YOUR LEARNING PATH / 10 STAGES
DevOps Engineer
Build, automate, ship, and operate software reliably.
Learn · build · explain
The path, stage by stage.
Open a stage for skills, a project, and references. Mark it complete when you can explain what you built and why.
01Foundations: Linux, Networking & Scripting4 focus areas · 3 resources
Everything in DevOps runs on Linux and talks over a network. Get comfortable here first.
What to learn
- Linux CLI: files, permissions, processes, systemd, journald
- Networking: DNS, HTTP(S), TLS, ports, load balancing basics
- Shell scripting (Bash) + one real language (Python recommended)
- Understand the SDLC and what "DevOps culture" actually means
Put it into practice
Your build
Write a Bash + Python script that backs up a folder, rotates old backups, and logs results.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
02Version Control with Git & GitHub4 focus areas · 2 resources
Git is the universal language of teams. Branching and PRs are non-negotiable.
What to learn
- Git basics: commit, branch, merge, rebase, stash
- Pull requests, code review, conflict resolution
- Trunk-based development vs Git Flow
- Conventional Commits & semantic versioning
Put it into practice
Your build
Fork an open-source repo, fix a "good first issue", and open a real pull request.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
03CI/CD & Build Automation4 focus areas · 2 resources
Automate the path from a commit to a tested, deployable artifact.
What to learn
- CI/CD concepts: pipelines, stages, artifacts, environments
- GitHub Actions (start here) → GitLab CI / Jenkins
- Automated testing, linting, and security scans in the pipeline
- Build caching and matrix builds
Put it into practice
Your build
Add a GitHub Actions workflow that runs tests + lint on every PR and builds a Docker image on merge.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
04Containers: Docker & OCI4 focus areas · 2 resources
Containers make "works on my machine" a thing of the past.
What to learn
- Docker images, layers, and multi-stage builds
- Dockerfile best practices (small, secure, non-root)
- docker compose for local multi-service dev
- Image registries & scanning (Trivy)
Put it into practice
Your build
Containerize a small web app + database with docker compose and push the image to GHCR.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
05Infrastructure as Code4 focus areas · 2 resources
Provision infra with code you can review, version, and re-run.
What to learn
- What IaC is and why it beats clicking in consoles
- Terraform / OpenTofu: providers, state, modules, workspaces
- Config management basics (Ansible)
- Policy as code (OPA / Sentinel) — preview
Put it into practice
Your build
Use Terraform/OpenTofu to spin up a small VM + network in a free-tier cloud, then destroy it.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
06Cloud Platform (AWS / GCP / Azure)4 focus areas · 2 resources
Pick ONE cloud, go deep, then concepts transfer to the others.
What to learn
- Core: IAM, VPC/subnets, compute, object storage, managed DB
- Load balancers, autoscaling, and managed Kubernetes
- Well-Architected pillars & the shared-responsibility model
- FinOps basics — tagging and cost awareness
Put it into practice
Your build
Deploy your containerized app to a managed service (e.g. AWS ECS / Cloud Run) behind HTTPS.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
07Kubernetes & GitOps4 focus areas · 3 resources
K8s is the production runtime of modern platforms; GitOps is how you deploy to it.
What to learn
- Pods, Deployments, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps/Secrets
- Helm charts & Kustomize
- GitOps with Argo CD or Flux (declarative deploys)
- Health checks, resource limits, rollouts & rollbacks
Put it into practice
Your build
Deploy an app to a local cluster (kind/minikube) and manage it declaratively with Argo CD.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
08Observability: Metrics, Logs & Traces5 focus areas · 2 resources
You can't operate what you can't see. Learn the three pillars + SLOs.
What to learn
- Metrics with Prometheus + dashboards in Grafana
- Centralized logging (Loki / ELK / OpenSearch)
- Distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry
- SLI/SLO/error budgets & actionable alerting
- eBPF-based observability (Cilium/Pixie) — emerging
Put it into practice
Your build
Add Prometheus + Grafana to your app and create an SLO dashboard with one alert rule.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
09DevSecOps & Supply-Chain Security4 focus areas · 2 resources
Security is shifting left into the pipeline — and it's a huge hiring differentiator.
What to learn
- Secrets management (Vault, cloud secret managers)
- IAM least-privilege & policy reviews
- Image/dependency scanning in CI (Trivy, Grype)
- SBOMs, artifact signing (Sigstore/cosign), SLSA — current
Put it into practice
Your build
Add a Trivy scan + cosign image signing step to your existing CI pipeline.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
10Platform Engineering & the AI Edge4 focus areas · 2 resources
The 2026 evolution of DevOps: build paved roads for developers, augmented by AI.
What to learn
- Internal Developer Platforms (Backstage) & golden paths
- Self-service infra via templates and scaffolders
- Using AI assistants (Claude/Copilot) for IaC, runbooks & PR review
- Cost & reliability guardrails baked into the platform
Put it into practice
Your build
Stand up Backstage locally and register one of your services in its software catalog.
Keep notes on the setup, result, and one trade-off you made.Resources & documentation
Extend the foundations
Ideas to connect as you go.
Return to these themes as the core skills become familiar.
- Platform Engineering & Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)
- GitOps (Argo CD / Flux) over click-ops
- AI-assisted ops & "shift-left" with Copilot/Claude in pipelines
- Supply-chain security (SBOM, signed artifacts)