SadServers: Linux, DevOps & SRE Labs | Interview & Hiring Assessment

Troubleshooting Scenarios: Infrastructure As Code

Linux & Bash

- Linux commands, Bash scripting
- Systemd
- Networking, DNS
- Storage
- SSH, Firewall
- Libraries
- Cron and more...

Web Servers

- Nginx
- Apache
- HAProxy
- Caddy
- Gunicorn
- uWSGI
- HTTPS/TLS

Databases

- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- SQLite
- Redis
- ClickHouse
- MongoDB
- etcd

Data Processing

- CSV
- JSON
- SQL queries

Docker

- Building images
- Multi-stage builds
- Volumes
- Networks
- Docker Compose
- Podman

Kubernetes

- kubectl
- Helm
- K8S Roles & Permissions
- Services
- Namespaces
- Deployments, StatefulSets
- ConfigMaps, Secrets

Infrastructure As Code

- Ansible
- Terraform

Observability

- ELK
- Prometheus

Tooling / Applications

- Git
- Rabbitmq
- Envoy
- Vault
- Harbor
- Jenkins

Hacking

- Capture the Flag (CTF) Challenges
- Code Vulnerabilities
- Privilege Escalation

Languages

- Python
- Golang
- PHP
- Java
- Node.js
- C

ansible terraform

realistic / interviews new pro

Medium

#	Name	Time	Type
1	"Modena": Ansible Deploy Won't Publish	30 m	Fix Pro New	"Modena": Ansible Deploy Won't Publish Scenario: "Modena": Ansible Deploy Won't Publish Level: Medium Type: Fix Access: Paid Description: This host publishes an internal status page by running Ansible locally against the Docker container status-app (port `8888` on localhost maps to the container's HTTP port). The playbook tree lives in /home/admin/deploy/. After a refactor, `ansible-playbook site.yml` no longer leaves a working status endpoint — `curl http://localhost:8888/` does not return the expected line. Fix the Ansible project and run the playbook successfully so the status page is served from the container. Test: `curl http://localhost:8888/` returns a first line of `SadServers - Modena OK`. The "Check My Solution" button runs the script /home/admin/agent/check.sh, which you can see and execute. Time to Solve: 30 minutes.
2	"Parma": Debugging Terraform Issues	20 m	Fix New	"Parma": Debugging Terraform Issues Scenario: "Parma": Debugging Terraform Issues Level: Medium Type: Fix Access: Email Description: This host publishes a machine-readable status marker using Terraform with a local backend. The project lives in /home/admin/infra/ and should write /var/local/platform-status.txt. After a refactor, `terraform plan` and `terraform apply` no longer succeed, and the status file is missing or stale. Fix the Terraform project and apply it so the marker is published again. (Note: Internet access is not needed). Test: The first line of /var/local/platform-status.txt is `SadServers - Parma OK`. Running `terraform plan` in /home/admin/infra/ reports no changes pending (clean state). The "Check My Solution" button runs the script /home/admin/agent/check.sh, which you can see and execute. Time to Solve: 20 minutes.