Linux skills assessment: advanced
You measure your advanced skills in boot recovery, advanced storage, systemd, performance and web services through timed scenarios with no hints.
Level 301 · 15 lessons · 12 practice labs
Lessons
Preparation
- Time and risk management in an advanced exam
- The habit of verifying under time pressure
- Short task: a twenty-minute recovery warm-up
Section tests
- Assessment: boot and recovery
- Assessment: LVM snapshots, RAID and LUKS
- Assessment: systemd unit writing and dependencies
- Assessment: performance diagnosis
- Assessment: web server configuration
- Assessment: advanced Bash
- Assessment: backup and restore
- Short task: a one-page mistakes summary for each section
Final
- Mixed practice 1 (90 minutes)
- Mixed practice 2 (90 minutes)
- Faults only: ten broken systems
- Capstone: a three-hour advanced hands-on exam
Practice labs
- Timed check: boot and recovery: On your own lab server reset the root password from the console and set the default target to multi-user.
- Timed check: snapshots, RAID and LUKS: Build a mirror, create an encrypted volume on it, define it to unlock at boot and revert from a snapshot.
- Timed check: rescue an unbootable system in twenty minutes: Repair a system with a bad fstab, a broken GRUB entry and a missing initramfs module in turn and get a normal boot.
- Timed check: unit writing and dependencies: Write an app unit that starts after the database and stops when it stops, and verify the ordering.
- Timed check: performance diagnosis: On a slowed server prove by measurement whether the bottleneck is CPU, memory or disk and identify the process responsible.
- Timed check: repair five broken services in turn: In twenty-five minutes diagnose and fix five services failing for different reasons and write each cause in one line.
- Timed check: web server configuration: Set up virtual hosts for two domains, redirect one to HTTPS and pass the configuration test.
- Timed check: advanced Bash: Write a log summary script that runs in strict mode, cleans up with a trap and uses an associative array.
- Timed check: publishing a site with a deploy script: Publish a site behind a reverse proxy using a script that tests the config, rolls back on error and reloads without downtime.
- Timed check: backup and restore: Take an incremental backup of a directory, delete a file and bring back only that file from the backup.
- Summarise your mistakes on one page and retest: Write up the mistakes from three section tests with reasons and solve altered versions of the same tasks again.
- Final practice: a short advanced exam: Complete six tasks across boot, storage, systemd, web, scripting and backup in twenty-five minutes and pass the checker.
About this course
You measure your advanced skills in boot recovery, advanced storage, systemd, performance and web services through timed scenarios with no hints.
What you will learn
- Preparation
- Section tests
- Final
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with the level 101 and 201 topics of the same path.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal that opens in the browser. Nothing to install; the lab starts clean in every lesson.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at level 301; it assumes you know the topics of the lower-level courses.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.