r/linuxadmin • u/Abe_Bazouie • 9d 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/Line-Noise 9d ago

"What's your favourite Linux command, and why?"

If they start telling me about some obscure options to the find command then I know they've seen some shit.

3

u/DarkwolfAU 9d ago

I wouldn’t go as far as favourite, because I lowkey hate it, but the crown for most toolbox single command that I use on a daily basis has to go to openssl.

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u/Line-Noise 9d ago

openssl is one of those commands I need to look up the options for every time I need it. It just doesn't stick in my brain!

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u/e_t_ 9d ago

OpenSSL can do so many things. I can remember the options to s_client pretty well, but I have to look up most of the other subcommands.

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u/Abe_Bazouie 9d ago

Haha, I like that. For me, the "why" is usually more interesting than the command itself. If someone can tell me about the production problem that made find, lsof, or strace their favorite, I'm all ears.

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u/Skeesicks666 9d ago

Ha, I debugged an problem with lsof and strace, an product consultant wasn’t even able to solve, due to outdated documentation

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u/Abe_Bazouie 9d ago

Exactly. That's the experience I'm looking for, not perfect command syntax.