Code Like a DevOps Pro: Your First Python Challenge Awaits
Devops Coding Challenge #1
Welcome to the first edition of Kubenatives DevOps Code Challenge—where we level up your DevOps game with real-world coding challenges!
Why start with coding? In DevOps, coding isn’t just a skill—it’s your ticket to nailing high-paying job interviews and thriving in the chaos of day-to-day ops. Top companies like Google, AWS, and Netflix don’t just want YAML wizards—they want engineers who can script their way out of a 2 AM outage.
From automating deployments to parsing logs (spoiler: that’s today’s task!), these skills are your daily bread-and-butter for debugging, scaling, and staying sane on-call. Ready to boost your chops and your paycheck? Let’s dive in!
Golang & Python DevOps Challenge: Log Chaos Resolver
Picture this: You’re paged at 2 AM because the app’s logs are a dumpster fire—errors buried in a flood of info. Your mission? Write a Python script to:
Read /var/log/app.log.
Extract all lines with “ERROR” (e.g., “2025-03-15 14:30:00 - ERROR: Disk full”).
Save them to errors.txt, sorted by timestamp.
Bonus: Add a command-line flag to filter by a specific hour (e.g., `--hour 14`).
Need a Hint?
Check out Python’s `re` module for pattern matching and `argparse` for the bonus flag.
PS: Here’s a sample app.log content I can suggest. You can copy this into a file named app.log on your system (e.g., in a test directory, since /var/log/ requires root access)
2025-03-15 13:45:12 - INFO: System starting up
2025-03-15 14:30:00 - ERROR: Disk full
2025-03-15 14:32:15 - INFO: User logged in
2025-03-15 15:10:22 - ERROR: Connection timeout
2025-03-15 14:55:47 - DEBUG: Processing request
2025-03-15 13:50:00 - ERROR: Invalid input received
2025-03-15 16:00:01 - INFO: Shutdown initiated
2025-03-15 14:15:30 - ERROR: Memory limit exceededHow to Use This
Save the above text into a file called app.log in your working directory.
Use it to test your Python script for the challenge.
Notes
The timestamps are in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, which matches the example in the challenge (2025-03-15 14:30:00 - ERROR: Disk full).
I’ve included a mix of INFO, DEBUG, and ERROR logs to simulate a realistic scenario.
The errors are spread across different hours (13, 14, 15, 16) so you can test the bonus --hour flag.
How to Play
1. Crack the challenge this week.
2. Share your solution on Twitter with #DevOpsCodingChallenge—I’ll retweet the coolest ones!
3. My full solution drops next week on GitHub—subscribe so you don’t miss it: devops-code-quests.
Why This Matters
Log parsing isn’t just busywork—it’s a DevOps superpower for debugging, alerting, and staying sane on-call. Plus, Python’s your trusty sidekick for quick automation wins.
Next week, I’ll recap this challenge, link the GitHub solution, and drop a fresh Golang problem to keep your skills sharp. Sound good?
Let’s code smarter,
In the next newsletter, we will build Container Resource Watcher!
Also, do you want more DevOps tips and challenge updates? Follow me on X @sharonsahadevan and connect with me on LinkedIn @sharonsahadevan. Let’s level up together!