🧭 The DevOps Roadmap: Your 8-Stage Journey to Becoming a DevOps Engineer

DevOps is more than just a buzzword. It's a culture shift, a set of practices, and a powerful career path that bridges development and operations. But with so many tools and technologies, where do you even begin?

Here’s a step-by-step roadmap I recommend for becoming a successful DevOps Engineer — broken into 8 progressive stages. Whether you're just starting or leveling up, this guide will help you stay focused and build real-world skills.

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🔹 Stage 1 – Linux and Networking Fundamentals

Why it matters:
Linux is the backbone of most cloud infrastructure. DevOps engineers must be comfortable in a terminal and understand basic OS/networking concepts.

What to learn:

• File system navigation, permissions, package managers

• System monitoring (top, ps, lsof, netstat)

• Networking basics: IP, DNS, TCP/UDP, SSH, firewalls (iptables)

• Systemd and service management

Resources:

• Linux Journey

• Networking Fundamentals – Cisco CCNA intro

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🔹 Stage 2 – Bash / Python / Go Scripting

Why it matters:
Automation is core to DevOps. You’ll often write scripts for provisioning, deployment, and monitoring tasks.

What to learn:

• Bash: loops, functions, cron jobs

• Python: file I/O, APIs, subprocess, YAML/JSON parsing

• Go: great for building CLI tools (optional, advanced)

Tools you’ll build:

• Log parsers, backup scripts, monitoring agents, deployment utilities

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🔹 Stage 3 – Git + CI/CD Pipelines

Why it matters:
Version control is non-negotiable. CI/CD enables reliable, automated testing and deployment.

What to learn:

• Git commands (branching, merging, rebasing, resolving conflicts)

• Jenkins: classic CI server

• GitHub Actions: cloud-native CI/CD integrated into your repo

• Pipeline as code (Jenkinsfile, YAML workflows)

Example projects:

• Build a pipeline that lints, tests, and deploys a Flask/Django app

• Automate Docker builds and push to Docker Hub

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🔹 Stage 4 – Containers (Docker, Containerd)

Why it matters:
Containers package applications with their dependencies, ensuring consistency across environments.

What to learn:

• Dockerfile basics

• docker-compose

• Docker networking and volumes

• Understanding container runtimes (Containerd, CRI-O)

Practice:
Containerize a simple app and run it with docker-compose locally and in the cloud.

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🔹 Stage 5 – Configuration Management (Ansible)

Why it matters:
Provisioning and configuring servers manually doesn’t scale. Tools like Ansible automate this process declaratively.

What to learn:

• Ansible inventory, playbooks, roles

• idempotent configurations

• Using Ansible with AWS or cloud modules

Project idea:
Set up an Ansible playbook to install and configure Nginx, Docker, and fail2ban on a fresh Linux server.

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🔹 Stage 6 – Cloud Platforms (AWS / Azure / GCP)

Why it matters:
Most infrastructure is now hosted in the cloud. Knowing how to provision, secure, and manage resources is critical.

What to focus on (start with one provider):

• EC2, VPC, S3, IAM (AWS)

• Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, IAM (GCP)

• Azure VMs, Resource Groups, Blob Storage (Azure)

Certifications to consider:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

• Google Associate Cloud Engineer

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🔹 Stage 7 – Infrastructure as Code (Terraform / Pulumi / OpenTofu)

Why it matters:
IaC allows you to provision infrastructure reliably using code — no clicking around the console.

What to learn:

• Terraform basics: providers, resources, modules, state

• OpenTofu (Terraform fork) – open source IaC evolution

• Pulumi: write IaC in real languages like Python or Go

Practice:
Provision an EC2 instance and S3 bucket using Terraform. Store state in an S3 backend.

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🔹 Stage 8 – Kubernetes (K8s)

Why it matters:
Kubernetes is the de facto standard for container orchestration. It scales apps, manages networking, storage, and updates seamlessly.

What to learn:

• Core concepts: Pods, ReplicaSets, Deployments, Services

• ConfigMaps, Secrets, Ingress

• Helm charts

• Monitoring with Prometheus + Grafana

Practice:
Deploy a containerized web app to a local Minikube cluster. Then move it to AWS EKS or GKE.