5 Best DevOps Training Courses for Beginners in 2022

In the Information Age, knowledge is more accessible than ever before. Whether it's jumping the battery in my roommate's car or picking the meat out of my first steamed lobster, I like to search for an article or video if I'm unfamiliar with an activity. Even if I am familiar, I will still seek out a resource as a quick gut check because having that expert insight helps me act more confidently and avoid common mistakes.

But this advantage is not limited to day-to-day tasks. For aspiring DevOps professionals, the internet has also made training and best practices readily available. Though these courses are longer than a quick YouTube tutorial on waxing my car, they offer the same convenience of accessing them online whenever you need them.

To help you identify the ideal course for your needs, we've selected five of the best DevOps training courses to help you pursue your career goals in 2021. With one or more of these courses under your belt, you'll be well on your way to qualifying as a DevOps engineer or another role within the DevOps lifecycle.

We'll walk through the details of each course with a focus on the price and time commitment to help you find the best training for your budget and schedule.

1. DevOps Tutorial: Complete Beginners Training — 5 in 1 Bundle [Udemy]

Price: $19.99

This course combines five separate courses from Udemy into one comprehensive crash course on DevOps. Through on-demand videos, you will learn the high-level concepts of DevOps, including best practices for DevOps in business and the importance of DevOps when delivering high-quality software that meets today's standards.

The lessons also cover tools specific to DevOps:

• Docker
• Jenkins
• Git
• Vagrant
• Maven
• Ansible

This course offers a good balance of conceptual and hands-on learning to help you better understand the DevOps model as a whole.

Course Prerequisites

You should have a basic knowledge of operating systems and networking. Other than that, no specific tool knowledge is required.

Course Details

• Time: 8.5 hours
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Certificate of Completion: Yes

2. Continuous Delivery & DevOps [Coursera & UVA]

Price: Free

Coursera and the University of Virginia (UVA) have partnered to provide a course that will empower students to understand and implement continuous delivery practices within development teams. Lessons cover DevOps principles, including testing stacks, infrastructure, operations, and automation. Taught by top-ranked faculty, this course provides students with a background of how DevOps works within teams and how to assess current DevOps pipelines to optimize performance.

Course Prerequisites

None specified.

Course Details

• Time: 8 hours
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Certificate of Completion: Yes

3. DevOps: The Big Picture [Pluralsight]

Price: Free trial with paid plans available

Provided by Pluralsight, this course examines DevOps from a top-level view with a focus on the foundations and benefits of adopting a DevOps model. It then examines the steps to executing a successful transition to DevOps, including cultural and organizational changes. The final lessons examine DevOps automation and the tools necessary to achieve automated workflows within the pipeline once a team has shifted to a DevOps model.

Course Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

Course Details

• Time: 1.5 hours
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Certificate of Completion: No

4. DevOps Foundations [LinkedIn Learning]

Price: Free trial with paid plans available

In this course, experienced DevOps practitioners examine the DevOps methodology and its core values. Participants learn about DevOps tools, infrastructure automation, continuous delivery, and reliability engineering as well as agile and lean project management principles. The course concludes with a look into future developments in the DevOps movement as developers shift from the cloud to serverless architectures.

Course Prerequisites

None specified.

Course Details

• Time: 3 hours
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Certificate of Completion: Yes

5. Nanodegree: Become a Cloud DevOps Engineer [Udacity]

Price: $399/month

Udacity's Nanodegree program offers this course focused on providing real-world experience with implementing DevOps in the cloud. Lessons cover cloud foundations, Infrastructure as Code, Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipelines, and Kubernetes microservices. Providing practice exercises and a capstone project, this Nanodegree course also offers technical mentors and career services so learners can cross-check their learning and pursue their professional goals. If you'd like to learn more about Ucadity, you can check out this informative Udacity review.

Course Prerequisites

• Intermediate programming skills in Javascript
• Familiarity with web development with HTML/CSS
• Familiarity with Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
• Familiarity with Linux command line basics

Course Details

• Time: 4 months at 10 hours/week (recommended)
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Certificate of Completion: Yes

A New DevOps Principle: Continuous Training

The courses we've examined are by no means all of the relevant information and skills you’ll need as a DevOps engineer. These prerequisites are determined by the specific tech stack and DevOps model of the organization you join. Some learning platforms, such as Udemy and Coursera, offer entire suites of DevOps-oriented training focused on specific toolstacks or specialized topics.

Our DevOps roadmap article lays out the different technology areas you should be familiar with for a DevOps role. In addition, we also recommend learning DevOps tools your team will use and DevOps security best practices.

In short, there's no such thing as being overqualified when it comes to DevOps, and with the pace of technological advancement, there's always the opportunity to try new approaches and learn additional skills. If you have the drive and curiosity to learn the full software development lifecycle, then a career in DevOps is a perfect fit, and these courses are a great first step to reaching your professional goals.