9 AWS DevOps Interview Questions + How to Prepare

An upcoming interview for an Amazon Web Services (AWS) DevOps position can be an exciting opportunity to advance your tech career. Although the exact format of an AWS DevOps interview may vary from one organisation to the next, you can prepare for an upcoming interview in various ways, including researching the potential employer, reflecting on the value you can offer the organisation, and anticipating questions that a hiring manager may ask you.  

Interviewers may ask various questions to gauge your technical proficiency, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit. 

Did you know? Amazon’s hiring process for tech roles usually entails an online work style assessment and work style simulation, a behavioural interview by phone, and an additional series of interviews with leaders and topic experts. Amazon’s hiring process may provide useful insights for your upcoming DevOps interview, whether with Amazon itself or another company [1].  

Keep reading to review core concepts you may be called upon to discuss, different types of questions to prepare for, and resources for your job search. 

9 AWS DevOps interview questions 

In the list below, you’ll find three categories of questions you might encounter in your upcoming interview: 

• Technical questions to test your AWS DevOps knowledge.

• Behavioural and situational questions to gauge your potential for success in the role you seek.

• Professional development questions to explore your long-term career plans.

While many general DevOps questions may come up in your interview, this list focuses on AWS DevOps so that you can make the most of your experience with the Amazon cloud environment. 

According to Glassdoor’s compilation of over 6,000 general DevOps Engineer interview questions that candidates have shared from their experiences, the top three DevOps questions are: 

— What are the top DevOps tools, and which ones have you worked with before?

—What is the need for DevOps?

—What are the most important things that DevOps hopes to achieve? [2]

Technical questions 

1. How can you use AWS to implement infrastructure as code? 

Employers ask this question to explore your knowledge and expertise of this AWS DevOps capability. 

Prepare your answer by reviewing the definition of infrastructure as code (IaC), its capabilities, and the tools, like AWS CloudFormation, used to create AWS resources. Also, prepare a few examples of applying infrastructure as code to the company’s specific business needs. 

2. What are some challenges associated with DevOps CodePipeline in AWS?

Employers ask this question to assess your ability to identify and address obstacles with this AWS DevOps tool. 

Prepare your answer by reviewing AWS’s documentation on common issues with DevOps CodePipeline and how to address them. For example, you may find that some processes, like test actions or deployments, fail because of permission errors. By reviewing AWS’s documentation, you can succinctly explain how to correct these permission errors. 

3. Why use AWS for DevOps? What’s the advantage of adopting the AWS DevOps system? 

Employers ask this question to determine their knowledge of how AWS DevOps compares to other DevOps systems like Microsoft Azure or IBM.  

Prepare your answer by reviewing the differences among DevOps systems, what makes AWS unique, and the factors that would go into choosing AWS over others, such as its simplicity, automating the deployment of codes, and making processes more efficient while reducing costs. Provide some specific examples of how AWS DevOps tools and processes can benefit the company you want to work for. 

Behavioural and situational questions

4. Tell me about something you achieved using the AWS DevOps model. 

Employers ask this question to gauge which of your successes stands out to you most and the extent of your AWS experience. 

Prepare your answer by listing your top AWS DevOps projects and accomplishments, particularly those with quantifiable results demonstrating your skills. Recall details of these projects—their purpose, your role in each project, steps you took to complete it, and the outcomes. Remember how these past accomplishments might translate to your desired role.   

5. How would you describe the AWS DevOps model to people who don’t have this technical background? 

Employers ask this question to gauge your mastery of concepts and ability to break them down so that stakeholders in a given project—such as executives, business analysts, or clients—can understand regardless of their technical knowledge. In addition, this question provides insight into your communication and collaboration skills and your ability to work with diverse teams, which are important for a role in AWS DevOps. 

Prepare your answer by reflecting on different AWS DevOps concepts, identifying technical terms and acronyms, and explaining them using non-technical language. Then, practice explaining these concepts to friends or family members and ask them for feedback on clarifying your explanations.  

6. Give me an example of a real-life scenario where you can implement AWS DevOps.  

Employers ask this question to observe how well you can think on your feet, pull from experience to solve problems, and offer practical applications of your AWS DevOps technical knowledge. 

Prepare your answer by listing scenarios for AWS DevOps and describing how you’d employ various tools to create solutions. For inspiration, you can refer to AWS’s list of top brands that use its DevOps tools. For example, the popular messaging platform Slack employs AWS CloudTrail for monitoring logs tied to Amazon EC2 instances [3]. 

Tip: Answer behavioural and situational questions using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) to tell compelling stories about your experience and capabilities. 

Professional development questions

7. How do you stay up-to-date on AWS DevOps trends? 

Employers ask this question to discover the extent to which you continue learning about this field to enhance your performance in a DevOps role. 

Prepare your answer by listing courses you’ve completed or are currently taking, communities you’re a part of, and industry resources you subscribe to. Industry resources examples might include the AWS DevOps Blog or DevOps.com. Once you have your list, identify the trends you’ve learned about and specific ways you've applied learnings from these resources to actual DevOps projects.  

8. What are some AWS DevOps trends you’re excited about?

Employers ask this question to learn more about your passion for this field, which aspect of AWS DevOps catches your attention, and how you might pursue particular trends to develop your career. 

Prepare your answer by reflecting on the trends you discover through industry research and what they might mean for organisations. For example, you might be interested in AIOps, which uses artificial intelligence to reduce human intervention in IT operations, and MLOps, which automates machine learning in IT operations. To form your answer, you can review tools for these processes, like Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon SageMaker. 

9. What are your ideas for succeeding in this AWS DevOps role with our company? 

Employers ask this question to learn more about your strategic thinking, alignment with company values, and your long-term potential to contribute to the company’s DevOps goals. 

Prepare your answer by thoroughly researching the company from a DevOps frame of mind. What kind of technology stack has the company invested in? What is the company’s engineering approach? What other job openings in DevOps are listed on the company’s career page? Can you find case studies on how the company has implemented DevOps practices? If this is the company’s first DevOps hire, how can you use AWS’s DevOps tools to improve the company’s accomplishments? 

Core AWS DevOps concepts to know

Reviewing concepts that are essential to AWS DevOps can make it easier to form effective answers to basic technical questions like “What are the different phases in DevOps?”

The following list is adapted from AWS’s DevOps best practices page [4]. 

CI/CD 

Continuous Integration (CI) refers to merging code changes into a central repository to address bugs quickly, improve software quality, and release validated updates quickly. 

Continuous Development (CD) refers to automatic building, testing, and releasing code changes. CD passes build artefacts through a standardised test process to be deployed. 

Microservices

Microservices refers to building a single application that contains a set of small, independent services. Each service has its purpose and communicates with the other services through an API. 

Infrastructure as code

With this practice, developers use version control, continuous integration, and other software development techniques to manage infrastructure. The infrastructure is defined by code; thus, engineers can deploy, update, or duplicate it at scale rather than manually configuring systems or policies.   

Monitoring and logging 

This practice enables organisations to stay vigilant about how applications and infrastructures perform and affect the end user. The applications and infrastructures generate logs, enabling organisations to proactively find and address problems. 

Communication and collaboration

Tools and automation enable better team collaboration, enabling them to complete projects and reach goals more easily.  

Prepare to discuss your knowledge of the DevOps tools used in the AWS cloud environment, such as AWS Systems Manager and AWS CodePipeline, and how they correspond to the best practices. 

Tips to prepare for an AWS DevOps interview

In addition to anticipating AWS DevOps interview questions, you’ll also need to prepare for the interview experience. Follow these tips to boost your confidence and enhance your performance: 

Get details about the entire recruitment process.

In the days before your interview, you’ll need to learn as much as you can about getting hired, including:

• Going through multiple rounds of interviews

• Completing work assessments

• Doing live coding demonstrations 

• When to expect to get an offer

• The onboarding process 

Ask the recruiter or hiring manager for the full rundown before your first interview so that you can prepare accordingly. 

Improve your resume and other job search materials. 

Even with an interview already lined up, spend a few minutes refreshing your resume. Doing so can make discussing your career goals and qualifications easier during the interview. For example, you can clarify and strengthen the verbiage with action words, quantify your achievements, and add an objectives section. 

Build AWS DevOps skills with Coursera

An upcoming AWS DevOps interview can be a great opportunity. To prepare, research the company, anticipate technical, behavioral, and professional development questions, and brush up on core AWS DevOps concepts like CI/CD, microservices, and infrastructure as code.

Online courses can be a great way to review the skills you need for a successful AWS DevOps career and prepare for an upcoming interview. Consider the exam prep course for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional credential offered by WhizLabs or the DevOps on AWS Specialisation offered by AWS.