Monitoring & Automation interview questions

39 real Monitoring & Automation questions from the System Administration bank, as asked in Indian campus drives and tech interviews. Every question has a verified answer and an AI-tutor explanation on placd — free to start.

1. What is SNMP?

Junior
  1. A.a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
  2. B.the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  3. C.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  4. D.a protocol for monitoring and managing network devices
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3. Which statement is correct?

Junior
  1. A.SNMP — time since the system last booted (also shows load average)
  2. B.SNMP — a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  3. C.SNMP — Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
  4. D.SNMP — a protocol for monitoring and managing network devices
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4. What is uptime?

Junior
  1. A.latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
  2. B.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  3. C.a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
  4. D.time since the system last booted (also shows load average)
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6. Which statement is correct?

Junior
  1. A.uptime — a Service Level Agreement defining uptime/response commitments
  2. B.uptime — Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
  3. C.uptime — time since the system last booted (also shows load average)
  4. D.uptime — a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
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7. What is Prometheus?

Mid
  1. A.a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
  2. B.the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  3. C.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  4. D.latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
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9. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.Prometheus — latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
  2. B.Prometheus — a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  3. C.Prometheus — the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  4. D.Prometheus — a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
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10. What is Grafana?

Mid
  1. A.a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
  2. B.re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
  3. C.a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
  4. D.a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
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12. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.Grafana — a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
  2. B.Grafana — latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
  3. C.Grafana — a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
  4. D.Grafana — Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
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13. What is Nagios?

Mid
  1. A.the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  2. B.Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  3. C.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  4. D.a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
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15. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.Nagios — time since the system last booted (also shows load average)
  2. B.Nagios — a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
  3. C.Nagios — Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  4. D.Nagios — re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
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16. What is Ansible playbook?

Mid
  1. A.a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
  2. B.a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
  3. C.a Service Level Agreement defining uptime/response commitments
  4. D.Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
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18. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.Ansible playbook — Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
  2. B.Ansible playbook — a protocol for monitoring and managing network devices
  3. C.Ansible playbook — time since the system last booted (also shows load average)
  4. D.Ansible playbook — a YAML file describing automation tasks to run on hosts
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19. What is Ansible idempotency?

Mid
  1. A.the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  2. B.a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
  3. C.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  4. D.re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
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21. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.Ansible idempotency — a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
  2. B.Ansible idempotency — the file listing managed hosts and groups
  3. C.Ansible idempotency — a protocol for monitoring and managing network devices
  4. D.Ansible idempotency — re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
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22. What is Ansible inventory?

Senior
  1. A.re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
  2. B.a protocol for monitoring and managing network devices
  3. C.the file listing managed hosts and groups
  4. D.Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
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24. Which statement is correct?

Senior
  1. A.Ansible inventory — a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
  2. B.Ansible inventory — the file listing managed hosts and groups
  3. C.Ansible inventory — Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  4. D.Ansible inventory — Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
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25. What is SLA?

Mid
  1. A.a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  2. B.Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  3. C.a Service Level Agreement defining uptime/response commitments
  4. D.latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
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27. Which statement is correct?

Mid
  1. A.SLA — the file listing managed hosts and groups
  2. B.SLA — the allowable unreliability derived from an SLO before changes freeze
  3. C.SLA — a Service Level Agreement defining uptime/response commitments
  4. D.SLA — latency, traffic, errors and saturation — the core SRE metrics
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28. What is MTTR?

Senior
  1. A.Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  2. B.a dashboarding tool for visualizing metrics
  3. C.re-running a playbook leaves already-correct hosts unchanged
  4. D.a classic host/service monitoring and alerting system
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30. Which statement is correct?

Senior
  1. A.MTTR — a time-series monitoring system that scrapes metrics endpoints
  2. B.MTTR — the file listing managed hosts and groups
  3. C.MTTR — Mean Time To Repair — average time to restore a failed service
  4. D.MTTR — Mean Time Between Failures — average uptime between incidents
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