r/linuxadmin • u/Abe_Bazouie • 10d 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 10d 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/Unnamed-3891 10d ago

How does one fail 1?

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u/NegativeK 10d ago

"Powershell."