Surviving a Linux SysAdmin Interview for a VPN Service – What Should I Expect?
Posted by I_Korn@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Hey folks,
I’m about to face the final boss: a technical interview for a Linux SysAdmin role at a VPN service. Recruiter round? Cleared. Test task? Completed. Feedback? Surprisingly positive.
Now, I just need to not screw up the tech interview. The stakes are high because my current job has a schedule so bad that I’ve started questioning if time itself is real. I swear, I see more of my terminal than my bed.
So, for those who have been through this kind of interview:
- What should I expect?
- Any common pitfalls or gotcha questions?
- Anything specific about VPN-related SysAdmin work that I should brush up on?
Any insights, war stories, or horror tales are welcome. If I get the job, I promise to pour one out (or at least run a `rm -rf /` in a VM in your honor).
Sad_Dust_9259@reddit
Expect networking deep dives, troubleshooting, and VPN security gotchas.
Be honest in your interview. Tell them what you know and what you don't know. Otherwise, they'll expect you to know what you're doing, even if you dont.
Keeper-Name_2271@reddit
Sure quéstion; site to site vpn
s1lv3rbug@reddit
Put this question in ChatGPT and see what it says
symcbean@reddit
If I were asking the questions I'd be asking about TCP (do you understand congestion collapse in TCP over TCP? Window scaling?) TLS (do you know how OCSP stapling works?) Authentication flows (Radius, oauth). If I knew anything about it, then I'd also be asking about IPv6.
spudlyo@reddit
You should do some homework and check out what VPNs they support. If they support Wireguard, you should probably know this, and have something intelligent to say about it, as Wireguard is pretty damn cool. If they support IPSec, you should probably know this too, as IPSec can be challenging. It might make you smart to ask if they use StrongSwan on the backend, or whatever.
Capt91@reddit
Why openvpn bad?
Underknowledge@reddit
huge legacy codebase, slower in compartment. Actually dont hate it in terms of user-creation or debugging - but spudlyo probably had his share of hadekes with it
chock-a-block@reddit
If the questions get into things you don know, just say what you know, and offer to follow-up with an email about the things you don’t know.
If the shop cannot tolerate an “I don’t know off the top of my head. But, I’ll follow up with an email.” Then, rejection is protection.
Never apologize for not knowing.
saysjuan@reddit
Unless you look and sound exactly like Gilfoyle from Silicon Valley you won't make it past the first round of interviews.
You might want to study this and ensure every answer you respond is on point.
zakabog@reddit
I wouldn't stress it at all, do a very basic YouTube video overview of Linux sysadmin interview questions, but if you're familiar with Linux the interview should be fairly straightforward.