Roadmap · Specialise
DevOps and cloud
Opens with creditsFor developers and sysadmins who want to own how software gets built, shipped and kept running. By the end you can take an application from a Git repository to a monitored, automatically deployed service on AWS and Kubernetes, and run the incident when it breaks.
Curated by Tauseef Fayyaz7 stages, 67 topics~18 months at a few hours a weekBy the end, you will be able to
- Work comfortably on a Linux server over SSH, debug networking problems with dig, curl and ss, and automate routine jobs with Bash
- Run a three-tier application on AWS using IAM roles, a VPC, EC2 with Auto Scaling, a load balancer, RDS and Route 53
- Provision that infrastructure with Terraform and deploy to it from a GitHub Actions pipeline without long-lived keys
- Containerise an application and run it on Kubernetes with Helm and Argo CD
- Set up metrics, logs, traces and SLO-based alerts, and lead an incident through to a blameless postmortem
The path
7 stages, in the order to learn them. Open one to start.
1Linux, the shell and scriptingEverything in DevOps runs on Linux and is driven from a terminal. Get fluent with the shell, basic administration and Bash before touching any cloud.10 topics · ~3 months
- 1The filesystem, files and permissionsLinux keeps every file in one tree that starts at
/. - 2Users, groups and sudoOn Linux, every running program runs as some user, and that user decides what it can touch.
- 3Processes and signalsA process is a running program, and each one has a number called a process ID (PID).
- 4Services with systemdsystemd is the program that starts and looks after services on most Linux systems.
- 5Packages and system logsSoftware on a server comes from a package manager.
- 6Pipes, grep, sed and awkThe shell's real power is joining small tools with pipes.
- 7Writing Bash scriptsA Bash script is a shell script: a text file of commands the shell runs from top to bottom.
- 8Scheduling with cron and systemd timerscron runs commands on a schedule.
- 9SSH keys and remote accessSSH is how you log in to remote servers and copy files to them.
- 10Git for scripts and configurationEverything you write in DevOps lives in Git: scripts, configs, Dockerfiles, Terraform code and pipelines.
10 in this stageOpen this stage- 1The filesystem, files and permissionsLinux keeps every file in one tree that starts at
2Networking for engineersMost production incidents that look mysterious are networking problems. Learn how IP, DNS, TCP, TLS and HTTP fit together and how to run a reverse proxy in front of an app.8 topics · ~7 weeks
- 1IP addresses, subnets and CIDREvery machine on a network has an IP address, a number such as 10.0.1.25 that other machines use to reach it.
- 2TCP, UDP and portsIP gets a packet to the right machine.
- 3DNS records and resolutionDNS turns names like api.example.com into IP addresses, like a phone book for the internet.
- 4HTTP requests and responsesHTTP is the language browsers and servers use to talk.
- 5TLS and certificatesTLS encrypts traffic and proves the server is who it claims to be.
- 6Firewalls and exposing only what you needA firewall decides which network traffic may reach a machine.
- 7Nginx as reverse proxy and load balancerA reverse proxy sits in front of your app.
- 8Debugging with dig, curl, ss and tracerouteMost networking problems give way to four tools, used in order.
8 in this stageOpen this stage- Containers with DockerPackage an application and everything it needs into an image that runs the same on your laptop, in CI and in production.10 topics · ~7 weeksOpens with credits
- Cloud on AWS, service by serviceLearn one cloud properly, in the order real problems appear. Ten services starting with IAM are enough to run a real product; add the rest when you meet the problem each one solves.10 topics · ~4 monthsOpens with credits
- Infrastructure as code and CI/CDStop building servers by hand. Describe infrastructure in code, review it like any other change, and let a pipeline test and deploy every commit.10 topics · ~2 monthsOpens with credits
- Kubernetes and GitOpsRun containers across a cluster that heals itself, scales on demand and deploys straight from Git. This is the stage most DevOps job descriptions are really asking about.10 topics · ~4 monthsOpens with credits
- Observability and incident responseKnow when something is broken, why and how badly, before users tell you, and handle the incident calmly when it happens. Covers metrics, logs, traces, SLOs, on-call and postmortems.9 topics · ~2 monthsOpens with credits
5 more stages, 49 more topics, free with an account.
You have seen the open stages of the DevOps and cloud roadmap. Every topic it covers is listed above, and an account opens the rest: what each topic means, a question to check yourself, the courses, the practice and Tauseef's advice for every stage. Early access is open: sign up and your account is active shortly after.
Everything here is free to learn from. A few things, like adding a roadmap, keeping a cheat sheet or asking Tauseef a question, use credits. You get 15 when you join, your first roadmap is free, and if you are learning seriously and run out, you can ask for more. Credits only make sure the platform goes to people who are actually learning.
Related on Sefism
Picked from the other libraries by shared topics.
Best practices
See all- Kubernetes Best PracticesRun workloads on Kubernetes that schedule well, survive restarts and node drains, and stay locked down: resources, probes, PDBs, Pod Security and RBAC.
- Terraform Best PracticesWrite Terraform that teams can review and change safely: file layout, version pinning, remote state with locking, secrets, modules, refactoring and tests.
- CI/CD Best PracticesBuild pipelines that are fast, trustworthy and safe to deploy from: trunk-based flow, fast tests, locked-down workflows, signed artifacts, canaries and DORA metrics.
Checklists
See all- Incident Response ChecklistPrepare for and handle production incidents: on-call, severity levels, declaring, roles, mitigation, security containment, status updates and blameless postmortems.
- Production Readiness ChecklistCheck a service before it takes real traffic: ownership, SLOs, capacity, timeouts and retries, alerts, rollout and rollback, backups, security and on-call.
- Kubernetes Production ChecklistVerify a workload and its cluster before real traffic: requests and limits, probes, PDBs, spread, Pod Security, RBAC, network policies, secrets, images, autoscaling, upgrades and backups.
Project structures
See all- Terraform project structureAn infrastructure repository for a small app on AWS: reusable modules, one folder per environment with its own remote state, pinned providers, tests and security scans, with plan on every pull request and apply from CI. For students who have finished the Terraform tutorials and want to know how a real team lays out the files. The same layout works unchanged with OpenTofu.
- Kubernetes with Helm project structureA Helm chart repository for one app: the chart that
helm creategives you, grown into a tested, versioned package with per-environment values, unit tests, install tests in a kind cluster and releases to an OCI registry. For students who can write a Deployment by hand and want to know how a team organises charts. It is about the repo layout and what each file does, not about cluster design. - Spring Boot project structureA REST API in Java with Spring Boot 4, PostgreSQL, Flyway and Testcontainers, organised by feature the way the Spring docs suggest. It grows from the Initializr scaffold to a service with JWT security, problem-detail errors, MapStruct DTOs, slice and integration tests, CI, containers and observability, and finally Modulith boundaries, contract and load tests. For students who know some Java and want to see how a real service is organised.
Career questions
See all- Do I need Docker and Kubernetes as a junior developer?Docker, yes: learn the basics, because nearly every team uses containers and you will be expected to run the project locally and read a Dockerfile. Kubernetes, mostly no: understand what it does and a few core terms, but deep Kubernetes can wait until your job or a DevOps direction needs it.
- What is platform engineering, and how is it different from DevOps?DevOps is a culture and set of practices: developers and operations sharing responsibility for shipping and running software. Platform engineering is one way to put that into practice at scale: a team builds an internal platform, a paved road of tools and templates, so product teams can ship without becoming infrastructure experts.
- Can I become an SRE or platform engineer straight after graduating?Sometimes, but it is rare, because these roles expect you to have run production systems. The more reliable path is a first job in backend, DevOps or cloud support, where you learn production, then a move into SRE or platform work within a couple of years.
Cheat sheets
See allWork with me
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