A DevOps engineer builds and runs the systems that get software from a developer's laptop to real users, safely and repeatedly. Think of it as sysadmin work (servers, networks, backups, monitoring, logs, access control) plus automation: instead of fixing one server by hand, you write code so any server can be rebuilt in minutes. You start with Linux, networking and scripting, because you cannot automate what you do not understand. Then you add Git, CI/CD pipelines, containers, infrastructure as code and cloud. After that come monitoring, security and reliability. Nobody legally requires a lice
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Stage 1 of 4 · about 16 weeks
Use Linux comfortably from the command line, understand how networks work (IP, DNS, HTTP, TCP, firewalls, subnets), write Bash and basic Python scripts, and use Git. Finish by setting up a small Linux server in a VM, hardening SSH, and scheduling a backup with cron.
Linux command line and system administration
Nearly every server, container and cloud machine you will run as a DevOps engineer is Linux. Your daily work (reading logs, fixing permissions, restarting services) happens in a terminal, so speed and confidence here pay off in every later stage.
Networking fundamentals
Most outages you will chase are network problems in disguise: a wrong DNS record, a blocked port, a bad route. If you understand how packets travel you can debug in minutes instead of hours, and cloud networking (VPCs, security groups) later will make sense.
Scripting with Bash and Python
DevOps is the art of not doing the same task twice by hand. Scripts turn a checklist into a repeatable, reviewable tool, and every pipeline and automation tool you learn later calls scripts.
Git and version control
All infrastructure and automation code lives in Git. It lets you track changes, undo mistakes, and work with a team through pull requests, which is exactly how DevOps teams review changes.
Secure server setup, SSH hardening and backups
This is where the skills come together. Administrators are responsible for keeping systems safe and recoverable. An exposed SSH port gets attacked within minutes of going online, and a backup you never tested is only a hope.
Then 3 more stages (about 108 weeks in all) with lessons, drills, projects, 10 interview questions with strong answers and free resources.