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trimstray/test-your-sysadmin-skills

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TLDR

A collection of 284 questions and answers covering Linux system administration from beginner to advanced, organized by difficulty and topic, designed for self-study and interview preparation.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((sysadmin-skills))
    Content
      284 questions
      Three difficulty levels
      Specialized chapters
    Topics covered
      Networking
      Security
      File systems
      Performance
    Use cases
      Interview prep
      Self study
      Skill gap check
    Audience
      Junior admins
      Senior admins
      Job seekers
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Study for a Linux sysadmin job interview using 284 categorized Q&A questions at junior, regular, and senior levels.

USE CASE 2

Test your knowledge of Linux networking, security, storage, and performance troubleshooting.

USE CASE 3

Identify gaps in your sysadmin skills using the structured topic chapters as a self-assessment checklist.

Tech stack

LinuxMarkdown

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
MIT license, use, copy, modify, and distribute freely, including commercially, with attribution.

In plain English

Test Your Sysadmin Skills is a large collection of questions and answers covering topics that Linux system administrators need to know. It contains 284 questions grouped by difficulty and subject area, ranging from introductory warmup questions to advanced topics. The content is organized into chapters covering general Linux knowledge at junior, regular, and senior levels, plus specialized sections on topics like networking, security, system performance, storage, and specific tools. Each question comes with an example answer and often links to additional reading for anyone who wants to go deeper on a topic. Some questions are marked as incomplete, and the project invites contributors to fill in missing answers. The intended use is self-study or interview preparation for people working toward or already in Linux server administration roles. The questions test practical knowledge: things like how the boot process works, how to diagnose a slow system, how to configure firewalls, and how to handle file permissions and user management. Rather than testing memorization of obscure facts, the collection tries to reflect real problem-solving scenarios a working administrator would encounter. The repository is a plain text and Markdown document with no runnable code. It is open source under the MIT license, and contributions through pull requests are welcome. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I'm preparing for a junior Linux sysadmin interview. Quiz me on 10 questions about file permissions, user management, and the Linux boot process.
Prompt 2
Based on a Linux sysadmin interview question, explain how to diagnose a slow system, cover CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network in your answer.
Prompt 3
What are the most important networking and security topics a senior Linux sysadmin should know cold for a technical interview?
Prompt 4
Walk me through how Linux firewall rules work using iptables or nftables, as I'd explain it in a sysadmin interview.
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