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736 system engineer linux interview questions shared by candidates

A client has an environment consisting of a mixture of CentOS and Ubuntu servers hosted at Amazon Cloud. The environment has reached a size where it makes sense to implement a configuration management system. The client has asked you to recommend a system to use. Their requirements are: ● The solution must use open source software ● It must be easy to deploy machines and have them operational as soon as possible ● It must be possible to add machines to the system with minimal manual effort ● The system must be able to scale with the environment ● There must be a web-based frontend to manage the system ● The system must provide reports of compliance and changes to the environment ● Managed systems must be added to a monitoring system (Nagios) automatically Please do the following: 1. Identify at least two solutions to consider for this project. 2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the two best solutions. 3. Recommend a solution, articulate why it was ultimately chosen, and indicate how it meets the requirements outlined above.
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Remote Linux Systems Administrator

Interviewed at Pythian

4.1★
Sep 16, 2015

A client has an environment consisting of a mixture of CentOS and Ubuntu servers hosted at Amazon Cloud. The environment has reached a size where it makes sense to implement a configuration management system. The client has asked you to recommend a system to use. Their requirements are: ● The solution must use open source software ● It must be easy to deploy machines and have them operational as soon as possible ● It must be possible to add machines to the system with minimal manual effort ● The system must be able to scale with the environment ● There must be a web-based frontend to manage the system ● The system must provide reports of compliance and changes to the environment ● Managed systems must be added to a monitoring system (Nagios) automatically Please do the following: 1. Identify at least two solutions to consider for this project. 2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the two best solutions. 3. Recommend a solution, articulate why it was ultimately chosen, and indicate how it meets the requirements outlined above.

Written interview questions: Engineering experience What kinds of software projects have you worked on before? Which operating systems, development environments, languages, databases? Would you describe yourself as a strong coder? Why? Would you describe yourself as a strong architect? If so, why, and in which sorts of applications? Outline your thoughts on open source software development. What is important to get right in open source projects? What open source projects have you contributed to? Have you been an open source maintainer? On which projects, and what was your role? Education How did you fare in high school mathematics, physical sciences and computing? Which were strengths and which were most enjoyable? How did you rank, competitively, in them? Which degree and university did you choose, and why? Which university courses did you perform best at? How did you rank in your degree? What did you achieve in high school or university that you consider exceptional? Context How comprehensive would you say your knowledge of a Linux distribution is, from the kernel up? How familiar are you with low-level system architecture, runtimes and Linux distro packaging? How have you gained this knowledge? Outline your thoughts on quality in software development. What practices are most effective to drive improvements in quality? Describe your experience of continuous integration and testing. What tools and processes do you think are relevant to Ubuntu quality? Outline your thoughts on the mission of Canonical. What is it about the company's purpose and goals which is most appealing to you? What is risky or unappealing? Who are Canonical's key competitors, and how should Canonical set about winning? Why do you most want to work for Canonical? What would you most want to change about Canonical?
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Linux Systems Engineer

Interviewed at Canonical

3.2★
Mar 1, 2023

Written interview questions: Engineering experience What kinds of software projects have you worked on before? Which operating systems, development environments, languages, databases? Would you describe yourself as a strong coder? Why? Would you describe yourself as a strong architect? If so, why, and in which sorts of applications? Outline your thoughts on open source software development. What is important to get right in open source projects? What open source projects have you contributed to? Have you been an open source maintainer? On which projects, and what was your role? Education How did you fare in high school mathematics, physical sciences and computing? Which were strengths and which were most enjoyable? How did you rank, competitively, in them? Which degree and university did you choose, and why? Which university courses did you perform best at? How did you rank in your degree? What did you achieve in high school or university that you consider exceptional? Context How comprehensive would you say your knowledge of a Linux distribution is, from the kernel up? How familiar are you with low-level system architecture, runtimes and Linux distro packaging? How have you gained this knowledge? Outline your thoughts on quality in software development. What practices are most effective to drive improvements in quality? Describe your experience of continuous integration and testing. What tools and processes do you think are relevant to Ubuntu quality? Outline your thoughts on the mission of Canonical. What is it about the company's purpose and goals which is most appealing to you? What is risky or unappealing? Who are Canonical's key competitors, and how should Canonical set about winning? Why do you most want to work for Canonical? What would you most want to change about Canonical?

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