Systems Engineer mock test
EasyEnv, Remote, World Wide, 7 questions
Sign in to applyAbout the role
A Linux systems engineer keeps a fleet of Linux servers built, configured, patched and running, whether in a data centre, on bare metal or in the cloud. When something on a host goes wrong, this is the person who can trace it through processes, memory, the network and the logs to the actual cause.
Modern systems roles are heavily automated: servers are provisioned and configured from code, core services such as DNS are managed as part of the fleet, and repetitive work is turned into tools.
What you will do
- Administer and troubleshoot Linux servers: services, scheduling, storage, users and performance.
- Write and maintain configuration management with Ansible (or Puppet, Salt or Chef) and keep it in Git.
- Run core infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, NTP, LDAP and NFS.
- Automate provisioning, patching and routine tasks with Bash and Python.
- Extend monitoring, logging and alerting so problems are seen before users report them.
- Respond to incidents, take part in an on-call rotation, and write down what you learn.
What we look for
- Several years of hands-on Linux administration at a meaningful scale.
- Good knowledge of Linux internals: processes and signals, memory and swap, systemd, cron and file permissions.
- Networking fundamentals: name resolution, routing, TCP and UDP, and the tools to debug them (dig, ss, tcpdump, strace).
- Experience writing Ansible playbooks and roles, not only running them.
- Expert Bash and working Python for automation.
Nice to have
- Packaging (RPM or deb) and internal repositories.
- Docker and Kubernetes, and monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana.
- Cloud compute, networking and storage on AWS or another provider.
About this mock test
One hour on a real Linux machine, in a terminal in your browser. You fix a cron job that fails silently, a name resolution problem and a broken Ansible playbook, then answer short written questions on memory and processes.
This is practice. There is no job at the end of it. It is the same interview format employers run on EasyEnv, so you can measure yourself against what companies hiring for this role ask for, and see where you need more work.
Applying needs a free EasyEnv account, so the company knows who applied and you can follow your application. The interview runs on a real machine, so it needs a desktop browser.
