Real-time usage and learning

As a DevOps what to learn

Yeah, I totally get that! As a DevOps Engineer, your focus is on infrastructure, automation, and reliability, while developers often take interviews with a coding-heavy mindset. That can be frustrating, especially when they expect developer-level Python skills instead of practical scripting knowledge.

🚀 How to Handle Dev-Centric Interviews as a DevOps Engineer?

1️⃣ Focus on Problem-Solving Over Syntax

Instead of worrying about deep Python concepts, focus on writing clean, efficient scripts for real-world problems like: ✅ Parsing logs (e.g., filtering logs using Python instead of grep) ✅ Automation (e.g., auto-scaling AWS instances using boto3) ✅ Monitoring (e.g., exposing FastAPI metrics for Prometheus)

💡 Example Question: "How would you restart a failed container in Kubernetes using Python?" 📌 Your Answer: "I’d use the kubernetes Python client to watch pod statuses and trigger a restart."

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2️⃣ Learn the Python You Actually Need (Not Everything)

As a DevOps Engineer, you don’t need full-stack Python. Instead, focus on:

• Automation → Shell scripting alternatives in Python (subprocess, os, shutil)

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) → boto3 for AWS, paramiko for SSH automation

• Monitoring & Logging → Using Python to expose Prometheus metrics (prometheus_client)

• CI/CD Pipelines → Automating workflows in Jenkins/GitHub Actions (requests, pyyaml)

💡 Instead of memorizing Python theory, focus on scripts that help in daily tasks.

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3️⃣ Expect Algorithmic Questions but Keep It Practical

Even if you’re not a developer, some interviewers ask DSA-style questions like:

• Find the duplicate in a list (simple set() usage)

• Reverse a string (s[::-1])

• Parse JSON logs (json.loads())

💡 They just want to see if you can think logically, not build complex applications.

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4️⃣ Steer the Interview Towards DevOps Topics

If a developer asks too many Python-heavy questions, redirect the discussion to DevOps skills: 📌 Example: "I use Python for automation in CI/CD and cloud infrastructure. Do you want me to demonstrate an automation script I built?"

🔥 This shifts the focus from generic Python to DevOps-specific use cases.

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5️⃣ Keep Handy Some Pre-Written Scripts

Many Python interview questions can be answered by slightly modifying a past script. Keep scripts for: ✅ Managing AWS instances (boto3) ✅ Deploying Kubernetes resources (kubernetes client) ✅ Automating log parsing (re, json, csv)

📌 Having a GitHub repo with these can help you answer questions confidently!

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💡 Summary

✔ Learn Python for DevOps, not general-purpose development ✔ Redirect the interview towards your strong areas (CI/CD, infra automation) ✔ Prepare practical scripts that match real-world DevOps tasks ✔ Focus on problem-solving, not deep syntax knowledge

🔥 If you want, I can help you with Python scripts that match your DevOps role & interview prep! 🚀

DevOps uses this library

Here you go, Pavan — a curated list of commonly used functions and attributes (prefixes/suffixes/methods) from Python libraries useful in DevOps/SRE workflows: requests, boto3, yaml, json, and os.

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✅ requests (HTTP Client Library)

Method	Description
requests.get()	Sends a GET request
requests.post()	Sends a POST request
requests.put()	Sends a PUT request
requests.delete()	Sends a DELETE request
requests.head()	Sends a HEAD request
requests.patch()	Sends a PATCH request
requests.request()	Low-level general-purpose request
requests.Session()	Persistent session (cookies, headers)
response.status_code	Status code of the response
response.headers	Response headers
response.text	Response as string
response.json()	JSON-decoded response
response.content	Raw bytes of response

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✅ boto3 (AWS SDK for Python)

🔹 General

Method	Description
boto3.client()	Low-level service client
boto3.resource()	High-level service resource (e.g., S3)
boto3.session.Session()	Create a custom session

🔹 Common AWS Services (Client-based usage)

🔸 S3

s3 = boto3.client('s3')

Method	Description
s3.upload_file()	Uploads file to S3 bucket
s3.download_file()	Downloads file from S3
s3.list_buckets()	Lists all buckets
s3.create_bucket()	Creates a new bucket
s3.put_object()	Puts object in bucket
s3.get_object()	Gets object from bucket
s3.delete_object()	Deletes an object

🔸 EC2

ec2 = boto3.client('ec2')

Method	Description
ec2.describe_instances()	Lists EC2 instances
ec2.start_instances()	Starts stopped instances
ec2.stop_instances()	Stops running instances
ec2.terminate_instances()	Terminates instances

🔸 IAM

iam = boto3.client('iam')

Method	Description
iam.create_user()	Creates a new IAM user
iam.attach_user_policy()	Attaches policy to user
iam.list_users()	Lists all IAM users

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✅ yaml (PyYAML - YAML Parser)

import yaml

Method	Description
yaml.safe_load()	Loads YAML into Python (safe, preferred)
yaml.load()	Loads YAML (use only with Loader arg)
yaml.dump()	Dumps Python object into YAML
yaml.safe_dump()	Dumps safely without tags or custom types
yaml.load_all()	Loads multiple YAML documents
yaml.dump_all()	Dumps multiple documents to a stream

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✅ json (Standard Library for JSON Handling)

import json

Method	Description
json.load()	Parses JSON from file-like object
json.loads()	Parses JSON string
json.dump()	Writes JSON to file-like object
json.dumps()	Converts object to JSON string
json.JSONDecodeError	Exception class for decoding issues

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✅ os (Standard Library for OS Operations)

import os

Function/Property	Description
os.getenv()	Get environment variable
os.environ	Dict of environment variables
os.path.exists()	Check if file/path exists
os.path.join()	Join file paths
os.listdir()	List files in directory
os.remove()	Delete file
os.rename()	Rename file or directory
os.mkdir() / os.makedirs()	Create directory (single/all levels)
os.rmdir() / os.removedirs()	Remove directory
os.system()	Run shell command
os.path.basename()	Get filename from path
os.path.abspath()	Get absolute path
os.chmod()	Change permission of file
os.getcwd()	Get current working directory
os.chdir()	Change current working directory
os.walk()	Recursively traverse directory structure
os.stat()	Get file metadata

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💡 Pro Tip:

Use dir(module) to explore more methods interactively in Python:

import requests  
print(dir(requests))

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Let me know if you'd like:

• 📄 A printable PDF version

• 🔧 Ready-to-use code snippets for automation

• 📽️ Reels/short videos explaining each library's real-world use

Happy to help you convert this into tutorial content or interview flashcards, Pavan!