Coverage Priorities¶
Generated from make report-topic-coverage-grid on 2026-03-15.
Cross-referenced with topic importance for DevOps employability.
See TOPIC-BUILDOUT-PROCESS.md for how to build out each topic.
Topic Importance Tiers¶
Tier 1 — Asked in every interview, needed day 1¶
Linux fundamentals, DNS, TCP/IP, Docker/containers, Kubernetes core, Git, CI/CD, Terraform, Bash, systemd, Prometheus/monitoring, Helm, load balancing.
Tier 2 — Asked in most interviews, needed month 1¶
GitOps, Ansible, TLS/certs, RBAC, K8s networking, K8s storage, logging, security basics, incident response, database ops, firewalls, HPA/autoscaling, probes, node maintenance, routing, package management, mounts/filesystems.
Tier 3 — Differentiators that impress¶
eBPF, service mesh, policy engines, chaos engineering, SRE practices, platform engineering, capacity planning, OpenTelemetry, FinOps, GitOps advanced, multi-tenancy.
Tier 4 — Niche / situational¶
Datacenter hardware, Cisco CLI, edge/IoT, LDAP, virtualization, legacy archaeology, Kafka, Elasticsearch, vendor management.
Priority Backlog¶
Ranked by: (topic importance tier) × (size of gap) × (effort to fill).
Minimum bar: every topic should have a primer + 10 flashcards (steps 1-2).
P0 — Tier 1 topics with major gaps (do first)¶
| # | Topic | Domain | Has | Missing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Package Management | linux | — | everything | Zero content. apt/yum is day-1 Linux. |
| 2 | Docker / Containers | k8s | deep_dive, cards | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz | Tier 1, no topic pack at all. |
| 3 | Helm | devops | cards, quiz, runbooks, labs | primer, street_ops, footguns | Used in every k8s shop, nothing to read. |
| 4 | Mount & Filesystems | linux | quiz | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, cases | fstab mistakes are a classic interview Q. |
| 5 | Inodes | linux | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | "Disk full but df shows space" — THE Linux Q. |
| 6 | DNS | networking | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz, cases, scenarios, runbooks | cards | Great coverage but zero flashcards for retention. |
| 7 | Firewalls | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | iptables/nftables is core Linux ops. |
| 8 | Probes (Liveness/Readiness) | k8s | deep_dive, quiz, runbooks, labs | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Interview staple, no study material. |
| 9 | CrashLoopBackOff | k8s | deep_dive, cases, runbooks | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | #1 k8s troubleshooting question. |
| 10 | OOMKilled | k8s | deep_dive, runbooks, labs | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | #2 k8s troubleshooting question. |
P1 — Tier 1-2 topics with significant gaps¶
| # | Topic | Domain | Has | Missing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | K8s Networking | k8s | deep_dive, quiz, cases, runbooks | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | CNI, network policies, ingress — asked constantly. |
| 12 | K8s Storage | k8s | cases, runbooks | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | PV/PVC is guaranteed interview material. |
| 13 | RBAC | k8s | cases, runbooks | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | Security fundamental in every k8s cluster. |
| 14 | HPA / Autoscaling | k8s | quiz, runbooks, labs | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Operational content exists, learning content doesn't. |
| 15 | Node Maintenance | k8s | cards, quiz, cases, runbooks | primer, street_ops, footguns | cordon/drain/PDB — every k8s interview. |
| 16 | Routing | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Foundational networking, barely covered. |
| 17 | VLANs | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Common in datacenter and hybrid roles. |
| 18 | Database sub-topics (5) | k8s | quiz only | primer, street_ops, cards, cases | Replication, transactions, indexing, locking, read replicas. |
| 19 | Grafana | observability | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz | cards | Good coverage but no flashcards. |
| 20 | Logging | observability | cards, quiz | primer, street_ops, footguns | Fundamentals topic, very thin. |
P2 — Tier 2-3 topics with moderate gaps¶
| # | Topic | Domain | Has | Missing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Compliance & Audit | security | primer, street_ops, footguns | cards, quiz, cases | Has topic pack, needs retention material. |
| 22 | etcd | k8s | runbooks only | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | Important for k8s admin interviews. |
| 23 | K8s Operators | k8s | primer, street_ops, footguns | cards, quiz, cases | Has topic pack, needs retention material. |
| 24 | Chaos Engineering | devops | cards only | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz | Topic pack exists at chaos-engineering/ but maps differently. |
| 25 | Tracing | observability | quiz only | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Observability pillar with almost nothing. |
| 26 | ARP | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Fundamental, underserved. |
| 27 | NAT | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | Same pattern as ARP. |
| 28 | MTU | networking | quiz, cases | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards | MTU blackholes are a real interview topic. |
| 29 | STP / Spanning Tree | networking | cases only | primer, street_ops, footguns, cards, quiz | Niche but asked in network-heavy roles. |
| 30 | DHCP & IPAM | networking | primer, street_ops, footguns, cases | cards, quiz | Has topic pack, needs flashcards and quiz. |
P3 — Flashcard-only gaps (high ROI, low effort)¶
These topics have good content but NO flashcards — adding 10 cards each would immediately improve retention for material that already exists.
| Topic | Domain | Existing Content |
|---|---|---|
| DNS | networking | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz, cases, scenarios, runbooks |
| Grafana | observability | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz |
| Tempo | observability | primer, street_ops, footguns, runbooks |
| Loki | observability | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz, runbooks, labs |
| systemd | linux | primer, street_ops, deep_dive, quiz, cases |
| Linux Hardening | linux | primer, street_ops, footguns, quiz, cases |
| Linux Performance | linux | primer, street_ops, footguns, deep_dive, cases |
| Process Management | linux | primer, street_ops, footguns, deep_dive, cases |
| eBPF | linux | primer, street_ops, footguns, deep_dive |
| Kernel Troubleshooting | linux | primer, street_ops, footguns |
| Filesystem | linux | primer, street_ops, deep_dive, quiz, cases |
| Disk Troubleshooting | linux | primer, street_ops, quiz, cases, scenarios |
Systemic Gaps¶
K8s troubleshooting topics have ops content but no learning content¶
CrashLoopBackOff, OOMKilled, Probes, HPA all have runbooks/labs/cases but no primers or flashcards. Someone can follow a runbook but can't study why things break.
Networking fundamentals are quiz + case-study only¶
Routing, VLANs, ARP, NAT, MTU, STP, firewalls — all have quiz questions and case studies but no topic packs or flashcards. You can be tested on them but can't learn them here.
Many devops-domain topics are primer-only¶
Capacity planning, change management, FinOps, fleet ops, platform engineering, systems thinking, etc. — these all have full topic packs (primer + street_ops + footguns) but zero flashcards, zero quiz, zero cases. Knowledge isn't retained.
Tracking¶
Regenerate the coverage grid after filling gaps:
Update this file when priorities shift or items are completed. Mark completed items with ~~strikethrough~~ and date.