test-your-sysadmin-skills
A large set of Linux sysadmin interview and self-test questions with example answers.
- Stars
- 11.9k
- Forks
- 1.7k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- —
- Last update
- 2.0 years ago
- Type
- Curated list
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
This is a free collection of about 284 questions and example answers for people studying or interviewing for Linux and Unix system administrator roles. Questions are grouped by difficulty, from simple warm-up questions to deep 'guru' topics, and many answers link to further reading. The answers are examples rather than complete references, and some questions are marked as unanswered or incomplete for others to fill in.
- Quiz yourself by reading a question and answering before expanding the answer
- Build a study plan across the Junior, Regular, Senior and Guru sections
- Pick follow-up resources linked from individual answers
- Prepare a list of questions to ask or be asked in an interview
Great for
- People preparing for a Linux or sysadmin job interview
- Junior admins checking how much they know
- Students wanting a structured list of topics to study
- Interviewers looking for question ideas
Not ideal for
- Readers who need a complete, authoritative reference, since the README says the answers are only examples and do not cover the whole topic
- People looking for hands-on lab exercises, because this is a Q&A list rather than a practice environment
How to get it
- 1
Read it online
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/trimstray/test-your-sysadmin-skills - 2
Run it
- Open the README on GitHub
- Start with the Simple Questions section
- Move to Junior Sysadmin, then Regular and Senior
- Follow linked resources for any topic you want to learn more about
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Answer each question aloud before opening the answer
- Use the table of contents to jump to a difficulty level
- Submit a pull request when you find an answer that is wrong or incomplete
Downloads
Strengths
- Large number of questions (284) organized by level
- Answers often include links to deeper resources
- Open to pull requests for corrections and additions
Trade-offs
- Answers are examples and are not guaranteed to be complete or current
- Some questions are marked as unfinished, and parts of the README are opinion-based
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| test-your-sysadmin-skills (this) | 11.9k | Curated list | beginner | 2.0 years ago | People preparing for a Linux or sysadmin job interview |
| awesome-scalability | 75.3k | Curated list | beginner | 10 months ago | Engineers preparing for system design interviews |
| the-book-of-secret-knowledge | 255k | Curated list | beginner | 2.0 years ago | System and network administrators looking for a reference of tools and howtos |
| interviews | 65.5k | Learning resource | beginner | 1.5 years ago | Students preparing for their first software engineering interviews |
| fe-interview | 26.3k | Learning resource | beginner | 1.0 years ago | Front-end developers preparing for job interviews |
| 30-seconds-of-interviews | 12.1k | Learning resource | beginner | 3.9 years ago | Developers preparing for JavaScript or front-end interviews |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.