Blog
Field guides for broken infrastructure, and opinions on hiring the people who fix it.
15 posts
SRE interview prep: a 4-week plan built on practice, not flashcards
SRE interview preparation as a 4-week training plan: Linux fundamentals, Kubernetes debugging, incident scenarios, and communication - with drills for each.
CreateContainerConfigError: the ConfigMap/Secret mistakes behind it
CreateContainerConfigError decoded: every ConfigMap and Secret mistake that causes it, the exact describe events, and the fastest fix for each.
High load average: what it actually measures and how to debug it
High load average on Linux doesn't always mean busy CPUs. What load really counts, how to split CPU from I/O wait, and a vmstat/pidstat/iostat path.
HackerRank alternatives for DevOps and SRE hiring
Honest HackerRank alternatives for DevOps and SRE hiring: what code sandboxes can't test, and which platforms put candidates on real infrastructure.
SRE interview questions: scenarios beat trivia
SRE interview questions built as scenarios beat trivia every time. Real prompts, what strong and weak answers look like, and how to score them fairly.
OOMKilled and exit code 137: finding the real memory hog
OOMKilled Kubernetes pods and exit code 137: how to read Last State, use kubectl top, dodge JVM container traps, and decide raise-the-limit vs fix-the-leak.
Blast radius: measuring what you broke while fixing
Blast radius is what a candidate broke or risked while fixing the fault. Why it's the most predictive hiring signal that nobody is measuring today.
How to prepare for a Kubernetes troubleshooting interview
Kubernetes interview preparation that actually works: what troubleshooting interviews test, a weekly practice loop, and the command fluency list to drill.
CrashLoopBackOff vs ImagePullBackOff vs Error: a pod status taxonomy
A field map of every Kubernetes pod status - CrashLoopBackOff, ImagePullBackOff, Pending, Error - and the first command to run for each one.
Disk full: find it, fix it, and the du/df mismatch
df says the disk is full but du can't find the files? A field guide to disk full errors on Linux: lsof +L1, deleted-but-open files, inodes, safe cleanup.
SadServers vs HackTheBox vs Faultybox: hands-on practice compared
Looking for a SadServers alternative or a HackTheBox comparison? An honest look at hands-on practice platforms and graded infrastructure interviews.
Kubernetes interview questions that actually predict skill
Most Kubernetes interview questions test vocabulary, not skill. Here are scenario questions that predict debugging ability, with strong and weak answers.
Fixing ImagePullBackOff: every cause, fastest check first
Every cause of kubernetes ImagePullBackOff, ordered fastest check first: image typos, missing tags, registry auth, Docker Hub rate limits, and network failures.
The take-home test is dead. Engineers killed it, AI buried it.
Take-home tests were losing candidates before LLMs made them unverifiable. The alternatives to take-home tests, and why the replacement has to test the job.
Debugging CrashLoopBackOff in Kubernetes: a field guide
What CrashLoopBackOff really means, how to read the exit code, and the 8 causes it comes from - each with the fastest diagnostic path first.