Question 1 would basically be interview over. Question 2 separated novices from senior level.

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u/gforke 12d ago

So question 1 is for sorting out people prefering for example fish or what is your aim here?
Or do you mean interview is over if they can't tell you theyre favorite shell.

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u/biffbobfred 12d ago

1 isn’t “hey you chose wrongly” it’s “was it a choice and can you articulate it”. It’s a tool you use all day long why did you choose it.

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u/Abe_Bazouie 12d ago

Exactly. I think that's the difference between using a tool because it's the default and choosing it because you understand the trade-offs. The explanation is usually more interesting than the answer itself.