Ansible Interview Questions with Real-Time Scenarios

Here are some Ansible interview questions with real-time scenarios to test your understanding:

Basic Concepts and Architecture

1. Explain the difference between Ansible and Puppet.

   • Scenario: You're tasked with automating the deployment of a new web application across multiple servers. Which tool would you choose and why?

2. Describe Ansible's agentless architecture. How does it differ from agent-based tools like Chef or Puppet?

   • Scenario: You're working in an environment with strict security policies that prohibit the installation of additional software on servers. How would you implement configuration management in this scenario?

Playbooks and Tasks

1. What is a playbook in Ansible? How do you structure a playbook?

   • Scenario: You need to automate the deployment of a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on multiple servers. Create a basic playbook outline.

2. Explain the concept of idempotency in Ansible. How does it ensure consistency in your automation tasks?

   • Scenario: You've run a playbook to install and configure a service on a server. If you run the same playbook again, what will happen?

Modules and Variables

1. What is an Ansible module? Can you name some commonly used modules?

   • Scenario: You need to copy a configuration file to multiple servers. Which module would you use?

2. How do you define and use variables in Ansible playbooks?

   • Scenario: You want to dynamically set the hostname of a server based on its IP address. How would you use variables to achieve this?

Roles and Handlers

1. What is an Ansible role? How does it help in organizing your playbooks?

   • Scenario: You have a large and complex playbook that deploys a web application. How would you break it down into smaller, reusable roles?

2. Explain the purpose of handlers in Ansible. When are they typically used?

   • Scenario: You've configured a web server and need to restart it after making changes to its configuration. How would you use handlers to achieve this?

Advanced Topics

1. How do you handle conditional execution of tasks in Ansible?

   • Scenario: You want to install a package only if it's not already present on the target system. How would you use conditionals to achieve this?

2. What is Ansible Tower? How does it help in managing and scaling your Ansible deployments?

• Scenario: Your organization is growing rapidly, and you need a centralized platform to manage your Ansible automation. How would Ansible Tower benefit you?