Cloud and DevOps engineers build the pipelines, servers and monitoring that let teams ship safely and keep products running. It suits you if you like automating repetitive work and stay calm when something breaks. Many start in support or systems roles and move into DevOps within one to two years. Not sure? Take the 2-minute career quiz or compare tracks in the explorer.
Linux & scripting
Almost all cloud servers run Linux. Comfort on the command line is non-negotiable.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Files, permissions, users and processes
- Package managers, services and systemd
- Bash scripting: variables, loops, conditions
- Python for automation tasks
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- Set up a Linux server from scratch over SSH
- Write a script that backs up a folder and rotates old backups
- Find which process is using a port
COMMON MISTAKES
- Running everything as root.
- Copying commands from the internet without knowing what they do.
FREE RESOURCES
- Linux Journey — free
- OverTheWire Bandit — free command-line wargame
- The Linux Command Line — free online book
Networking fundamentals
Most production problems are networking problems in disguise. You need to reason about how traffic reaches an application.
WHAT TO LEARN
- IP addressing, subnets and ports
- DNS, HTTP/HTTPS and TLS certificates
- Load balancers and reverse proxies such as Nginx
- Firewalls and security groups
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- Explain what happens when you type a URL into a browser
- Debug a DNS or certificate problem
- Configure Nginx as a reverse proxy with HTTPS
COMMON MISTAKES
- Opening all ports to the internet to make something work.
- Ignoring DNS caching when debugging.
FREE RESOURCES
- Professor Messer Network+ videos — free
- Cloudflare Learning Center
- Nginx beginner's guide
Containers with Docker
Containers are how modern applications are packaged and shipped. They are the foundation for everything else in DevOps.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Images, containers, layers and volumes
- Writing efficient Dockerfiles
- docker-compose for multi-service apps
- Container registries and image tags
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- Containerise an app with its database using docker-compose
- Reduce an image size by using a smaller base and multi-stage builds
- Explain the difference between an image and a container
COMMON MISTAKES
- Huge images with build tools left inside.
- Storing secrets inside images.
FREE RESOURCES
- Docker official Get Started guide
- Play with Docker — free browser labs
- Docker docs best practices for Dockerfiles
CI/CD pipelines
Automated pipelines are the heart of DevOps: every change is built, tested and deployed the same way.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Continuous integration: build and test on every commit
- Continuous delivery and deployment strategies
- GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
- Secrets management in pipelines
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- A pipeline that tests, builds a Docker image and deploys it
- Block a merge when tests fail
- Explain blue-green or rolling deployments
COMMON MISTAKES
- Pipelines that pass even when tests fail.
- Hard-coding credentials in pipeline files.
FREE RESOURCES
- GitHub Actions official docs
- GitLab CI/CD official docs
- GitHub Skills — CI courses
Cloud fundamentals (AWS)
Pick one major cloud and learn it properly. AWS has the largest market share; the concepts transfer to Azure and Google Cloud.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Compute (EC2), storage (S3) and managed databases (RDS)
- Identity and access management (IAM) and least privilege
- Networking: VPCs, subnets, security groups
- Billing, budgets and the shared responsibility model
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- Deploy an app on AWS with a database and a domain
- Create IAM roles with minimal permissions
- Set a budget alert and explain your monthly costs
COMMON MISTAKES
- Using the root account for daily work.
- Forgetting resources and getting a surprise bill.
FREE RESOURCES
- AWS Skill Builder free courses
- AWS Free Tier documentation
- AWS Well-Architected Framework (free whitepaper)
Infrastructure as code & Kubernetes basics
Infrastructure defined in code is repeatable and reviewable. Kubernetes is widely used, but learn it after Docker and CI/CD.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Terraform basics: providers, resources, state
- Reusable modules and environments
- Kubernetes: pods, deployments, services
- Helm or manifests for deploying apps
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- Create and destroy a full environment with one Terraform command
- Deploy an app to a local Kubernetes cluster (kind or minikube)
- Explain why Terraform state must be protected
COMMON MISTAKES
- Learning Kubernetes before understanding containers and networking.
- Making manual changes that drift from your Terraform code.
FREE RESOURCES
- HashiCorp Terraform tutorials — free
- Kubernetes official interactive tutorials
- kind / minikube documentation
Monitoring, security & incidents
Running systems means knowing when they break and why. This is what separates DevOps from simply deploying.
WHAT TO LEARN
- Metrics, logs and traces
- Prometheus and Grafana basics
- Alerting and on-call practices
- Security basics: patching, secrets, least privilege
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE
- A dashboard showing your app's health and an alert that fires
- Find the cause of an error from logs
- Write a short incident report: what happened, why, what changed
COMMON MISTAKES
- Alerting on everything so real alerts get ignored.
- Treating security as someone else's job.
FREE RESOURCES
- Prometheus and Grafana official docs
- Google SRE book — free online
- OWASP DevSecOps guideline
Projects that prove these skills
Three projects, each harder than the last. Interviewers would rather see one finished, deployed project you can explain than ten half-done tutorials.
Self-hosted web server
2 weeksA Linux server you set up and secure yourself.
- Linux VM with SSH keys and a firewall
- Nginx serving a site over HTTPS
- Automated backups with a script
- Documented setup steps in a README
Containerised app with CI/CD
3–5 weeksFrom commit to deployment, fully automated.
- App and database in docker-compose
- Pipeline that tests, builds and pushes an image
- Automatic deployment to a cloud server
- Secrets stored safely, not in code
Production-style platform on AWS
6–8 weeksThe kind of setup platform teams run.
- Infrastructure fully defined in Terraform
- App on containers with a load balancer and HTTPS
- Monitoring dashboard and alerts
- Architecture diagram, cost estimate and incident runbook
Interview preparation
Most junior Cloud & DevOps interviews have four parts. Prepare for each separately — candidates often over-prepare algorithms and under-prepare explaining their own project.
| Round | What they check | How to prepare |
|---|---|---|
| Screening | Linux, networking and scripting basics | Practise command-line tasks and explain DNS, HTTP and ports. |
| Technical interview | Docker, CI/CD and cloud concepts | Explain your pipeline end to end; draw your architecture. |
| Troubleshooting scenario | How you reason under pressure | Practise "the site is down — what do you check first?" step by step. |
| Behavioural | Ownership and calm communication | Prepare a story about a failure you handled and what you changed. |
Are you ready for entry-level roles?
Tick honestly. If you can do at least 8 of these 10 without looking things up, start applying — you will learn the rest on the job.
Written by Mubashar Hussain · Founder, TechCareerWay
Engineering leader with 20 years building software and hiring developers across 7 countries. Are you a working Cloud & DevOps engineer? Become a technical reviewer for this guide. Spotted an error? Tell us.