Learning path
DevOps learning path: everything to study, topic by topic
Comprehensive DevOps assessment covering CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, monitoring, platform engineering, and SRE practices.
Short answer
To learn DevOps, work through 7 modules and 33 topics in the order they build on each other. It starts with CI/CD & OS Fundamentals, then moves on to Infrastructure as Code & Cloud and Containerization. Use the map as a checklist, or measure your level and study only what is missing.
What you will study
Topics are grouped by module. Open one to see its objectives and key concepts.
1 · CI/CD & OS Fundamentals7 topics
Version Control Workflows
Git branching strategies, merge vs rebase, pull request workflows, and trunk-based development
Objectives
- Choose an appropriate branching strategy for a team
- Explain merge vs rebase trade-offs
Key concepts
- git branching
- merge vs rebase
- trunk-based development
- Gitflow
- pull requests
- protected branches
- semantic versioning
Build Automation
Build tools, dependency management, reproducible builds, and build caching strategies
Objectives
- Automate build processes for consistency
- Understand dependency management best practices
Key concepts
- Makefile
- build scripts
- dependency management
- reproducible builds
- build caching
- multi-stage builds
- compile vs runtime dependencies
Continuous Integration
CI pipeline design, automated testing in pipelines, integration testing, and pipeline-as-code
Objectives
- Design a CI pipeline with appropriate stages
- Configure pipeline-as-code for common CI tools
Key concepts
- CI pipeline stages
- pipeline-as-code
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI
- Jenkins
- automated testing
- parallel jobs
- build triggers
Artifact Management
Artifact registries, versioning strategies, promotion pipelines, and artifact security
Objectives
- Manage build artifacts across environments
- Implement artifact versioning and promotion
Key concepts
- container registries
- package repositories
- artifact versioning
- immutable artifacts
- promotion pipelines
- artifact signing
- SBOM
Operating Systems & Linux
Linux file system hierarchy, process management, user permissions, package managers, systemd services, and shell scripting
Objectives
- Navigate and manage the Linux file system and processes
- Configure system services and scheduled tasks
Key concepts
- Linux file system
- process management
- user permissions
- package managers (apt/yum)
- systemd services
- shell scripting basics
- cron jobs
- SSH configuration
Networking & Protocols
DNS resolution, HTTP/HTTPS, TCP/UDP, SSH protocol, TLS/SSL, and OSI model fundamentals for DevOps
Objectives
- Explain how DNS resolution and HTTP communication work
- Troubleshoot common networking issues in DevOps environments
Key concepts
- DNS resolution
- HTTP/HTTPS
- TCP/UDP
- SSH protocol
- TLS/SSL
- SMTP basics
- OSI model layers
- port management
Web Servers
Nginx and Apache configuration, reverse proxying, load balancing, SSL termination, and static file serving
Objectives
- Configure a web server as a reverse proxy with SSL termination
- Set up virtual hosts and basic load balancing
Key concepts
- Nginx configuration
- reverse proxy
- Apache basics
- Caddy server
- load balancing config
- SSL termination
- virtual hosts
- static file serving
2 · Infrastructure as Code & Cloud7 topics
Terraform Basics
HCL syntax, providers, resources, state management, and Terraform workflow (init/plan/apply)
Objectives
- Write basic Terraform configurations
- Understand the Terraform lifecycle and state management
Key concepts
- HCL syntax
- providers
- resources
- data sources
- terraform state
- terraform plan
- terraform apply
- remote backends
Configuration Management
Ansible playbooks, idempotency, configuration drift, and desired-state configuration
Objectives
- Write idempotent configuration management code
- Detect and remediate configuration drift
Key concepts
- Ansible playbooks
- idempotency
- configuration drift
- desired-state configuration
- roles
- inventories
- Ansible Galaxy
- pull vs push models
Cloud Provisioning
Multi-cloud resource provisioning, Terraform modules, workspaces, and environment management
Objectives
- Structure Terraform code with modules for reusability
- Manage multiple environments with workspaces
Key concepts
- Terraform modules
- workspaces
- variable files
- outputs
- remote state
- state locking
- import existing resources
- multi-cloud
IaC Testing
Terraform testing, policy-as-code, linting, plan validation, and compliance frameworks
Objectives
- Implement automated testing for infrastructure code
- Apply policy-as-code for compliance enforcement
Key concepts
- terraform validate
- tflint
- Checkov
- OPA/Rego
- Sentinel
- terratest
- plan testing
- compliance-as-code
Cloud Providers Overview
AWS, Azure, and GCP core services comparison, multi-cloud strategy, pricing models, and availability zones
Objectives
- Compare equivalent services across major cloud providers
- Evaluate multi-cloud vs single-cloud trade-offs
Key concepts
- AWS core services
- Azure equivalents
- GCP equivalents
- multi-cloud strategy
- cloud pricing models
- region and availability zones
- cloud certifications
- vendor lock-in
Serverless Architecture
AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, cold starts, event triggers, and serverless frameworks
Objectives
- Design event-driven serverless applications
- Evaluate when serverless is appropriate vs traditional compute
Key concepts
- AWS Lambda
- Azure Functions
- Google Cloud Functions
- cold starts
- event triggers
- serverless frameworks
- Vercel/Netlify
- serverless limitations
Secret Management
HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, secret rotation, environment variables, and zero-trust secrets
Objectives
- Implement a centralized secret management strategy
- Configure automated secret rotation and access controls
Key concepts
- HashiCorp Vault
- AWS Secrets Manager
- SOPS encryption
- secret rotation
- environment variables
- sealed secrets (K8s)
- external-secrets operator
- zero-trust secrets
3 · Containerization4 topics
Docker Fundamentals
Dockerfile syntax, container lifecycle, volumes, networking, and Docker Compose
Objectives
- Write production-ready Dockerfiles
- Manage container lifecycle and networking
Key concepts
- Dockerfile instructions
- container lifecycle
- volumes
- bind mounts
- Docker networking
- Docker Compose
- environment variables
- entrypoint vs cmd
Container Security
Image scanning, non-root containers, secrets management, and runtime security
Objectives
- Harden container images for production use
- Implement container runtime security best practices
Key concepts
- image scanning
- CVE remediation
- non-root containers
- read-only filesystems
- secrets management
- container runtime security
- seccomp profiles
- capabilities
Image Optimization
Multi-stage builds, layer caching, distroless images, and image size reduction techniques
Objectives
- Optimize Docker images for size and build speed
- Apply multi-stage builds for production images
Key concepts
- multi-stage builds
- layer caching
- distroless images
- Alpine vs Debian
- .dockerignore
- build arguments
- layer ordering
- squash layers
Container Orchestration Basics
Kubernetes concepts, pod lifecycle, services, deployments, and basic cluster operations
Objectives
- Deploy applications to Kubernetes with appropriate resource types
- Manage pod lifecycle and service discovery
Key concepts
- pods
- services
- deployments
- ReplicaSets
- namespaces
- ConfigMaps
- Secrets
- kubectl
- rolling updates
4 · Monitoring & Observability4 topics
Metrics & Dashboards
Prometheus metrics, Grafana dashboards, RED/USE methods, and custom metric design
Objectives
- Design meaningful dashboards using industry frameworks
- Choose appropriate metric types for different use cases
Key concepts
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- RED method
- USE method
- counter vs gauge vs histogram
- PromQL
- metric cardinality
- golden signals
Log Aggregation
Centralized logging, structured logging, ELK/Loki stacks, and log retention strategies
Objectives
- Design a centralized logging architecture
- Implement structured logging with correlation IDs
Key concepts
- structured logging
- ELK stack
- Loki
- Fluentd
- log levels
- correlation IDs
- log retention
- log sampling
Distributed Tracing
OpenTelemetry, trace propagation, span analysis, and performance bottleneck identification
Objectives
- Instrument services with distributed tracing
- Analyze traces to identify performance bottlenecks
Key concepts
- OpenTelemetry
- spans
- traces
- context propagation
- sampling strategies
- Jaeger
- Zipkin
- trace-based testing
Alerting Strategies
Alert design, on-call rotations, escalation policies, alert fatigue, and runbooks
Objectives
- Design alerts that minimize noise and maximize signal
- Create effective on-call processes and runbooks
Key concepts
- alert thresholds
- multi-window alerts
- burn rate alerts
- PagerDuty
- on-call rotations
- escalation policies
- alert fatigue
- runbooks
5 · Platform Engineering3 topics
Internal Developer Platforms
Platform engineering principles, Backstage, service catalogs, and developer portals
Objectives
- Design an internal developer platform strategy
- Evaluate build vs buy decisions for platform tooling
Key concepts
- Backstage
- service catalogs
- developer portals
- platform teams
- API abstractions
- self-service
- platform product management
- developer surveys
Self-Service Infrastructure
Infrastructure abstractions, Crossplane, Terraform modules as products, and guardrails
Objectives
- Build self-service infrastructure with appropriate guardrails
- Balance developer autonomy with organizational controls
Key concepts
- Crossplane
- Terraform modules as products
- infrastructure abstractions
- guardrails
- cost controls
- approval workflows
- resource quotas
- tagging policies
Golden Paths & Developer Experience
Opinionated templates, scaffolding, developer onboarding, and inner-loop optimization
Objectives
- Design golden paths that accelerate developer productivity
- Measure and improve developer experience
Key concepts
- golden paths
- project scaffolding
- cookiecutter templates
- developer onboarding
- inner-loop development
- dev containers
- local development
- DX metrics
6 · SRE & Advanced3 topics
SLO/SLI/SLA Design
Service level objectives, indicators, agreements, error budgets, and reliability targets
Objectives
- Define meaningful SLOs based on user experience
- Implement error budget policies to balance reliability and velocity
Key concepts
- SLO
- SLI
- SLA
- error budgets
- reliability targets
- nines of availability
- error budget policies
- SLO-based alerting
Incident Management
Incident response, blameless postmortems, communication protocols, and incident classification
Objectives
- Lead an incident response following structured protocols
- Conduct blameless postmortems that drive systemic improvement
Key concepts
- incident commander
- blameless postmortems
- severity levels
- communication protocols
- status pages
- incident timelines
- action items
- learning reviews
Chaos Engineering
Chaos experiments, failure injection, game days, blast radius control, and steady-state hypothesis
Objectives
- Design and run chaos experiments safely
- Build systems that degrade gracefully under failure
Key concepts
- steady-state hypothesis
- failure injection
- Chaos Monkey
- Litmus
- game days
- blast radius
- circuit breakers
- graceful degradation
7 · Expert DevOps5 topics
Platform Engineering & IDP Design
Designing Internal Developer Platforms that abstract infrastructure complexity and provide self-service capabilities to development teams
Objectives
- Design an Internal Developer Platform with self-service workflows and golden path templates
- Evaluate IDP tooling (Backstage, Port) and define platform product strategy
Key concepts
- IDP
- Backstage
- self-service
- platform APIs
- golden paths
- developer portal
- cognitive load reduction
Advanced GitOps
Implementing advanced GitOps patterns: drift detection, multi-cluster management, progressive delivery, and secret management
Objectives
- Implement advanced GitOps with Argo CD ApplicationSets for multi-cluster fleet management
- Design GitOps secret management strategies that avoid storing secrets in Git
Key concepts
- drift detection
- Argo CD ApplicationSets
- multi-cluster
- Flux fleet management
- sealed secrets
- image automation
- config hierarchy
SRE Practices
Implementing Site Reliability Engineering: SLIs, SLOs, error budgets, toil reduction, and incident management practices
Objectives
- Define SLIs and SLOs for complex distributed systems and implement error budget policies
- Design toil reduction strategies and blameless postmortem processes for high-reliability organizations
Key concepts
- SLI/SLO/SLA
- error budget
- toil
- reliability target
- incident management
- blameless postmortems
- CRE model
Advanced Chaos Engineering
Implementing chaos engineering programs: fault injection, game days, and building organizational resilience culture
Objectives
- Design chaos experiments with steady-state hypotheses and blast radius controls
- Build a game day program that improves organizational resilience culture
Key concepts
- steady-state hypothesis
- fault injection
- blast radius
- game days
- Chaos Monkey
- Chaos Toolkit
- resilience culture
Supply Chain Security
Securing software supply chains using SLSA framework, SBOM generation, and dependency vulnerability management
Objectives
- Implement SLSA framework levels in CI/CD pipelines for verifiable build provenance
- Design SBOM generation and artifact signing workflows using sigstore and Rekor
Key concepts
- SLSA levels
- SBOM (SPDX/CycloneDX)
- sigstore
- in-toto
- dependency review
- artifact signing
- Rekor transparency log
Levels: Junior, Mid, Senior, and Expert
Explain it in your own words
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Frequently asked questions
Where should I start studying DevOps?
Start with CI/CD & OS Fundamentals: Version Control Workflows, Build Automation, and Continuous Integration. The map orders topics by what they depend on, so each one prepares the next.
How long does a full DevOps assessment take?
A full assessment of this path takes about 45 minutes. Study time depends on where you start; a diagnostic shows which topics you can skip.
Do I need an account to use this page?
No. The map, objectives and key concepts are open. You only need an account to be measured, get your gap by topic and receive a plan.