Linux: Practical / DevOps
The real-world Linux a DevOps engineer reaches for daily — text tools, SSH, systemd and diagnostics. Learn the commands that get the job done, and remember them with spaced repetition.
- practice cards
- 83
- practice cards
- per day
- ~10 min
- per day
- level
- Intermediate
- level
- modules
- 5
- modules
What is this track for?
This is Linux as you actually use it on the job — not certification trivia, but the commands a DevOps engineer or SRE reaches for when debugging a box, wiring up access, or chasing down why a service is down.
It covers the text power tools that glue Unix together (grep, sed, awk, jq, sort, xargs), SSH and remote access (keys, agents, port forwarding, rsync), systemd (units, systemctl and journalctl), networking (ip, ss, dig, tcpdump), and troubleshooting (load average, strace, disk and memory diagnostics).
These are the exact flags and idioms that separate fumbling through man pages from fixing the problem fast — and spaced repetition is what turns them into reflexes.
5 modules, seed to bloom
Each module is a set of practice cards — 83 in total. Answer, review, and watch your knowledge grow from seed to full bloom.
Text Power Tools
Wrangle logs and data with grep, sed, awk, jq, and classic pipeline filters
17 cardsSSH & Remote Access
Keys, agents, config files, port forwarding, and copying files over SSH
16 cardssystemd Deep Dive
Units, services, journald, timers, and managing the system with systemctl
16 cardsTroubleshooting & Diagnostics
Read load, memory, disk, and process behavior to diagnose real incidents
17 cardsNetworking Deep Dive
Sockets, routes, DNS, HTTP, packet capture, and firewalls from the shell
17 cardsSample questions
A taste of the real cards. Pick an answer, then reveal the explanation.
Which grep flag performs a case-insensitive match?
- Agrep -i pattern file
- Bgrep -c pattern file
- Cgrep -l pattern file
- Dgrep -n pattern file
Which systemctl command starts a service immediately?
- Asystemctl start nginx
- Bsystemctl enable nginx
- Csystemctl reload nginx
- Dsystemctl status nginx
Which command generates a new Ed25519 SSH key pair?
- Assh-keygen -t ed25519
- Bssh-keygen -p ed25519
- Cssh-keygen -l ed25519
- Dssh-keygen -y ed25519
Which ss invocation lists listening TCP sockets with their processes?
- Ass -tlnp
- Bss -ulnp
- Css -tanp
- Dss -xlnp
Learn it once, keep it for good
Answer a question
Each card is one practical concept with multiple options. Pick what you think is right.
Get the full answer
See the correct option plus a clear explanation, and a link to deeper docs when one is available.
Review at the right time
A spaced-repetition engine (SM-2 or FSRS) resurfaces each card just before you would forget it.
Why practical Linux is worth your time
The daily toolkit of DevOps and SRE
Text tools, systemd and diagnostics are what you actually use in production. This is high-leverage knowledge.
Fix incidents faster
Knowing the right flag for journalctl, ss or strace turns a long outage into a quick diagnosis.
Stop googling the same flags
sed, awk and ssh options are notoriously forgettable — spaced repetition makes them stick for good.
Interview- and on-call-ready
Live troubleshooting and command fluency show up in DevOps interviews and every on-call shift.
Common questions
Is this the same as the LPIC tracks? +
No. The LPIC tracks target the certification objectives; this one is practical, real-world DevOps usage — they complement each other well.
Do I need to be a Linux expert? +
You should be comfortable at the command line. The track then sharpens the deeper, high-leverage tools you reach for under pressure.
Is it free? +
Yes, completely free. No registration or credit card is required, and all your progress is stored locally in your browser.
Will it help on the job, not just exams? +
That is its whole point — every question is framed around the commands and diagnostics you use in real operations.
Ready to sharpen your Linux?
Plant your first seed today. Ten minutes a day is all it takes to turn forgettable flags into muscle memory.