30-Day Docker & DevOps Mastery: 300 Questions

(Beginner to Senior Engineer)

Day 1: Docker Fundamentals - Basics & Installation
1. Install Docker on your system and verify the installation
Install Docker Desktop (Windows/Mac) or Docker Engine (Linux)

Run docker --version and docker info

Explain what the Docker daemon is and how it differs from the Docker CLI

Document any issues you encountered and how you resolved them

2. Run your first container using the official "hello-world" image

Execute docker run hello-world

Explain what happened step by step (image pull, container creation, execution)

What is a Docker image vs a Docker container?

Where are Docker images stored locally on your system?

3. Pull and run an Ubuntu container interactively

Pull the ubuntu:latest image explicitly

Run it with interactive terminal access ( -it flags)

Execute basic commands inside (ls, pwd, whoami)

Exit the container and explain what happened to it

4. Understand container lifecycle - run, stop, start, restart

Run an nginx container in detached mode with --name my-nginx

Use docker ps to see running containers

Stop, start, and restart the container using its name

What's the difference between docker stop and docker kill ?

5. Inspect container logs and monitor running processes

Run a container that outputs logs continuously (e.g., docker run -d ubuntu bash -c "while true; do echo
Hello; sleep 2; done" )

View logs using docker logs with different options (-f, --tail, --since)
 Use docker top to see processes inside the container

What's the difference between attached and detached mode?

6. Execute commands in a running container

Start an nginx container

Use docker exec to run bash inside the running container

Modify a file inside the container (e.g., /etc/nginx/[Link])

Explain why these changes won't persist if you remove and recreate the container

7. Understand container resource usage and statistics

Run multiple containers (nginx, redis, postgres)

Use docker stats to monitor CPU, memory, network usage

What are the default resource limits for containers?

How would you limit a container to use only 512MB of RAM and 1 CPU?

8. Remove containers and clean up Docker resources

Create multiple stopped containers

Remove individual containers using docker rm

Use docker container prune to remove all stopped containers

What's the difference between docker rm and docker rmi ?

How do you remove all containers, images, and volumes at once?

9. Work with container ports and port mapping

Run nginx container and map port 80 to host port 8080

Access the nginx welcome page from your browser

Run another nginx on port 8081

Explain the difference between EXPOSE in Dockerfile and -p flag

What happens if you don't specify port mapping?

10. Understand Docker architecture - daemon, client, registry

Draw a diagram showing Docker architecture components

Explain the role of Docker daemon, Docker client, and Docker registry

What is Docker Hub and how does it relate to your local setup?
 Trace the flow when you run docker run ubuntu : where does it check for images?

What is containerd and how does it relate to Docker?

Day 2: Docker Images - Building Blocks

11. Explore Docker images and image layers
Pull different versions of the same image (ubuntu:20.04, ubuntu:22.04)

Use docker images to list all images

Use docker history ubuntu:latest to see image layers

Why are Docker images built in layers? What's the benefit?

12. Understand image tags and versioning

Pull multiple tags of nginx image (nginx:alpine, nginx:1.24, nginx:latest)

What does the "latest" tag mean? Is it always the newest version?

Explain semantic versioning in Docker image tags

How would you tag your own image for development, staging, and production?

13. Inspect image details and metadata

Use docker inspect nginx to view detailed image information

Find the exposed ports, environment variables, and default command

What is the difference between CMD and ENTRYPOINT in image metadata?

How can you view the Dockerfile instructions that built an image?

14. Search and pull images from Docker Hub

Search for "postgres" images on Docker Hub using CLI

Compare official vs community images - how to identify official images?

Pull a specific version of postgres (postgres:14-alpine)

What are the security implications of using unverified images?

15. Understand image registries and repositories

What is the difference between a registry, repository, and tag?

Explain the full image name format: registry/repository:tag

Where is Docker Hub in the image name "nginx:latest"?

 What are alternative registries to Docker Hub? (ECR, GCR, ACR, Harbor)

16. Create your first custom Docker image using commit

Run an ubuntu container interactively

Install curl and vim inside the container

Commit the container to create a new image named "ubuntu-custom"

Create a container from your new image and verify curl is installed

Why is this method not recommended for production?

17. Understand image size optimization

Compare the sizes of ubuntu:latest and alpine:latest

Why is alpine so much smaller? What trade-offs does it make?

Pull both nginx:latest and nginx:alpine, compare sizes

When would you choose alpine over standard distributions?

18. Work with multi-architecture images

Use docker manifest inspect nginx to see supported architectures

What is a manifest list in Docker?

How does Docker handle running amd64 images on arm64 systems?

Pull and run an arm64 image if you're on amd64 (or vice versa)

19. Export and import images as tar files

Save an nginx image to a tar file using docker save

Delete the nginx image from your local system

Load the image back from the tar file using docker load

When would you use save/load vs export/import?

What's the difference between docker save and docker export ?

20. Understand image digests and immutability

Pull an image using its digest instead of tag (e.g., nginx@sha256:...)

Why are digests important for security and reproducibility?

What happens to the digest when you push the same tag multiple times?

Explain how content-addressable storage works in Docker

Day 3: Dockerfile Basics - Creating Custom Images
21. Write your first Dockerfile with basic instructions
Create a Dockerfile that starts FROM ubuntu:22.04

Use RUN to install curl and python3

Set a CMD to run python3 --version

Build the image with docker build -t my-python-app .

Run a container from your image and verify it works

22. Understand the difference between RUN, CMD, and ENTRYPOINT

Create three different Dockerfiles demonstrating each

Dockerfile 1: Use RUN to install packages

Dockerfile 2: Use CMD with shell form vs exec form

Dockerfile 3: Use ENTRYPOINT and show how CMD becomes arguments

What happens when you override CMD vs ENTRYPOINT at runtime?

23. Work with COPY and ADD instructions

Create a simple HTML file on your host

Write a Dockerfile that copies it into an nginx container

Build and run the container, verify your HTML is served

What's the difference between COPY and ADD?

Why is COPY preferred over ADD in most cases?

24. Set environment variables in Dockerfile

Create a Dockerfile with ENV instructions setting APP_ENV=development

Use the environment variable in RUN commands

Override the environment variable at runtime with -e flag

What's the difference between ENV and ARG?

25. Understand WORKDIR and its importance

Create a Dockerfile without WORKDIR, see where files are created

Refactor to use WORKDIR /app

 Explain why WORKDIR is better than RUN cd /app

Can you have multiple WORKDIR instructions? What happens?

26. Implement EXPOSE instruction for documentation

Create a simple Python Flask app that runs on port 5000

Write a Dockerfile that EXPOSE 5000

Build and run the container with proper port mapping

Does EXPOSE actually publish the port? What's its real purpose?

27. Use LABEL to add metadata to your images

Add labels for version, maintainer, description in your Dockerfile

Build the image and inspect labels with docker inspect

Why are labels important for image management?

What are some common label conventions (OCI annotations)?

28. Understand build context and .dockerignore

Create a project with large files (node_modules, .git)

Build without .dockerignore and observe the build time

Create .dockerignore to exclude unnecessary files

Rebuild and compare - why is the second build faster?

What files should always be in .dockerignore?

29. Use ARG for build-time variables

Create a Dockerfile with ARG for BASE_IMAGE version

Use the ARG to set the FROM instruction dynamically

Build the image with --build-arg to change the base image

What's the difference between ARG and ENV?

Can ARG values be seen in the final image?

30. Build a complete [Link] application image

Create a simple [Link] app with [Link] and [Link]

Write a Dockerfile that: uses node:18-alpine, copies files, runs npm install, exposes 3000, starts the app

Build and run the container

 Access your app from the browser

What can be improved in this basic Dockerfile?

Day 4: Dockerfile Optimization & Best Practices

31. Implement layer caching for faster builds
Build a [Link] Dockerfile that copies all files then runs npm install

Make a small change to your code and rebuild - observe full npm install

Refactor: copy [Link] first, run npm install, then copy code

Rebuild and observe cached npm install layer

Explain Docker's layer caching mechanism

32. Minimize image layers by combining RUN commands

Create a Dockerfile with multiple RUN instructions installing packages

Use docker history to count layers

Combine all RUN commands using && and \

Compare final image sizes and layer counts

What's the trade-off between readability and layer optimization?

33. Implement multi-stage builds for smaller images

Build a Go application with a standard Dockerfile (results in 800MB+ image)

Refactor using multi-stage build: compile stage + runtime stage

Compare image sizes (should reduce to ~10-20MB)

Explain how multi-stage builds work

What are the benefits beyond size reduction?

34. Use build cache mounts for dependency caching

Write a Dockerfile using BuildKit's --mount=type=cache for npm/pip cache

Build multiple times and observe faster dependency installation

What is BuildKit and how do you enable it?

How do cache mounts differ from layer caching?

35. Implement security best practices - non-root user

 Create a Dockerfile that creates a non-root user

Use USER instruction to switch to that user

Run the container and verify you're not root inside

Why is running as root a security risk?

What challenges arise when using non-root users?

36. Scan images for vulnerabilities

Install Docker Scout or use docker scan command

Scan an ubuntu:latest image for vulnerabilities

Scan an alpine-based image and compare results

Interpret the vulnerability report (Critical, High, Medium, Low)

What steps would you take to remediate vulnerabilities?

37. Use specific image tags instead of latest

Build an image using FROM node:latest

Rebuild a month later - potentially different base image!

Refactor to use specific version: FROM node:18.17.0-alpine3.18

Why is using "latest" problematic in production?

What's a good tagging strategy for your own images?

38. Implement health checks in Dockerfile

Create a web application Dockerfile

Add HEALTHCHECK instruction that curls the app endpoint

Run the container and monitor health status with docker ps

What happens when a health check fails repeatedly?

How do orchestrators like Kubernetes use health checks?

39. Optimize Python application images

Create a Python Dockerfile that installs [Link]

Implement multi-stage build separating build dependencies

Use .dockerignore for .pyc files and pycache

Set PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE and PYTHONUNBUFFERED env vars

 Why are these Python-specific optimizations important?

40. Build a complete production-ready Dockerfile

Choose a real application ([Link], Python, or Go)

Implement: multi-stage build, non-root user, health check, specific tags, minimal layers, .dockerignore

Build and run the optimized image

Document all optimization decisions made

Compare with a naive Dockerfile approach

Day 5: Docker Networking Fundamentals

41. Understand default bridge network
Run two containers without specifying network

Try to ping one container from another using IP address

Use docker network inspect bridge to see connected containers

What are the limitations of the default bridge network?

42. Create and use custom bridge networks

Create a custom bridge network named "my-app-network"

Run two containers attached to this network

Ping containers by name (not IP) - observe DNS resolution

Why is custom bridge network better than default bridge?

43. Implement container-to-container communication

Run a MySQL container on custom network

Run a WordPress container on same network

Configure WordPress to connect to MySQL using container name

Verify the application works

Explain how DNS resolution works in Docker networks

44. Understand host network mode

Run a container with --network host

What's the difference between host and bridge networking?

 When would you use host networking?

What are the security implications?

45. Explore none network mode

Run a container with --network none

Verify no network interfaces exist (except loopback)

What use cases exist for no networking?

How is this useful for security?

46. Connect containers to multiple networks

Create two networks: "frontend" and "backend"

Run a database on "backend" only

Run an API server connected to both networks

Run a web server on "frontend" only

Verify web server can reach API but not database directly

47. Inspect network details and troubleshoot connectivity

Use docker network ls to list all networks

Use docker network inspect to see connected containers

Run docker exec to get into a container and use ping, curl, nslookup

What tools should you install in containers for network debugging?

48. Implement port publishing and understand the difference

Run nginx with -p 8080:80 (explicit mapping)

Run another with -p 80 (random host port)

Run another with -P (publish all exposed ports)

Use docker port command to check mappings

Explain iptables rules Docker creates for port forwarding

49. Work with container IP addresses

Run a container and find its IP using docker inspect

Access the container using its internal IP from host (may not work on Mac/Windows)

Why can't you access container IPs directly on Docker Desktop?

 Explain the difference between Docker on Linux vs Mac/Windows

50. Clean up networks and handle naming conflicts

Create multiple networks and containers

Try to remove a network that has connected containers

Disconnect containers properly and remove networks

Use docker network prune to clean unused networks

What happens to containers when their network is removed?

Day 6: Docker Volumes & Data Persistence

51. Understand container filesystem and data loss
Run a postgres container and create some data

Stop and remove the container

Run a new postgres container - observe data is gone

Explain why containers are ephemeral and stateless by default

52. Create and use named volumes

Create a volume using docker volume create my-data

Run a postgres container mounting this volume to /var/lib/postgresql/data

Create data, remove container, start new container with same volume

Verify data persisted - how and where is volume data stored on host?

53. Use bind mounts to mount host directories

Create a directory on your host with [Link]

Run nginx with -v $(pwd):/usr/share/nginx/html

Modify [Link] on host, refresh browser - see live changes

What's the difference between volumes and bind mounts?

54. Implement read-only mounts for security

Mount a configuration file as read-only using :ro flag

Try to modify the file from inside container - should fail

When would you use read-only mounts?

 How does this improve security?

55. Share volumes between multiple containers

Create a volume and mount it to a container that writes data

Mount the same volume to another container that reads data

Verify both containers can access the same data

What are the use cases for shared volumes?

56. Use tmpfs mounts for sensitive temporary data

Run a container with --tmpfs /tmp

Write sensitive data to /tmp inside container

Stop container and verify data is gone (not persisted to host)

When would you use tmpfs instead of volumes?

57. Backup and restore volume data

Create a volume with important data

Run a temporary container to tar the volume contents to host

Delete the volume and create a new one

Restore from the tar backup

Document the complete backup/restore procedure

58. Understand volume drivers and plugins

List available volume drivers using docker volume ls

What is the default volume driver (local)?

Research alternative drivers: NFS, AWS EBS, GlusterFS

When would you use a non-local volume driver?

59. Inspect and manage volumes

Use docker volume ls to list volumes

Use docker volume inspect to see mount point and driver

Find where Docker stores volumes on your host filesystem

Use docker volume prune to remove unused volumes

What's the difference between dangling and unused volumes?

60. Build a database container with persistent storage
Run MySQL with a named volume for data directory

Run phpMyAdmin or another client connecting to MySQL

Create databases and tables

Test complete container recreation while preserving data

Document best practices for database containers

Day 7: Docker Compose Basics

61. Install Docker Compose and verify installation
Install Docker Compose (comes with Docker Desktop)

Run docker compose version

What's the difference between docker-compose (v1) and docker compose (v2)?

62. Create your first [Link] file

Define a simple service running nginx

Specify image, container_name, and ports

Run docker compose up

Access the service and then bring it down

What files does Compose create in the directory?

63. Define multiple services in Compose

Create a wordpress and mysql setup in [Link]

Define both services with proper configuration

Use docker compose up -d to run in detached mode

Verify the application works

Use docker compose logs to view logs

64. Understand Compose networking (default)

Observe that Compose creates a default network

Services can reach each other by service name

Use docker compose ps to see running services

 Inspect the network Compose created

What's the naming convention for Compose networks?

65. Work with environment variables in Compose

Define environment variables in the service definition

Create a .env file with variables

Reference .env variables in [Link]

Override variables using docker compose up --env-file

What's the precedence order for environment variables?

66. Implement depends_on for service dependencies

Create a web app that depends on a database

Use depends_on to ensure database starts first

What are the limitations of depends_on?

How does depends_on differ from actual readiness checking?

67. Define volumes in Docker Compose

Add a named volume for database persistence

Add a bind mount for application code

Use the volumes: top-level key

What's the difference between anonymous, named, and host volumes in Compose?

68. Use build context in Compose

Create a custom Dockerfile for your application

Instead of image:, use build: with context and dockerfile

Run docker compose build to build images

Run docker compose up and verify custom image is used

What's the difference between compose build and compose up --build ?

69. Scale services with Compose

Create a simple web service

Use docker compose up --scale web=3 to run 3 instances

What happens to port mapping when scaling?

 Use a load balancer to distribute traffic across instances

70. Compose commands - logs, exec, down, restart

Practice: docker compose logs -f service-name

Execute commands: docker compose exec service-name bash

Restart services: docker compose restart

Remove everything: docker compose down -v

What's the difference between stop, down, and down -v?

Day 8: Advanced Docker Compose

71. Create custom networks in Compose
Define multiple networks: frontend and backend

Attach services to specific networks

Ensure web server can't directly access database

Test network isolation

How do custom networks improve security?

72. Use health checks in Compose

Add healthcheck configuration for a database service

Configure test, interval, timeout, retries, start_period

Use condition: service_healthy in depends_on

Observe startup order with proper health checking

Why are health checks critical in production?

73. Implement restart policies

Configure different restart policies: no, always, on-failure, unless-stopped

Test each by killing containers manually

Which restart policy is appropriate for production?

What's the difference between always and unless-stopped?

74. Use Compose profiles for different environments

Create profiles: dev, test, prod
 Assign services to specific profiles

Run docker compose --profile dev up

How do profiles help manage multiple environments?

75. Implement secrets management in Compose

Create secret files for sensitive data

Reference secrets in [Link]

Mount secrets into containers at /run/secrets/

Compare this approach vs environment variables for secrets

What are the limitations of Compose secrets?

76. Override Compose files for different environments

Create [Link] as base

Create [Link] for local development

Create [Link] for production

Use -f flag to specify files

What's the merge strategy when using multiple Compose files?

77. Use variables and interpolation in Compose

Use ${VARIABLE} syntax in [Link]

Provide defaults: ${VARIABLE:-default}

Use variable substitution for image tags, ports, volumes

What's the difference between $VARIABLE and ${VARIABLE}?

78. Implement resource limits in Compose

Set CPU and memory limits for services

Use deploy: resources: limits: and reservations:

Test by running resource-intensive tasks

Monitor with docker stats

Why is deploy: key only for Swarm? How to use it with Compose?

79. Configure logging in Compose

Set logging driver (json-file, syslog, etc.)
 Configure log options: max-size, max-file

Use docker compose logs with filters

Where are container logs stored by default?

80. Build a complete multi-tier application with Compose

Create: frontend (React/nginx), backend API ([Link]/Python), database (Postgres), cache (Redis)

Define all services with proper networking

Implement health checks, volumes, environment variables

Test the complete stack

Document the architecture

Day 9: CI/CD Basics & Version Control Integration

81. Set up a Git repository for your Docker project
Initialize a Git repo with .gitignore for Docker

Commit Dockerfile and [Link]

What files should never be committed? (secrets, volumes data)

Create a proper .gitignore for Docker projects

82. Implement automated builds with GitHub Actions

Create .github/workflows/[Link]

Configure workflow to build Docker image on push

Use official docker/build-push-action

Trigger the workflow and verify it runs

What are the benefits of automated builds?

83. Build and push images to Docker Hub in CI

Create Docker Hub account and repository

Configure GitHub Actions secrets for Docker Hub credentials

Modify workflow to login and push to Docker Hub

Verify image appears on Docker Hub

How do you handle authentication securely?

84. Implement image tagging strategy in CI
Tag images with git commit SHA

Tag with branch name (main, develop)

Tag with version number from tags

Push multiple tags for the same image

Why are multiple tags important?

85. Use Docker layer caching in CI/CD

Configure GitHub Actions to cache Docker layers

Use docker/build-push-action cache options

Compare build times with and without caching

What's the trade-off between cache size and build speed?

86. Run tests inside Docker containers in CI

Create a multi-stage Dockerfile with a test stage

Configure CI to run tests before building final image

Fail the build if tests fail

How does this ensure quality?

87. Implement vulnerability scanning in CI pipeline

Add Trivy or Snyk scanning step in GitHub Actions

Scan built images for vulnerabilities

Fail builds on high/critical vulnerabilities

Generate and store scan reports

How do you handle false positives?

88. Use matrix builds for multiple architectures

Configure GitHub Actions to build for amd64 and arm64

Use Docker Buildx for multi-platform builds

Push manifest with both architectures

Test pulling on different platforms

Why is multi-architecture support important?

89. Implement continuous deployment to a staging environment
Set up a remote server (AWS EC2, DigitalOcean, etc.)

Configure SSH access from GitHub Actions

Deploy latest image to server on successful build

Restart services using docker compose on remote

What are the security considerations for CD?

90. Create a complete CI/CD pipeline

Combine all previous steps: build, test, scan, push, deploy

Add notifications (Slack, email) on success/failure

Implement environment-specific deployments (dev, staging, prod)

Document the entire pipeline

What improvements could be made?

Day 10: Container Orchestration Introduction

91. Understand the limitations of running containers manually
List challenges: scaling, health monitoring, load balancing, updates

What happens when a container crashes?

How do you distribute load across multiple hosts?

Why is manual container management not viable at scale?

92. Introduction to Docker Swarm basics

Initialize a Swarm cluster: docker swarm init

Understand managers vs workers

Deploy a simple service: docker service create

Scale the service: docker service scale

How does Swarm handle service discovery?

93. Introduction to Kubernetes concepts

Install minikube or kind for local Kubernetes

Understand Pods, Services, Deployments

 Run kubectl run nginx --image=nginx

Expose it as a service

Compare Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm philosophies

94. Deploy a multi-container app to Swarm

Convert [Link] to Swarm stack

Deploy with docker stack deploy

Scale services independently

How does service networking work in Swarm?

95. Implement rolling updates in Swarm

Deploy a service with version 1 of your app

Update to version 2 using docker service update

Observe gradual rollout

What's the difference between replicated and global services?

96. Understand service discovery and load balancing

Deploy multiple replicas of a service

Access the service and observe load distribution

How does Swarm's routing mesh work?

What is VIP (Virtual IP) mode?

97. Implement health checks in orchestration

Define health checks in service definition

Deploy services with health checks

Kill a container and observe Swarm recreating it

How do orchestrators use health checks differently than standalone Docker?

98. Use configs and secrets in Swarm

Create a Docker config for configuration files

Create a Docker secret for passwords

Reference them in service definitions

How are secrets stored and distributed securely?

 99. Implement persistent storage in orchestrated environments
Understand challenges of volumes in clustered environments

Use volume plugins for shared storage

What happens when a container moves to another node?

Research solutions: NFS, GlusterFS, Ceph

100. Monitor and troubleshoot orchestrated services

Use docker service ls and docker service ps

Check service logs across all replicas

Inspect service configuration

What tools exist for better observability?

Day 11: Monitoring & Logging

101. Set up container logging with Docker logging drivers
Configure json-file logging driver with rotation

Test with syslog driver

Try the fluentd driver

What are the pros/cons of each driver?

102. Implement centralized logging with ELK stack

Deploy Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana using Compose

Configure Docker to send logs to Logstash

View and search logs in Kibana

Why is centralized logging important?

103. Use Prometheus for container metrics

Deploy Prometheus using Docker

Configure it to scrape Docker metrics

Use cAdvisor for container-level metrics

Query metrics using PromQL

104. Create Grafana dashboards for monitoring

 Deploy Grafana alongside Prometheus

Connect Grafana to Prometheus as data source

Create dashboards showing CPU, memory, network per container

Set up alerts for high resource usage

105. Implement health check monitoring and alerting

Monitor container health status programmatically

Set up alerts when containers become unhealthy

Create a simple script to restart unhealthy containers

What are the limitations of simple health checks?

106. Use Docker events for real-time monitoring

Use docker events to watch container lifecycle events

Filter events by type (start, stop, die, kill)

Create a script that reacts to specific events

How can events be used for automation?

107. Implement distributed tracing for microservices

Deploy Jaeger tracing system

Instrument a simple microservices app with tracing

View traces showing request flow across services

Why is distributed tracing critical in microservices?

108. Monitor application performance (APM)

Deploy an APM solution (New Relic, Datadog, or open-source alternative)

Instrument your application to report metrics

View application-level performance data

What's the difference between infrastructure and application monitoring?

109. Set up log aggregation with Loki

Deploy Grafana Loki for log aggregation

Configure promtail to ship container logs

Query logs using LogQL in Grafana

 Compare Loki vs ELK stack (advantages/disadvantages)

110. Create a complete observability stack

Combine: Prometheus (metrics), Loki (logs), Jaeger (traces)

Visualize everything in Grafana

Set up unified dashboards showing metrics, logs, and traces

Document best practices for production observability

Day 12: Security Best Practices

111. Implement Docker Content Trust for image signing
Enable Docker Content Trust (DCT)

Sign and push images to registry

Pull images with verification

What protection does image signing provide?

How does DCT prevent man-in-the-middle attacks?

112. Scan images for vulnerabilities with multiple tools

Use Trivy to scan images

Use Snyk for vulnerability scanning

Compare results from different scanners

Create a policy: no Critical vulnerabilities allowed

How do you prioritize vulnerability remediation?

113. Implement least privilege with user namespaces

Enable user namespace remapping in Docker daemon

Run containers as non-root users

Verify reduced privileges with id command

What are the compatibility challenges with user namespaces?

114. Use read-only root filesystems

Run containers with --read-only flag

Use tmpfs for temporary writes

 Identify which applications can run read-only

How does read-only FS prevent attacks?

115. Implement security scanning in CI/CD pipeline

Add Trivy scanning to GitHub Actions

Fail builds on Critical/High vulnerabilities

Generate SARIF reports for GitHub Security tab

Set up automated PR comments with scan results

116. Use Docker secrets for sensitive data

Never use ENV for passwords or keys

Store secrets in Docker secrets or external vaults

Mount secrets as files, not environment variables

Why are secrets in ENV variables dangerous?

117. Implement network segmentation and firewalls

Create isolated networks for different tiers

Use iptables rules to restrict container traffic

Implement egress filtering (whitelist outbound)

Why is network segmentation critical for security?

118. Audit Docker daemon configuration

Review Docker [Link] for security settings

Disable inter-container communication if not needed

Enable audit logging for Docker daemon

Use CIS Docker Benchmark to audit configuration

What are the most critical daemon security settings?

119. Implement resource limits to prevent DoS

Set CPU and memory limits on all containers

Set PID limits to prevent fork bombs

Configure ulimits for file descriptors, processes

How do resource limits protect against attacks?

120. Use AppArmor/SELinux for mandatory access control
Understand Docker's default AppArmor/SELinux profiles

Create custom security profiles

Run containers with specific security profiles

What additional protection does MAC provide?

Day 13: Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

121. Introduction to Infrastructure as Code concepts
Define IaC and its benefits

Compare declarative vs imperative approaches

Why is IaC important for DevOps?

What problems does IaC solve?

122. Use Terraform to provision Docker infrastructure

Install Terraform

Write Terraform config to create Docker networks

Create containers using Terraform Docker provider

Apply and destroy infrastructure

What are Terraform's advantages over manual provisioning?

123. Manage Docker resources with Terraform modules

Create reusable Terraform modules for common patterns

Module for web server + database setup

Use variables and outputs

How do modules promote reusability?

124. Implement Ansible for Docker container management

Install Ansible

Write playbooks to install Docker

Deploy containers using docker_container module

Manage docker-compose with Ansible

 When would you choose Ansible over Terraform?

125. Use Ansible roles for Docker application deployment

Create Ansible roles for: Docker installation, app deployment, monitoring

Organize playbooks with proper directory structure

Use inventory for multiple environments

How do roles improve organization?

126. Implement version control for infrastructure

Store all IaC code in Git

Use branches for different environments

Implement code review process for infrastructure changes

Tag infrastructure versions

Why is version control critical for IaC?

127. Use Vagrant for local development environments

Create Vagrantfile defining VM with Docker

Provision Docker and containers automatically

Share development environment with team

How does Vagrant ensure consistency?

128. Implement infrastructure testing

Write tests for Terraform using Terratest

Use Ansible's --check mode for dry runs

Test container deployments before production

What should you test in infrastructure code?

129. Use Pulumi as code-first IaC alternative

Install Pulumi and choose a language (Python, TypeScript)

Write code to provision Docker infrastructure

Compare Pulumi vs Terraform approaches

What are the benefits of real programming languages?

130. Create a complete IaC pipeline

 Write IaC code (Terraform/Ansible)

Set up CI/CD to validate and apply changes

Implement plan/apply workflow with approvals

Store state securely (S3, Terraform Cloud)

Document the complete workflow

Day 14: Container Registry Management

131. Push and pull images from Docker Hub
Create Docker Hub account

Tag images with your username

Push images using docker push

Make repositories public and private

What are Docker Hub rate limits?

132. Set up a private Docker registry

Deploy registry:2 container

Configure TLS certificates

Push and pull images to private registry

Why would you run your own registry?

133. Implement authentication for private registry

Set up basic auth for registry

Configure Docker to authenticate

Use htpasswd for user management

How do you rotate credentials?

134. Use Harbor as enterprise registry

Deploy Harbor using docker-compose

Configure projects and RBAC

Enable vulnerability scanning

Set up image replication

 What advantages does Harbor provide?

135. Implement image retention policies

Configure policies to delete old images

Keep only last N versions or recent images

Set up tag pattern matching

Why is retention important for storage management?

136. Set up image promotion between registries

Create dev, staging, prod registries/repos

Implement process to promote images through environments

Use image digests for immutability

How does promotion ensure stability?

137. Configure registry mirroring and caching

Set up registry pull-through cache

Configure Docker daemon to use mirror

Reduce external bandwidth usage

What are the benefits of registry caching?

138. Implement registry webhooks

Configure webhooks on image push

Trigger CI/CD pipelines from registry events

Send notifications on new images

What automation opportunities do webhooks enable?

139. Use cloud-managed registries (ECR, GCR, ACR)

Set up AWS ECR (or GCR/ACR)

Configure authentication (IAM, service accounts)

Push and pull images

Enable scanning and lifecycle policies

Compare cloud vs self-hosted registries

140. Implement garbage collection for registries

 Understand registry storage layout

Run garbage collection to reclaim space

Automate garbage collection process

What happens if you don't run garbage collection?

Day 15: Advanced Networking

141. Implement custom DNS for containers
Configure custom DNS servers for containers

Use --dns flag and [Link] configuration

Set up DNS search domains

Why would you need custom DNS?

142. Create overlay networks for multi-host communication

Initialize Docker Swarm or use standalone overlay

Create overlay network

Connect containers on different hosts

How does overlay networking work (VXLAN)?

143. Implement service mesh concepts with Linkerd

Deploy Linkerd service mesh

Inject sidecar proxies into containers

Observe traffic metrics and tracing

What problems do service meshes solve?

144. Use macvlan for direct network access

Create macvlan network

Assign containers real IPs on physical network

When would you use macvlan over bridge?

What are the limitations?

145. Implement network policies and firewall rules

Use iptables to restrict container traffic
 Create rules for ingress and egress

Implement allowlist approach

How do you debug network policy issues?

146. Configure IPv6 for Docker containers

Enable IPv6 in Docker daemon

Create IPv6 networks

Run containers with IPv6 addresses

What challenges exist with IPv6 adoption?

147. Use network namespaces directly

Understand Linux network namespaces

Create network namespace manually

Move interfaces between namespaces

How does Docker use network namespaces?

148. Implement ingress load balancing

Deploy Traefik or nginx as ingress controller

Configure routing based on hostnames/paths

Implement SSL/TLS termination

How does ingress differ from NodePort?

149. Monitor and troubleshoot network performance

Use iperf to measure bandwidth between containers

Use tcpdump to capture packets

Analyze network latency issues

What tools are essential for network debugging?

150. Design a complete network architecture

Design multi-tier application network

Implement: frontend network, backend network, database network

Add load balancer and ingress

Document network topology and security zones

Day 16: Performance Optimization
151. Benchmark container performance
Use tools like sysbench, stress-ng

Measure CPU, memory, disk I/O performance

Compare bare metal vs container performance

What overhead does containerization add?

152. Optimize container startup time

Measure current startup times

Reduce image size (smaller base images)

Parallelize operations in Dockerfile

Use multi-stage builds efficiently

How much did you improve startup time?

153. Implement proper resource allocation

Set appropriate CPU and memory limits

Use CPU shares vs CPU quotas

Configure memory swappiness

What happens when containers exceed limits?

154. Optimize image pull times

Use smaller base images

Implement layer caching effectively

Use local registry or mirror

Pre-pull images on nodes

How much faster are Alpine-based images?

155. Use BuildKit for faster builds

Enable BuildKit (DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1)

Use cache mounts and secret mounts

Implement parallel build stages

 Compare build times with and without BuildKit

156. Implement caching strategies

Application-level caching (Redis, Memcached)

HTTP caching with Varnish or nginx

Database query caching

Where should cache containers run?

157. Optimize database containers

Tune database configuration for containers

Use appropriate storage drivers

Implement connection pooling

Monitor query performance

What's different about databases in containers?

158. Profile application performance in containers

Use profiling tools (pprof, py-spy, perf)

Identify bottlenecks (CPU, I/O, network)

Optimize hot code paths

How does containerization affect profiling?

159. Implement horizontal scaling

Deploy multiple replicas of services

Use load balancer to distribute traffic

Measure performance improvement

When should you scale horizontally vs vertically?

160. Create a performance testing environment

Set up load testing with k6 or Apache JMeter

Test application under various loads

Monitor resource usage during tests

Document performance characteristics and limits

Day 17: Backup and Disaster Recovery
161. Implement automated volume backups
Create scripts to backup Docker volumes

Use tar or rsync to copy volume data

Schedule backups with cron

Where should backups be stored?

162. Backup and restore container state

Use docker commit to save container state

Export containers with docker export

Restore from saved images

What are the limitations of this approach?

163. Implement database backup strategies

Backup databases using native tools (mysqldump, pg_dump)

Run backup containers on schedule

Store backups in S3 or other object storage

Test restore procedures regularly

164. Use volume snapshots

If using cloud storage (EBS, persistent disks), create snapshots

Automate snapshot creation

Restore volumes from snapshots

What's the difference between snapshots and backups?

165. Implement disaster recovery procedures

Document complete recovery steps

Test recovery on separate infrastructure

Calculate RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

Calculate RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

What's your acceptable data loss window?

166. Use version control for configuration

 Store all configs in Git

Include: Dockerfiles, Compose files, configs

Ability to recreate entire environment from Git

How does this support disaster recovery?

167. Implement blue-green deployments

Run two identical environments (blue and green)

Deploy to inactive environment

Switch traffic to new version

Keep old version for quick rollback

What's the infrastructure cost?

168. Set up offsite backup replication

Replicate backups to different region/provider

Test restoration from offsite backups

Implement backup verification

Why is offsite replication critical?

169. Create runbooks for common failures

Document: container crash, host failure, network partition

Include step-by-step recovery procedures

Test runbooks in simulated failures

Who should have access to runbooks?

170. Conduct disaster recovery drills

Simulate complete infrastructure failure

Execute recovery procedures

Measure actual recovery time

Document lessons learned and improve processes

Day 18: Microservices Architecture

171. Design a microservices architecture
 Break monolith into services: user, product, order, payment

Define service boundaries and responsibilities

Design inter-service communication

What principles guide service decomposition?

172. Implement API gateway pattern

Deploy Kong, Traefik, or nginx as API gateway

Route requests to appropriate services

Implement rate limiting and authentication at gateway

Why is API gateway important?

173. Use service discovery for dynamic environments

Implement Consul or etcd for service registry

Register services on startup

Discover service endpoints dynamically

How does this enable flexibility?

174. Implement inter-service authentication

Use JWT tokens for service-to-service auth

Implement mutual TLS (mTLS)

Set up service accounts and permissions

How do you prevent unauthorized service access?

175. Handle distributed transactions

Implement Saga pattern for long transactions

Use compensating transactions for rollbacks

Implement idempotency for all operations

Why is distributed transaction handling complex?

176. Implement circuit breaker pattern

Use libraries like Hystrix or resilience4j

Configure thresholds for circuit opening

Implement fallback responses

 How does circuit breaker prevent cascading failures?

177. Use message queues for async communication

Deploy RabbitMQ or Kafka

Implement event-driven architecture

Handle message failures and retries

When should you use async vs sync communication?

178. Implement distributed tracing across services

Instrument all services with tracing

Propagate trace context across service calls

View end-to-end request flows in Jaeger

How does tracing help debug microservices?

179. Handle configuration for multiple services

Use centralized config (Spring Cloud Config, Consul)

Implement config versioning

Allow dynamic config updates

How do you handle secrets in configs?

180. Deploy a complete microservices application

Build: 5+ microservices, API gateway, service mesh, monitoring

Implement all patterns learned

Test inter-service communication

Document the architecture and decisions

Day 19: Cloud Integration

181. Deploy containers to AWS ECS
Create ECS cluster

Define task definitions

Deploy services using Fargate or EC2

Configure load balancer

 What are ECS advantages over self-managed?

182. Use AWS ECR for container registry

Create ECR repository

Configure IAM permissions

Push images from CI/CD pipeline

Implement lifecycle policies

How does ECR integrate with ECS?

183. Deploy to Google Cloud Run

Containerize a web application

Deploy to Cloud Run

Configure auto-scaling and concurrency

Set up custom domains

What are Cloud Run's limitations?

184. Use Azure Container Instances

Deploy containers to ACI

Configure networking and persistence

Integrate with Azure services

When would you choose ACI over AKS?

185. Implement secrets management with cloud services

Use AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager

Inject secrets into containers at runtime

Rotate secrets automatically

How is this better than environment variables?

186. Set up cloud-based monitoring

Use CloudWatch, Stackdriver, or Azure Monitor

Configure container metrics and logs

Set up alerts and dashboards

What are advantages over self-hosted monitoring?

187. Implement auto-scaling in cloud
Configure horizontal pod autoscaling

Set up cluster autoscaling

Test scaling under load

What metrics should trigger scaling?

188. Use cloud load balancers

Configure ALB (AWS), Cloud Load Balancer (GCP), or Azure LB

Implement health checks

Configure SSL/TLS termination

What's the difference between L4 and L7 load balancers?

189. Implement multi-region deployment

Deploy application to multiple regions

Configure global load balancing

Implement data replication across regions

What are the challenges of multi-region?

190. Calculate cloud costs for containerized workloads

Analyze costs: compute, storage, networking

Compare Fargate vs EC2 costs

Implement cost optimization strategies

How do you allocate costs to teams/projects?

Day 20: Kubernetes Deep Dive - Basics

191. Set up a local Kubernetes cluster
Install minikube or kind

Start cluster and verify with kubectl

Understand control plane and worker nodes

What components run on master vs worker nodes?

192. Understand Pods - the smallest unit

 Create a Pod using YAML manifest

Run multi-container Pods

Understand Pod lifecycle states

Why are Pods ephemeral?

193. Use ReplicaSets for scalability

Create ReplicaSet manifest

Scale replicas up and down

Observe self-healing when Pods die

Why don't we use ReplicaSets directly?

194. Deploy applications with Deployments

Create Deployment manifest

Deploy multiple replicas

Update Deployment with new image version

Observe rolling update

What's the relationship between Deployment, ReplicaSet, and Pod?

195. Expose applications with Services

Create ClusterIP service (default)

Create NodePort service

Create LoadBalancer service

Understand service discovery and DNS

When would you use each service type?

196. Use ConfigMaps for configuration

Create ConfigMap from literal values

Create ConfigMap from files

Mount ConfigMap as volume

Inject ConfigMap as environment variables

How do you update running Pods with new config?

197. Manage secrets in Kubernetes

 Create Secret for passwords/tokens

Mount Secrets as files

Use Secrets as environment variables

Are Kubernetes Secrets really secure?

What alternatives exist? (Vault, Sealed Secrets)

198. Implement persistent storage with PVs and PVCs

Create PersistentVolume

Create PersistentVolumeClaim

Mount PVC to Pod

Understand storage classes

What happens when a Pod is deleted?

199. Use Namespaces for resource isolation

Create multiple namespaces (dev, staging, prod)

Deploy resources to specific namespaces

Set resource quotas per namespace

How do namespaces improve organization?

200. Understand Kubernetes networking

Every Pod gets an IP

Pod-to-Pod communication

Service discovery through DNS

How does kube-proxy work?

Day 21: Kubernetes Deep Dive - Advanced

201. Implement health checks with probes
Configure liveness probes

Configure readiness probes

Configure startup probes

What happens when probes fail?

 Best practices for probe configuration

202. Use DaemonSets for node-level services

Create DaemonSet for logging agent

Understand when to use DaemonSet vs Deployment

Update DaemonSet strategy

What are typical DaemonSet use cases?

203. Run batch jobs with Jobs and CronJobs

Create one-time Job

Create CronJob for scheduled tasks

Configure parallelism and completions

Handle job failures and retries

How do you monitor job execution?

204. Implement StatefulSets for stateful applications

Deploy database using StatefulSet

Understand stable network identity

Use volumeClaimTemplates

What's different about StatefulSet vs Deployment?

205. Configure resource requests and limits

Set CPU and memory requests

Set CPU and memory limits

Understand QoS classes (Guaranteed, Burstable, BestEffort)

What happens when Pod exceeds limits?

206. Implement Horizontal Pod Autoscaling

Install metrics-server

Create HPA based on CPU utilization

Test scaling under load

Configure custom metrics for scaling

What are HPA limitations?

207. Use Ingress for HTTP routing
Install Ingress controller (nginx, Traefik)

Create Ingress resource with routing rules

Configure TLS/SSL with cert-manager

Implement path-based and host-based routing

How does Ingress differ from Service?

208. Implement Network Policies

Create NetworkPolicy to restrict traffic

Allow traffic only from specific Pods/namespaces

Implement default deny policy

Test network isolation

What CNI plugins support NetworkPolicies?

209. Use Init Containers for setup tasks

Create Pod with init containers

Run database migrations before app starts

Download configurations or wait for dependencies

How do init containers differ from regular containers?

210. Configure Pod Security Policies/Standards

Understand Pod Security Standards (Privileged, Baseline, Restricted)

Apply pod security at namespace level

Prevent privileged containers

How does this improve security?

Day 22: Kubernetes - Production Readiness

211. Implement role-based access control (RBAC)
Create ServiceAccounts

Create Roles and ClusterRoles

Create RoleBindings
 Test permissions with different users

What's the difference between Role and ClusterRole?

212. Set up cluster monitoring with Prometheus

Deploy Prometheus using Helm

Configure service monitors

Query metrics with PromQL

What metrics are most important to monitor?

213. Deploy Grafana for visualization

Deploy Grafana

Add Prometheus as data source

Import Kubernetes dashboards

Create custom dashboards

What should production dashboards show?

214. Implement centralized logging

Deploy EFK/ELK stack or Loki

Configure log collection from all Pods

Search and filter logs

Set up log retention policies

How much log storage is needed?

215. Use Helm for package management

Install Helm

Deploy applications using Helm charts

Create custom Helm chart

Manage releases and rollbacks

What are Helm's advantages?

216. Implement GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux

Install ArgoCD

Connect Git repository

 Deploy applications through Git commits

Observe automatic synchronization

What are GitOps benefits?

217. Set up backup and disaster recovery

Use Velero for cluster backups

Backup cluster resources and volumes

Test restoration to new cluster

What's your backup frequency and retention?

218. Implement multi-tenancy

Use namespaces for tenant isolation

Set resource quotas and limits

Implement network policies between tenants

What are multi-tenancy challenges?

219. Configure cluster auto-scaling

Install cluster autoscaler

Configure min/max node counts

Test scaling with increased load

What's the difference between HPA and cluster autoscaler?

220. Conduct chaos engineering experiments

Install Chaos Mesh or Litmus

Kill random Pods and observe recovery

Introduce network latency

What did you learn about your application's resilience?

Day 23: Advanced DevOps Practices

221. Implement feature flags
Use LaunchDarkly, Unleash, or custom solution

Deploy code with features disabled

 Enable features gradually

How do feature flags enable continuous delivery?

222. Set up canary deployments

Deploy new version to small subset (5%)

Monitor metrics and errors

Gradually increase traffic

Rollback if issues detected

What metrics indicate deployment success?

223. Implement progressive delivery with Flagger

Install Flagger and service mesh

Configure automatic canary analysis

Define success metrics

Observe automatic promotion or rollback

How is this better than manual canary?

224. Use infrastructure testing frameworks

Write tests with Terratest or kitchen-terraform

Test infrastructure provisioning

Validate configurations

Run tests in CI/CD

What should infrastructure tests verify?

225. Implement contract testing for microservices

Use Pact or Spring Cloud Contract

Define consumer-provider contracts

Test services against contracts

How do contracts prevent breaking changes?

226. Set up synthetic monitoring

Use tools like Pingdom, Datadog Synthetics

Create monitors for critical user journeys

 Alert on synthetic test failures

Why is synthetic monitoring important?

227. Implement SRE principles - SLIs, SLOs, SLAs

Define Service Level Indicators

Set Service Level Objectives

Calculate error budgets

What happens when error budget is exhausted?

228. Use trunk-based development

All developers commit to main branch

Use feature flags for incomplete features

Deploy main branch continuously

What are the benefits and challenges?

229. Implement automated rollback mechanisms

Monitor deployment metrics

Automatically rollback on error rate increase

Configure rollback triggers

How quickly can you detect and rollback?

230. Create a complete CI/CD pipeline with quality gates

Combine: unit tests, integration tests, security scans, performance tests

Implement approval gates for production

Set up deployment windows

Document entire pipeline

Day 24: Configuration Management at Scale

231. Use Ansible for large-scale configuration
Manage 100+ servers with Ansible

Use dynamic inventory (AWS, GCP)

Implement parallel execution

 How do you handle failures at scale?

232. Implement configuration drift detection

Monitor for manual changes to infrastructure

Alert when configuration drifts from desired state

Automatically remediate drift

What tools detect drift?

233. Use Consul for service configuration

Deploy Consul cluster

Store configuration in Consul KV

Use Consul Template for dynamic configs

How does configuration propagate?

234. Implement secret rotation

Rotate database passwords automatically

Update secrets in running applications

Zero-downtime secret updates

How often should secrets rotate?

235. Use external secrets operators

Install External Secrets Operator

Sync secrets from Vault/AWS Secrets Manager to Kubernetes

Keep secrets outside cluster

Why is this more secure?

236. Implement policy as code with OPA

Install Open Policy Agent

Write Rego policies for resource validation

Enforce policies on Kubernetes admission

What types of policies should you enforce?

237. Use Kustomize for environment-specific configs

Create base Kubernetes manifests
 Create overlays for dev/staging/prod

Use Kustomize to generate final manifests

How does Kustomize differ from Helm?

238. Implement configuration validation

Validate YAML syntax

Validate against schemas

Test configurations before applying

What tools help with validation?

239. Use templating for configuration generation

Use Jinja2, Go templates, or jsonnet

Generate configs from templates and variables

Reduce duplication

When is templating appropriate?

240. Create a configuration management strategy

Document: how configs are stored, versioned, deployed

Define configuration hierarchy

Set up change approval process

What's your rollback strategy?

Day 25: Performance and Cost Optimization

241. Implement resource right-sizing
Analyze actual resource usage

Adjust requests and limits based on data

Use VPA (Vertical Pod Autoscaler) recommendations

How much can you reduce costs?

242. Use spot/preemptible instances

Run fault-tolerant workloads on spot instances

Handle instance interruptions gracefully

 Mix spot and on-demand instances

What workloads are suitable for spot?

243. Implement node pools for workload separation

Create node pools: general, CPU-intensive, memory-intensive

Use node affinity to schedule Pods

Optimize instance types per workload

What's the cost impact?

244. Use cluster over-provisioning

Deploy pause Pods as placeholder

Ensure fast scaling for production workloads

Balance cost vs responsiveness

What's the right amount of over-provisioning?

245. Implement workload scheduling optimization

Use pod priority and preemption

Schedule batch jobs on cheaper nodes

Implement pod disruption budgets

How do you balance cost and availability?

246. Monitor and optimize container startup time

Profile startup performance

Optimize application initialization

Use faster base images

How does startup time affect scaling?

247. Implement caching at multiple layers

Application caching (Redis, Memcached)

HTTP caching (CDN, Varnish)

DNS caching

Database query caching

What's the cache hit rate?

248. Use compression for data transfer
Enable gzip compression

Use efficient serialization (Protocol Buffers, Avro)

Compress logs and backups

How much bandwidth can you save?

249. Optimize database performance

Add proper indexes

Implement connection pooling

Use read replicas for read-heavy workloads

Consider caching layer

What queries are slowest?

250. Create a cost optimization report

Analyze current spending

Identify optimization opportunities

Calculate potential savings

Implement top 5 optimizations

Document the results

Day 26: Compliance and Governance

251. Implement audit logging
Enable Kubernetes audit logs

Log all API server requests

Store logs securely long-term

What should audit logs include?

252. Set up compliance scanning

Use tools like kube-bench for CIS benchmarks

Scan for compliance violations

Remediate findings
How often shoul