Roadmap · updated 12 Nov 2026
DevOps roadmap: the 12 main tools, in the order to learn them
DevOps is how code gets from your laptop to real users, safely and automatically, and how you keep it running. Here is what each main tool does, the order that makes sense for a beginner, and the free official docs for every one.
Read this first
Don't try to learn all 12 at once. Go stage by stage, and build one small project at each stage (for example, a simple web app you keep deploying with every new tool). Every tool here has a free version and free official docs.
01Linux + Git
Everything in DevOps runs on servers, and most servers run Linux. Get comfortable first.
- Linux basics: terminal, files and folders, permissions, processes, package managers, SSH into a server.
- Git: keeps a record of every code change, so you can go back. Learn commit, branch, merge, and fixing a conflict.
- GitHub: home for your repos, where teams review code through pull requests.
Project: put a small app on GitHub and make a change through a pull request.
02CI/CD
- GitHub Actions or Jenkins: build and test your code automatically on every push. Start with GitHub Actions because it lives inside your repo; Jenkins is common in older company setups.
Project: a workflow that runs your tests on every push and fails the check when one breaks.
03Docker, then Kubernetes
- Docker: packs your app and everything it needs into one container, so it runs the same everywhere.
- Kubernetes: runs and manages many containers, and restarts any that crash. Learn pods, deployments and services.
- Helm: Kubernetes' package manager. All the YAML for an app in one chart.
Project: Dockerize your app, then run it on a local cluster (minikube or kind).
04Terraform + Ansible
- Terraform: servers, networks and databases written as code. One command builds them. (Terraform's license changed in 2023; OpenTofu is the fully open-source fork and works the same way.)
- Ansible: sets up servers over SSH, with no agent to install on them.
Project: create one cloud server with Terraform, then install your app on it with Ansible.
05Deploy from Git + monitoring and logs
- Argo CD: deploys the exact version written in Git to Kubernetes (GitOps).
- Prometheus: collects metrics and fires an alert when something breaks.
- Grafana: turns those metrics into dashboards.
- ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana): every server's logs in one searchable place.
Project: a Grafana dashboard for your app, plus one alert that fires when it goes down.