DevOps engineers are among the highest-paid roles in tech. This beginner-friendly roadmap takes you from Linux basics to Kubernetes and cloud deployment — personalized to your background.
Last updated: March 2026 · 6 Months plan
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Personalize This Roadmap — FreeDevOps bridges software development and IT operations, focusing on automating deployments, managing infrastructure, and ensuring system reliability. In 2026, every company that ships software needs DevOps practices — from startups using GitHub Actions to enterprises running Kubernetes clusters. DevOps engineers earn $100,000-$170,000 on average, making it one of the most lucrative career paths in tech. The role combines coding skills with systems thinking, appealing to both developers and sysadmins.
Start with Linux fundamentals — command line, file system, permissions, and shell scripting. Learn networking basics (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP). Then move to version control with Git and CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions. Learn containerization with Docker and container orchestration with Kubernetes. Pick a cloud platform (AWS is most popular, but GCP and Azure work too) and learn core services: compute, storage, networking, and IAM. Finally, learn Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and monitoring with Prometheus/Grafana.
Your background matters. Developers transitioning to DevOps already know coding and can focus on infrastructure, networking, and cloud services. Sysadmins transitioning have operations experience but need to learn CI/CD automation, containerization, and scripting. Complete beginners should start with Linux and basic scripting before anything else. Free Class AI adapts your roadmap based on where you're starting from, skipping what you already know.
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