A skill and certification based learning path for DevOps, SRE, Infrastructure and Operations. Each track maps to industry certifications and the free or low cost resources to get you there.
57 Certifications | 13 Skill Tracks | ~$12,781.50 Total Cost | 40+ Free Resources
Note: This academy currently focuses on AWS, Red Hat, and Python ecosystems. More platforms and tracks will be added based on community interest — open an issue or PR if there's something you'd like to see!
How to Use This Repo | Skill Tracks | Certification Quick Reference | Saving Money | Free or Low Cost Resources | Recommended Reading | Community | Contributing | License
Skill Tracks: 1. Tech Fundamentals | 2. Linux Admin | 3. Git & SCM | 4. Scripting | 5. Cloud | 6. IaC | 7. CI/CD | 8. Containers & K8s | 9. Observability | 10. Security | 11. AI/ML | 12. API | 13. PM & ITSM
- Pick a skill track based on where you are in your career
- Work through the learning resources in order
- Pursue the certification when you're ready to validate your knowledge
- Use the checkboxes below to track your progress (fork the repo first!)
Study Guide Philosophy: I'm a book person. Where available, I've included Sybex (Wiley) and O'Reilly study guide recommendations for each track. Sybex covers CompTIA, AWS, and (ISC)2 certs exceptionally well. O'Reilly is the go-to for Kubernetes, Linux, and cloud-native topics. If you're the type who likes to work through a proper study guide chapter by chapter, you'll find the right book for every cert that has one.
3 certs | ~$1,499
Target Certifications:
- CompTIA A+ (Core 1 & Core 2) — ~$369 per exam ($738 total)
- CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) — ~$369
- CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) — ~$392
What You'll Learn: Hardware, operating systems, troubleshooting, network architecture, protocols, IP addressing, security threats & vulnerabilities, incident response, governance & compliance
Suggested Learning Path:
- Watch Professor Messer's A+ course (free) and practice with hardware/VMs
- Move to Professor Messer's Network+ course and lab with Cisco Networking Academy
- Finish with Professor Messer's Security+ course and practice on OverTheWire
Study Guides:
- CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide, 2-Volume Set: Core 1 (220-1201) & Core 2 (220-1202) — Quentin Docter, Jon Buhagiar (Sybex, 6th Edition, 2025)
- CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-009 — Todd Lammle, Jon Buhagiar (Sybex, 6th Edition, 2024)
- CompTIA Security+ Study Guide with 500+ Practice Test Questions: Exam SY0-701 — Mike Chapple, David Seidl (Sybex, 9th Edition, 2023)
3 certs | ~$1,269
Target Certifications:
- CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) — ~$369
- RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System Administrator) — ~$450
- RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) — ~$450
What You'll Learn: Linux system administration, command line, file systems, user management, services, shell scripting, automation with Ansible (RHCE)
Suggested Learning Path:
- Start with Linux Journey for fundamentals, then practice on sadservers.com
- Take freeCodeCamp's Linux course and get a Red Hat Developer subscription for hands-on practice
- Watch Learn Linux TV for sysadmin topics, then take Linux+ -> RHCSA -> RHCE
Study Guides:
- CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide: Exam XK0-006 — Richard Blum (Sybex, 6th Edition, 2025)
- Red Hat RHCSA 9 Cert Guide: EX200 — Sander van Vugt (Pearson, 1st Edition, 2023)
- Ansible: Up & Running — Bas Meijer, Lorin Hochstein, René Moser (O'Reilly, 3rd Edition, 2022)
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Ansible Automation Study Guide — Alex Soto Bueno, Andrew Block (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2025)
2 certs | ~$198
Target Certifications:
- GitHub Foundations — ~$99 (entry-level)
- GitHub Admin — ~$99
What You'll Learn: Version control with Git, branching strategies, pull requests, GitHub workflows, CI/CD with Actions, code security scanning, repository administration
Suggested Learning Path:
- Complete The Odin Project's Git foundations and practice by contributing to open source repos
- Study with Microsoft Learn's GitHub Foundations prep (free) -> take GitHub Foundations
- Progress to GitHub Admin after gaining real-world repo management experience
Study Guides:
- Learning GitHub Actions — Brent Laster (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2023)
2 certs | ~$354
Target Certifications:
What You'll Learn: Python fundamentals, data structures, scripting, automation, working with APIs, file handling, error handling, object-oriented programming
Suggested Learning Path:
- Start with Python.org's official tutorial or Automate the Boring Stuff (free)
- Complete the free PCEP prep course and PCAP prep course from the Python Institute
- Take freeCodeCamp's Python course and build small automation scripts
- Take PCEP first (entry-level, $59), then work toward PCAP after building real projects
Study Guides:
- Learning Python — Mark Lutz (O'Reilly, 5th Edition, 2013)
- Fluent Python — Luciano Ramalho (O'Reilly, 2nd Edition, 2022)
7 certs | ~$1,400
What You'll Learn: Cloud computing concepts, core services (compute, storage, networking, databases), identity & access management, cost optimization, architecture best practices
Foundational:
Associate:
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — $150
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate — $150
- AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer – Associate — $150
- AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate — $150
Professional:
Specialty:
50% discount on your next exam after earning any AWS certification.
Suggested Learning Path:
- Start with AWS Skill Builder free courses and AWS Workshops for hands-on practice
- Watch Adrian Cantrill ($40) or freeCodeCamp's AWS courses for deep dives
- Take Cloud Practitioner first, then Solutions Architect Associate, then branch into your specialty
Study Guides:
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide with 500 Practice Test Questions: Foundational (CLF-C02) Exam — Ben Piper, David Clinton (Sybex, 2nd Edition, 2023)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide with 900 Practice Test Questions: Associate (SAA-C03) Exam — Ben Piper, David Clinton (Sybex, 4th Edition, 2022)
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Study Guide: Associate SOA-C02 Exam — Jorge T. Negron, Christoffer Jones, George Sawyer (Sybex, 3rd Edition, 2024)
- AWS Certified Developer Study Guide: Associate (DVA-C02) Exam — Brandon Rich (Sybex, 2nd Edition, 2025)
- AWS Certified Data Engineer Study Guide: Associate (DEA-C01) Exam — Syed Humair et al. (Sybex, 1st Edition, 2025)
- AWS Certified Advanced Networking Study Guide: Specialty (ANS-C01) Exam — Todd Montgomery (Sybex, 2nd Edition, 2023)
- AWS Cookbook — John Culkin, Mike Zazon (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2022)
2 certs | ~$365.50
Target Certifications:
- HashiCorp Terraform Associate (004) — $70.50
- HashiCorp Terraform Authoring and Operations Professional — $295
What You'll Learn: IaC concepts, Terraform CLI, providers, resources, state management, modules, advanced module design, workspaces, collaboration workflows, Sentinel policies, production patterns
Suggested Learning Path:
- Complete HashiCorp's free Terraform tutorials from start to finish
- Watch freeCodeCamp's Terraform course and TechWorld with Nana for practical examples
- Build a real infrastructure project, then take the Terraform Associate ($70.50 — one of the cheapest certs)
Study Guides:
- Terraform: Up & Running — Yevgeniy Brikman (O'Reilly, 3rd Edition, 2022)
3 certs | ~$498
Target Certifications:
- GitHub Actions Certification — ~$99
- Certified Jenkins Engineer (CJE) — ~$99
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional — $300
What You'll Learn: Build/test/deploy automation, pipeline design, workflow triggers, artifact management, secrets handling, deployment strategies, pipeline security, Jenkins administration
Suggested Learning Path:
- Study with Microsoft Learn's GitHub Actions prep (free) and build workflows in a personal repo
- Watch TechWorld with Nana's CI/CD tutorials for pipeline design concepts
- Take GitHub Actions cert first ($99), then CJE ($99) for Jenkins experience, then AWS DevOps Professional after gaining production pipeline experience
Study Guides:
- Learning GitHub Actions — Brent Laster (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2023)
4 certs | ~$1,235
Target Certifications:
- Docker Certified Associate (DCA) — ~$195
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) — $250
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) — ~$395
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) — ~$395
What You'll Learn: Container fundamentals, Dockerfiles, image management, Kubernetes architecture, pods, deployments, services, networking, storage, RBAC, cluster administration
Suggested Learning Path:
- Start with Play with Docker and freeCodeCamp's Docker course, then try Play with Kubernetes
- Watch KodeKloud and TechWorld with Nana for K8s deep dives
- Take KCNA -> DCA -> CKAD -> CKA in order; use Killer.sh practice exams (included with CKAD/CKA purchase)
Study Guides:
- Docker: Up & Running — Sean Kane, Karl Matthias (O'Reilly, 3rd Edition, 2023)
- Kubernetes Up & Running — Brendan Burns, Joe Beda, Kelsey Hightower, Lachlan Evenson (O'Reilly, 3rd Edition, 2022)
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Study Guide — Benjamin Muschko (O'Reilly, 2nd Edition, 2024)
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Study Guide — Benjamin Muschko (O'Reilly, 2nd Edition, 2026)
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) Study Guide — Adrian Gonzalez Sanchez, Jorge Valenzuela Jimenez (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2024)
8 certs | ~$1,100
Target Certifications:
- Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) — ~$250
- Datadog Fundamentals — $100
- Datadog Log Management Fundamentals — $100
- Datadog APM & Distributed Tracing Fundamentals — $100
- New Relic Verified Foundation (NVF) — Free
- New Relic Certified APM Practitioner – Associate (APA) — Free w/ Foundation completion
- New Relic Certified Performance Engineer – Professional (PEP) — $175
- New Relic Certified Reliability Engineer – Professional (REP) — $175
What You'll Learn: Metrics, logs, and traces (the three pillars), PromQL, alerting, dashboards, distributed tracing, APM, SLIs/SLOs, incident response workflows
Suggested Learning Path:
- Start with the free New Relic Foundation cert and Datadog Learning Center courses
- Read Google's SRE books (free online) for observability concepts and SLI/SLO design
- Take PCA after learning PromQL with Prometheus docs, then progress to paid Datadog/New Relic certs
Study Guides:
- Prometheus: Up & Running — Julien Pivotto, Brian Brazil (O'Reilly, 2nd Edition, 2023)
- Observability Engineering — Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, George Miranda (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2022)
5 certs | ~$1,643
Target Certifications:
- GitHub Advanced Security — ~$99
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty — $300
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native Security Associate (KCSA) — $250
- Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) — ~$395
- CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) — $599
What You'll Learn: Cloud architecture, data security, platform & infrastructure security, application security, operations, legal & compliance
Suggested Learning Path:
- Complete Security+ first (Track 1), then study with Microsoft Learn's GitHub Advanced Security prep (free)
- Practice on OverTheWire and Killercoda security scenarios
- Take GitHub Advanced Security -> KCSA -> AWS Security Specialty -> CKS -> CCSP (building on each)
Study Guides:
- AWS Certified Security Study Guide: Specialty (SCS-C02) Exam — Mauricio Munoz et al. (Sybex, 2nd Edition, 2025)
- (ISC)2 CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional Official Study Guide — Mike Chapple, David Seidl (Sybex, 3rd Edition, 2022)
- Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) Study Guide — Benjamin Muschko (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2023)
- Hacking Kubernetes — Andrew Martin, Michael Hausenblas (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2021)
8 certs | ~$1,325
Target Certifications:
- AWS Certified AI Practitioner — $100
- AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate — $150
- AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional — $300
- NVIDIA AI Infrastructure and Operations Associate (NCA-AIIO) — $125
- NVIDIA Generative AI with LLMs Associate (NCA-GENL) — $125
- NVIDIA Generative AI with LLMs Professional (NCP-GENL) — $200
- NVIDIA Agentic AI Professional (NCP-AAI) — $200
- Anthropic Academy — Free (completion certificates included)
What You'll Learn: AI/ML fundamentals, model training & deployment, data pipelines, feature engineering, MLOps, responsible AI, cloud-based ML services, generative AI, LLMs, agentic AI, prompt engineering
Suggested Learning Path:
- Complete all Anthropic Academy courses (free) and NVIDIA DLI self-paced courses (free)
- Take freeCodeCamp's ML course and study with AWS Skill Builder AI/ML paths
- Take AWS AI Practitioner first, then ML Engineer Associate, then branch into NVIDIA or GenAI certs
Study Guides:
- AWS Certified AI Practitioner Study Guide: Foundational (AIF-C01) Exam — Vikram Elango, Vivek Gangasani, Shreyas Subramanian (Sybex, 1st Edition, 2025)
- AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Study Guide: Associate (MLA-C01) Exam — Dario Cabianca (Sybex, 1st Edition, 2025)
- Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow — Aurélien Géron (O'Reilly, 3rd Edition, 2022)
- Designing Machine Learning Systems — Chip Huyen (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2022)
- AI Engineering — Chip Huyen (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2025)
5 certs | ~$650
Target Certifications:
- Postman API Fundamentals Student Expert — Free
- Postman API Testing Path Certificate — Free
- Postman Engineer Learning Path Certificate — Free
- MuleSoft Integration & API Associate — $250
- MuleSoft Certified Developer – Level 1 — $400
What You'll Learn: API fundamentals, REST & HTTP methods, API testing & automation, Postman collections & environments, CI/CD integration via CLI, API lifecycle management, integration patterns, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, API-led connectivity
Suggested Learning Path:
- Complete all three free Postman Academy paths — you'll earn three certificates at no cost
- Build API collections and automated tests in Postman for a real project
- Progress to MuleSoft certs after gaining integration experience
Study Guides:
- Designing Web APIs — Brenda Jin, Saurabh Sahni, Amir Shevat (O'Reilly, 1st Edition, 2018)
5 certs | ~$1,245
Target Certifications:
- Atlassian Certified in Jira Administration for Cloud (ACP-120) — ~$249
- Atlassian Certified in Confluence Administration for Cloud (ACP-220) — ~$249
- Atlassian Certified in Managing Jira Service Projects for Cloud (ACP-420) — ~$249
- Atlassian Certified in Cloud Organization Admin (ACP-520) — ~$249
- Atlassian Certified in Managing Jira Projects for Cloud (ACP-620) — ~$249
What You'll Learn: Jira project configuration, workflows, boards (Scrum/Kanban), Confluence administration, IT service management, incident & change management, SLAs, cloud organization administration, user provisioning, security policies
Suggested Learning Path:
- Get hands-on with Atlassian's free cloud tier — set up Jira and Confluence for a personal project
- Complete Atlassian University free training courses for each product
- Start with ACP-620 (Managing Jira Projects) as the easiest entry point, then progress by ACP number
| Certification | Provider | Cost | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| CompTIA A+ (Core 1 & 2) | CompTIA | ~$738 | Beginner |
| CompTIA Network+ | CompTIA | ~$369 | Beginner |
| CompTIA Security+ | CompTIA | ~$392 | Beginner |
| CompTIA Linux+ | CompTIA | ~$369 | Intermediate |
| RHCSA | Red Hat | ~$450 | Intermediate |
| RHCE | Red Hat | ~$450 | Advanced |
| GitHub Foundations | GitHub | ~$99 | Beginner |
| AWS Cloud Practitioner | AWS | $100 | Beginner |
| AWS AI Practitioner | AWS | $100 | Beginner |
| Terraform Associate (004) | HashiCorp | $70.50 | Intermediate |
| Terraform Authoring & Ops Professional | HashiCorp | $295 | Advanced |
| AWS Solutions Architect – Associate | AWS | $150 | Intermediate |
| AWS Developer – Associate | AWS | $150 | Intermediate |
| AWS CloudOps Engineer – Associate | AWS | $150 | Intermediate |
| AWS Data Engineer – Associate | AWS | $150 | Intermediate |
| AWS ML Engineer – Associate | AWS | $150 | Intermediate |
| Docker Certified Associate | Mirantis | ~$195 | Intermediate |
| KCNA | Linux Foundation | $250 | Beginner |
| KCSA | Linux Foundation | $250 | Beginner |
| CKAD | Linux Foundation | ~$395 | Intermediate |
| CKA | Linux Foundation | ~$395 | Intermediate |
| Prometheus Certified Associate | Linux Foundation | ~$250 | Intermediate |
| Datadog Fundamentals | Datadog | $100 | Intermediate |
| Datadog Log Management Fundamentals | Datadog | $100 | Intermediate |
| Datadog APM & Distributed Tracing Fundamentals | Datadog | $100 | Intermediate |
| New Relic Verified Foundation (NVF) | New Relic | Free | Beginner |
| New Relic APM Practitioner – Associate | New Relic | Free | Intermediate |
| New Relic Performance Engineer – Professional | New Relic | $175 | Advanced |
| New Relic Reliability Engineer – Professional | New Relic | $175 | Advanced |
| AWS Solutions Architect – Professional | AWS | $300 | Advanced |
| AWS DevOps Engineer – Professional | AWS | $300 | Advanced |
| AWS Advanced Networking – Specialty | AWS | $300 | Advanced |
| AWS Security – Specialty | AWS | $300 | Advanced |
| CKS | Linux Foundation | ~$395 | Advanced |
| CCSP | ISC2 | $599 | Advanced |
| AWS GenAI Developer – Professional | AWS | $300 | Advanced |
| NVIDIA AI Infra & Ops Associate | NVIDIA | $125 | Intermediate |
| NVIDIA GenAI with LLMs Associate | NVIDIA | $125 | Intermediate |
| NVIDIA GenAI with LLMs Professional | NVIDIA | $200 | Advanced |
| NVIDIA Agentic AI Professional | NVIDIA | $200 | Advanced |
| GitHub Admin | GitHub | ~$99 | Intermediate |
| GitHub Actions | GitHub | ~$99 | Intermediate |
| CJE (Certified Jenkins Engineer) | CloudBees | ~$99 | Intermediate |
| GitHub Advanced Security | GitHub | ~$99 | Intermediate |
| Anthropic Academy (all courses) | Anthropic | Free | Beginner |
| Postman API Fundamentals Student Expert | Postman | Free | Beginner |
| Postman API Testing Path | Postman | Free | Intermediate |
| Postman Engineer Learning Path | Postman | Free | Intermediate |
| MuleSoft Integration & API Associate | MuleSoft | $250 | Intermediate |
| MuleSoft Certified Developer L1 | MuleSoft | $400 | Advanced |
| Atlassian Managing Jira Projects (ACP-620) | Atlassian | ~$249 | Intermediate |
| Atlassian Jira Administration (ACP-120) | Atlassian | ~$249 | Intermediate |
| Atlassian Confluence Administration (ACP-220) | Atlassian | ~$249 | Intermediate |
| Atlassian Managing JSM Projects (ACP-420) | Atlassian | ~$249 | Intermediate |
| Atlassian Cloud Organization Admin (ACP-520) | Atlassian | ~$249 | Advanced |
| Track | Certs | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Tech Fundamentals | 3 | ~$1,499 |
| 2. Linux Administration | 3 | ~$1,269 |
| 3. Git & SCM | 2 | ~$198 |
| 4. Scripting & Automation | 2 | ~$354 |
| 5. Cloud Platforms (AWS) | 7 | ~$1,400 |
| 6. Infrastructure as Code | 2 | ~$365.50 |
| 7. CI/CD Pipelines | 3 | ~$498 |
| 8. Containers & Kubernetes | 4 | ~$1,235 |
| 9. Observability & Monitoring | 8 | ~$1,100 |
| 10. Security & DevSecOps | 5 | ~$1,643 |
| 11. AI & Machine Learning | 8 | ~$1,325 |
| 12. API Development & Testing | 5 | ~$650 |
| 13. Project Management & ITSM | 5 | ~$1,245 |
| All Tracks | 57 | ~$12,781.50 |
These tips can save you hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on your certification journey.
- AWS: 50% discount on your next exam after passing any AWS certification
- Linux Foundation: Frequently runs 30-50% off sales on CKA, CKAD, CKS, KCNA, KCSA, and PCA (watch for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and KubeCon sales)
- Linux Foundation Bundles: CKA + CKS or CKA + CKAD bundles save ~$200 vs buying separately
- CompTIA: Academic pricing available for students; bundles (exam + training) often cheaper than buying separately
- CompTIA: Look for CompTIA CertMaster bundles and retake vouchers
- HashiCorp: Terraform Associate at $70.50 is one of the cheapest certs in the industry
- GitHub: All four GitHub certs are $99 each with free prep material on Microsoft Learn
- ISC2: CCSP exam fee is $599 but ISC2 members get study resources included with annual membership
- NVIDIA: Free self-paced DLI courses to prepare; only pay when you take the exam
- Employer Reimbursement: Many companies cover certification costs — always ask before paying out of pocket
- Retake Policies: Check each provider's retake policy before scheduling — some include free retakes with bundles
Free or low cost courses, YouTube channels, and hands-on labs to prep for certifications without spending a dime.
- freeCodeCamp — Full courses on Linux, Python, cloud, networking, and more
- freeCodeCamp YouTube — Full-length certification prep courses (AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Python, and more)
- AWS Skill Builder — Free AWS training courses and exam prep (some paid content)
- Microsoft Learn — Free GitHub certification prep and cloud training
- KodeKloud Free Tier — Hands-on DevOps labs (free tier available)
- Anthropic Academy — Free AI/ML and Claude courses with completion certificates
- Google SRE Books — All three SRE books free to read online
- Linux Journey — Free interactive Linux learning from beginner to advanced
- The Odin Project — Free full-stack curriculum with Git and command line foundations
- edX — Free courses from MIT, Harvard, and Linux Foundation (paid certificates optional)
- Coursera — Free to audit courses from Google, IBM, and top universities (paid certificates optional)
- NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute — Free self-paced AI/ML courses
- Cisco Networking Academy — Free networking and cybersecurity courses
- Professor Messer — Free CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ video courses
- AWS Workshops — Free guided AWS hands-on workshops
- Red Hat Developer — Free RHEL developer subscription and learning resources
- Python.org Tutorial — Official Python tutorial, free forever
- Postman Academy — Free API fundamentals, testing, and automation courses with certificates
- NetworkChuck — Networking, Linux, cloud, and cyber security
- TechWorld with Nana — DevOps, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform
- KodeKloud — Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, Terraform
- Learn Linux TV — Linux administration and home lab setups
- John Savill — Cloud architecture and certification prep
- Adrian Cantrill — AWS deep dives and certification guidance
- Jeff Geerling — Ansible, Raspberry Pi, self-hosting, home lab
- Professor Messer — CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ full courses
- Fireship — Fast-paced tech explainers and DevOps concepts
- DevOps Toolkit — Kubernetes, GitOps, platform engineering
- That DevOps Guy (Marcel Dempers) — Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud native walkthroughs
- Mumshad Mannambeth — CKA, CKAD prep and Kubernetes deep dives
- Killer.sh — CKA, CKAD, CKS practice exams (included with exam purchase from Linux Foundation)
- AWS Well-Architected Labs — Free hands-on AWS labs
- Play with Docker — Free Docker sandbox in the browser
- Play with Kubernetes — Free Kubernetes sandbox in the browser
- HashiCorp Learn — Free Terraform tutorials and labs
- Katacoda Alternatives on Killercoda — Free interactive DevOps scenarios (Linux, K8s, Docker, Git)
- OverTheWire — Free Linux and security challenges (great for beginners)
- sadservers.com — Free Linux troubleshooting scenarios (like LeetCode for sysadmins)
- Datadog Learning Center — Free Datadog courses and certification prep
- New Relic University — Free observability training and certification prep
- The Phoenix Project — Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
- The Unicorn Project — Gene Kim
- The DevOps Handbook — Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis
- Accelerate — Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
- The Goal — Eliyahu M. Goldratt
- Beyond the Phoenix Project — Gene Kim, John Willis
- Site Reliability Engineering — Google (free online | Amazon)
- The Site Reliability Workbook — Google (free online | Amazon)
- Building Secure & Reliable Systems — Google (free online | Amazon)
- Seeking SRE — David N. Blank-Edelman
- The Linux Command Line — William Shotts (free online)
- UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook — Evi Nemeth et al.
- TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 — W. Richard Stevens
- Terraform: Up & Running — Yevgeniy Brikman
- Kubernetes Up & Running — Brendan Burns, Joe Beda, Kelsey Hightower
- Docker Deep Dive — Nigel Poulton
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide — Ben Piper, David Clinton
- Continuous Delivery — Jez Humble, David Farley
- Python Crash Course — Eric Matthes
- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python — Al Sweigart (free online)
- The Web Application Hacker's Handbook — Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto
- Security Engineering — Ross Anderson (free online)
- Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow — Aurélien Géron
- Designing Machine Learning Systems — Chip Huyen
Connect with others on the same journey:
- r/devops — DevOps discussions, career advice, and tooling
- r/sysadmin — Systems administration and infrastructure
- r/kubernetes — Kubernetes news, questions, and best practices
- r/aws — AWS services, architecture, and certifications
- r/terraform — Terraform and IaC discussions
- r/netsec — Information security news and discussion
- r/CompTIA — CompTIA certification study and tips
- KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Slack — CNCF community (Kubernetes, Prometheus, etc.)
- DevOps Discord — General DevOps community
- HashiCorp Community — Terraform, Vault, and HashiCorp tools
- AWS Community Builders — AWS peer learning program
- DevOps Paradox — DevOps practices and culture
- Kubernetes Podcast from Google — Weekly Kubernetes news
- AWS Podcast — AWS services and customer stories
- CloudSecPod — Cloud security discussions
Found a great resource or certification path? Open a PR or issue. Please ensure:
- Resources are free or clearly priced
- Actively maintained and up to date
- Mapped to a relevant skill track or certification
See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines.
If you find this useful, please consider:
- Star this repo — it helps others discover it
- Share it — post it on Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or your favorite Discord
- Contribute — submit a PR with a new cert, resource, or correction
- Open an issue — suggest a new track, flag outdated info, or request a feature
This project is licensed under the MIT License.