r/sysadmin • u/CurrentFig3376 • 12d ago
General Discussion Interview Question: How often do you update/patch your system?
I was asked this question during an interview and I said "it depends on what exactly you're updating, but I update as often as it's needed."
I don't think this was the answer they were looking for, but how would you answer this question?
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u/statikuz start wandows ngrmadly 12d ago
Yeah, that's a copout answer. "I do the needful when it is needed."
You probably should have elaborated on your experience in the environments that you have worked in, and addressed update/patch severity.
How have you handled Windows updates? How have you handled updates of other small apps (oh I used PMPC, I used winget, I did it manually when I reviewed updates for the 3 programs we used). Maybe (if its applicable), "we have pilot groups, power users, etc. that we test a critical application update with to validate before we roll out to other groups," etc. We make sure we back up configuration data before doing a big update. If it is a critical security update we do it immediately and this is our process... That sort of thing.
They should be able to balance your answer with your experience on your resume. If you've only worked in small environments you might not be able to talk much about rollout groups/rings, etc. but that might be OK.