Interview questions · Engineering
8 questions for interviewing a DevOps Engineer — each with what a strong answer sounds like and the red flag to catch. Written for founders interviewing without a recruiter.
Listen for: Concrete architecture decisions, honest trade-off talk, and self-criticism that shows growth since.
Red flag: Only "we" with no clear personal contribution, or no regrets at all.
Listen for: Ownership without excuses, a clear timeline, and a process or tooling change that outlived the incident.
Red flag: Claims to have never broken production — everyone senior has.
Listen for: A pragmatic framework tied to user impact and reversibility, not perfectionism or recklessness.
Red flag: "I just know" or shipping standards that depend entirely on deadline pressure.
Listen for: Disagreement handled professionally, commitment after the decision, and honest reflection on who turned out right.
Red flag: Still relitigating the decision, or never having disagreed with anyone.
Listen for: Real daily usage with specific examples plus a clear-eyed sense of failure modes.
Red flag: Either blanket rejection or blind trust — both age badly in a small team.
Listen for: Learning before changing, early small wins, and questions about how you’d measure them.
Red flag: Grand transformation plans before understanding the context, or no ambition at all.
Listen for: Lived-experience insight that only someone who’s done the job would know.
Red flag: Generic answers that could come from reading the job description.
Listen for: A real weakness stated plainly, plus the compensating system they’ve built.
Red flag: A humblebrag ("I care too much"), or claiming the manager would say nothing.
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