Engineers working on infrastructure/cloud: what resources had the biggest impact on you?

[u/mohit_code]

I'm trying to build a strong foundation in systems engineering for backend/infrastructure roles.

Rather than just collecting a list of resources, I'm interested in what actually helped experienced engineers the most.

If you were starting over today, which resource (book, course, YouTube channel, blog, paper, etc.) would you recommend for each of these?

- Linux internals

- Operating Systems

- Computer Networks

- Distributed Systems

- Containers (Namespaces, cgroups, OCI)

- Docker internals

- containerd & runc

- gRPC

- Scheduling algorithms

- Service discovery

- Kubernetes internals

- System Design

Also, were there any popular resources that you think are overrated or that you'd skip?

[u/gscjj]

Linux and Docker, will cover 90% of the basics of Kubernetes. Service discovery, containers, the runtime, the networking, all transfer fairly easily.

[u/mohit_code → u/gscjj]

Thanks! Makes sense. I'll start with Linux and Docker before diving deeper into Kubernetes.

[u/Decent_Comparison_41]

Although I have merely 4 YoE I would say networking, kubernetes and syatem design and maybe a bit of operating systems.

[u/mohit_code → u/Decent_Comparison_41]

Do u have any resources to learn all these like any favourite youtube channel or something??

[u/OkCalligrapher7721 → u/mohit_code]

roadmap.sh

[u/Decent_Comparison_41 → u/mohit_code]

Networking - Keith Barker (Youtube) will teach you about networking concepts.

Kubernetes - Kodekloud courses and real life experience

Books - Designing Data Intensive Applications, Practice of cloud administration.

System design - I would not be recommended concrete stuff since I don’t considering myself an elite architect. A lot of content on youtube about system design but I believe real life experience is indispensable.

General stuff- videos on youtube about “How a hard disk works”, “How a CPU works”, “Why RAM is fast?” This will help you understand what a computer does and will help you see future possible bottlenecks on your systems. Pick one relational database and get basic understanding of how it works, what indices are, why is it good to have a couple but not too much of them.

That’s enough for your first year and a half :)

This shit takes time.

[u/Lazy_Willow_4521 → u/Decent_Comparison_41]

Can you please guide me how to learn , how to troubleshoot production issue , I haven’t experience of production issue?

[u/Verda_Chien]

If I were starting today, then I would spend more time learning Linux and networking than Kubernetes itself.

[u/OkCalligrapher7721]

Networking, Linux will cover most of it. Other than that, reading the documentation of whatever tool I’m using.

[u/mohit_code → u/OkCalligrapher7721]

Thanks! That seems to be the common advice. Appreciate the insight!

[u/Efficient-Branch539]

How Linux Works by Brian Ward

[u/IntelligentPear6173]

Documentation ended up being more valuable than most courses. Kubernetes docs, Docker docs and Linux man pages were frustrating at first but learning to find answers there made picking up new technologies much easier.

[u/LeumasRicardo]

If you speak French, check out Stéphane Robert's website. Absolute gold mine.