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Training Curriculum

Structured learning paths through existing repo content. No content duplication; all steps link to real files.

Tracks (skill-based)

Track Focus Entry Point
Foundations Bash, Linux, Git, Python, Networking Bash exercises track
Containers Docker, images, scanning Docker exercises track
Kubernetes Core Pods, services, probes, HPA, RBAC K8s exercises track
Helm & Release Ops Values, upgrades, rollbacks Real Helm chart
Observability Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Grafana Obs architecture doc
Incident Response Incidents, chaos, runbooks, interviews Incident simulator
Advanced Platform Service mesh, GitOps, secrets, operators, policies Topic packs
SRE & Reliability SLOs, alerting, postmortems, etcd, DR Topic packs
Cloud & FinOps Cloud providers, cost optimization, multi-cluster Topic packs
Infrastructure Datacenter, bare-metal, Dell servers, IPMI/Redfish Topic packs
Modern CLI jq, ripgrep, fzf, fd, regex, composable workflows Topic packs
Professional Skills Career, interviews, negotiation, writing, leadership Topic packs
Learning & Cognition Meta-learning, memory, attention, critical thinking Topic packs
Life Skills Finance, home, vehicle, legal, preparedness Topic packs
Health & Wellness Exercise, ergonomics, sleep, nutrition, longevity Topic packs

Levels (progressive)

Level Scope Failure Patterns
Level 1: Foundations Bash, Linux, Git, Python basics —
Level 2: Container Platform Docker, Dockerfile, scanning FP-003
Level 3: Production Kubernetes Core K8s, probes, scaling, networking FP-001 through FP-008, FP-012-014
Level 4: Operations & Observability Helm, Prometheus, Loki, CI/CD, IaC FP-009 through FP-011, FP-015
Level 5: SRE & Incident Response Incidents, chaos, forensics, interviews All 15 patterns
Level 6: Advanced Platform Service mesh, GitOps, operators, policies, secrets FP-016 through FP-020
Level 7: SRE & Cloud SLOs, alerting, cloud providers, FinOps, multi-cluster FP-021 through FP-025

Master Curriculum (40 weeks)

The Master Curriculum covers all 207 topics, 60 case studies, and 22 interview scenarios in a day-by-day schedule over 40 weeks. It interleaves technical and non-technical content, with Friday supplements for learning meta-skills, health, career development, and life skills.

  • Time: 60-90 min/day, 5 days/week, 40 weeks
  • Coverage: Every topic, every case study, every interview scenario
  • Structure: 8 phases from Linux foundations through capstone integration

The 15-step path below is the accelerated DevOps-only path for learners focused on K8s/SRE skills.

A coherent progression through the repo. Each step maps to a level and track.

Step What Level Track Asset
1 Orientation 1 — Read training/catalog.md and training/START_HERE.md
2 Deploy the stack 1 — make deploy-all && make status && make port-forward
3 Bash fundamentals 1 Foundations training/interactive/exercises/ levels 1-5 (bash track)
4 Docker basics 2 Containers training/interactive/exercises/ levels 1-10 (docker track)
5 Build the app image 2 Containers Study Dockerfile, run make build
6 K8s fundamentals 3 K8s Core training/interactive/exercises/ levels 1-15 (k8s track)
7 Lab: Probe failure 3 K8s Core training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-01-rollout-probe-failure/
8 Helm basics 4 Helm Study devops/helm/grokdevops/, run make helm-lint
9 Lab: Helm rollback 4 Helm training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-05-helm-upgrade-rollback/
10 Observability 4 Observability Read devops/docs/observability.md, then lab-runtime-03
11 Lab: Loki logs 4 Observability training/interactive/runtime-labs/lab-runtime-04-loki-no-logs/
12 CI/CD + Security 4 Containers Review .github/workflows/, then lab-runtime-06
13 Guided investigation 5 Incident Response make incident YES=1 && make investigate
14 Chaos practice 5 Incident Response Run 2-3 scripts from training/interactive/chaos/scripts/
15 Interview prep + assess 5 Incident Response training/library/interview-scenarios/ + training/library/skillchecks/

How to Start

# 1. Clone and enter repo
cd grokdevops

# 2. Deploy the stack
make deploy-all
make status

# 3. Start exercises
source activate.sh                          # Sets up PATH + PYTHONPATH
quest list                                  # Browse all 250 exercises
cd training/interactive/exercises/levels/level-01/bash-exit-codes
quest info                                  # See the objective
quest run                                   # Try the broken artifact

# 4. Follow the 15-step path above
# 5. Use training/library/reference/knowledge-architecture/ for reference

Reference