Project exam · DevOps: Git, Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD
Project exam: DevOps practical
The brief
A timed, hands-on exam for a small college results service. In two and a half hours you analyse a log, version the code, build and run a non-root image with a health check, deploy it to Kubernetes with settings, update and roll it back, make CI pass, manage a file with Terraform, and write two release tools in JavaScript. Every task is checked; no hints or answers are shown until you hand in.
Why it matters
DevOps interviews in India increasingly include a practical round: a laptop, a cluster and a list of tasks against the clock, much like the CKA and CKAD exams. Practising under time pressure shows you which commands you really know and which you still look up.
Skills you practise
- awk, sort and uniq
- Git tags
- Dockerfile USER and HEALTHCHECK
- docker run -p -e
- Kubernetes Deployments, ConfigMaps, Services
- rollout undo
- GitHub Actions
- Terraform
- semantic versioning
- parsing kubectl output
You need
- Docker, kind (or minikube) and kubectl, with a fresh cluster called exam
- Git, the GitHub CLI logged in to a free GitHub account, and Terraform 1.6 or newer
- A bash-style terminal (Git Bash or WSL on Windows)
- Two and a half hours without interruptions
What you will have at the end
Your exam results, plus the exam-app repository (Dockerfile, CI workflow, Kubernetes manifests, Terraform folder) and release-tools.js, to review after marking.
How it is marked (rubric, 100 points)
| Tasks passedThe share of the eleven tasks that passed when you handed in. | 60 |
|---|---|
| Speed and orderYou finished in time, skipping a stuck task and coming back to it rather than losing half an hour on it. | 15 |
| Clean workPinned images, non-root containers, settings outside the image, and nothing changed by hand that the code does not describe. | 15 |
| ReviewAfter marking, you wrote down the commands you had to look up and practised them again. | 10 |
- 11tasks
- 150 mintime limit
- 70%to pass
Rules: a project exam
- Do each task on your own machine, then paste the command output into its box here.
- Work alone, without notes or a search engine, as in the real exam.
- No hints and no answers. You can run your code, but the checks run only when you hand in.
- Every task is checked automatically when you hand in, or when the time is up.
- You see which tasks passed at the end. You can take it again.