{"id":26263,"date":"2016-07-19T09:27:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T07:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=26263"},"modified":"2016-07-19T09:27:48","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T07:27:48","slug":"10-favorite-job-interview-questions-for-linux-system-administrators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/07\/19\/10-favorite-job-interview-questions-for-linux-system-administrators\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p>As someone who interviews a lot of people (mostly for the web development positions though, not system administration), I&#8217;m always looking for more ideas on what to ask the candidates. \u00a0Today I came across &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/10-favorite-job-interview-questions-linux-system-libby-clark\">10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators<\/a>&#8220;, which has a few\u00a0of bits that I liked.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/chassing\/linux-sysadmin-interview-questions\">this GitHub repository<\/a> is super awesomeness. \u00a0It also links to a few other resources with more questions and ideas. \u00a0Not only for sysadmin interviews.<\/p>\n<p>Then, this one is funny, yet somewhat challenging:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>2. Name and describe a different Linux\/Unix command for each letter of the alphabet. But also, describe how a common flush toilet works.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It also checks that you know the alphabet.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>9. Print the content of a file backwards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like broad questions where each person could give a different answer depending on their depth of knowledge. My personal answer is 8 characters not including the filename.\u201d &#8211; Marc Merlin, Google.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This one caught me by surprise. \u00a0My immediate thought was &#8220;<em>tac some_file<\/em>&#8220;, but that&#8217;s obviously not enough. \u00a0<em>tac<\/em> only prints the lines in reverse order. \u00a0Which is not the same as reversing the file. \u00a0Perl to the rescue, but I wonder what&#8217;s the most elegant way to do it without the scripting language.<\/p>\n<p>As always, interview questions are not only useful for the interviews. \u00a0They are a good measure of your own knowledge gaps and habit pitfalls. \u00a0This time was no exception.<\/p>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p>As someone who interviews a lot of people (mostly for the web development positions though, not system administration), I&#8217;m always looking for more ideas on what to ask the candidates. \u00a0Today I came across &#8220;10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators&#8220;, which has a few\u00a0of bits that I liked. First of all, this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/07\/19\/10-favorite-job-interview-questions-for-linux-system-administrators\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators #SysAdmin #interview #HR","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,6,133,62],"tags":[1793,1251],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-26263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-linux","category-sysadmin","category-technology","tag-human-resource","tag-interviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29181,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2019\/01\/05\/awesome-interviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":0},"title":"Awesome Interviews","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"January 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Awesome Interviews is a curated awesome list of lists of interview questions. Technical interviews, mind you. It covers a wide range of areas from a variety of programming languages, frameworks and databases, to operating systems, data structures and algorithms. There also coding exercises and much more. This list links to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26354,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/17\/101-most-common-interview-questions-with-pass-or-fail-answers\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":1},"title":"101 Most Common Interview Questions with Pass or Fail Answers","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"August 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Following the recent post \"10 Favorite Job Interview Questions for Linux System Administrators\", here is a more generic, but a much more comprehensive resource - \"101 Most Common Interview Questions with Pass or Fail Answers\". \u00a0It's not as technical, but it provides a good summary of common interview questions, from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10634,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/19\/config-fun-sysadmin-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":2},"title":"Config Fun &#8211; sysadmin blog","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"January 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if you noticed, but there were fewer technical posts on this blog lately. The reason for this is that I am now also blogging at Config Fun. That's a purely technical blog, and it's even more specialized than that. The blog is for system administrators. It is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26334,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/11\/linux-boot-process\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":3},"title":"Linux boot process","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"August 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a quick overview of the\u00a0Linux Boot Process, if you are a little rusty. \u00a0After all, it's not every day that you need to look into, troubleshoot or adjust the boot process of a Linux box. \u00a0This might come handy before your next SysAdmin job interview too.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/boot.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11316,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2008\/07\/24\/vacancy-for-python-or-c-programmers-and-linux-sysadmins\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":4},"title":"Vacancy for Python or C++ programmers and Linux sysadmins","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"July 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Point Nine is looking for some talanted people.\u00a0 They are working in the financial sector, and seeking Python and C++ programmers, as well as Linux system administrators.\u00a0 They seem to be an interesting company, judging both by their technology stack and hiring techniques.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, I've spotted their job ad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11164,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/22\/preupgrading-fedora-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":26263,"position":5},"title":"Preupgrading Fedora 9","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Fedora 9 is coming Real Soon Now \u00a9. I mentioned before that I am desperately waiting for this release, since it brings KDE 4 and Firefox 3. One thing that I haven't seen noticed anywhere until I read this interview is \"preupgrade\". It sounds pretty cool: By now, the \u201cpreupgrade\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26263"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=26263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}