Beginner to Intermediate|12 hours|23 lessons

Networking Fundamentals for DevOps Engineers

The networking knowledge every DevOps engineer needs — OSI model, DNS, TCP/IP, HTTP, load balancing, and the troubleshooting toolkit that turns 'the app is down' into a root cause in minutes. Completely free.

Completely Free

No signup required. Start learning now.

Text-based, no videos

7 modules, 23 lessons

No signup required

What you'll learn

The OSI model mapped to real-world K8s networking — not textbook theory

DNS resolution end-to-end, CoreDNS in Kubernetes, and debugging with dig

TCP handshake, connection states, and how K8s Services work at the socket level

HTTP/1.1 vs HTTP/2 vs HTTP/3, status codes, and connection pooling

L4 vs L7 load balancing, kube-proxy modes, and Service types

A systematic troubleshooting toolkit: curl, dig, tcpdump, traceroute, ss

SSL/TLS certificates — how they work, why they expire, and how to debug them

Curriculum

7 modules · 23 lessons

The OSI Model That Actually Matters

Forget the textbook. Learn the OSI layers that matter for production troubleshooting — mapped to real Kubernetes networking.

3 lessons

The OSI Model for DevOps Engineers30 minFREE How Packets Actually Flow35 minFREE OSI Meets Kubernetes Networking30 minFREE

DNS — The Internet's Phone Book

DNS resolution end-to-end — from recursive resolvers to authoritative servers, record types, CoreDNS in Kubernetes, and debugging with dig.

4 lessons

How DNS Resolution Works30 minFREE DNS Record Types That Matter25 minFREE CoreDNS in Kubernetes35 minFREE DNS Debugging with dig, nslookup & tcpdump30 minFREE

TCP/IP & UDP

The transport layer — TCP handshake, connection states, ports, sockets, and how K8s Services map to TCP connections.

3 lessons

TCP — The Three-Way Handshake & Connection Lifecycle35 minFREE TCP vs UDP — When to Use Which25 minFREE Ports, Sockets & Kubernetes Services30 minFREE

HTTP & HTTPS

The application layer — request/response lifecycle, status codes, HTTP versions, and connection management.

3 lessons

HTTP Request/Response Lifecycle30 minFREE Status Codes That Matter in Production25 minFREE HTTP/1.1 vs HTTP/2 vs HTTP/330 minFREE

Load Balancing & Proxies

L4 vs L7 load balancing, reverse proxies, health checks, and how Kubernetes Service types work under the hood.

3 lessons

L4 vs L7 Load Balancing30 minFREE Reverse Proxies & Kubernetes Ingress35 minFREE Kubernetes Service Types Deep Dive35 minFREE

Network Troubleshooting Toolkit

The commands and methodology that turn 'the app is down' into a root cause in minutes — curl, dig, tcpdump, traceroute, and ss.

3 lessons

The Systematic Troubleshooting Approach30 minFREE Essential Network Commands35 minFREE tcpdump & Packet Analysis35 minFREE

SSL/TLS Essentials

How SSL/TLS certificates actually work — encryption basics, the TLS handshake, certificate chains, and debugging certificate errors in production.

4 lessons

Encryption Basics — Public Keys, Private Keys & How HTTPS Works35 minFREE The TLS Handshake — What Happens When You Type HTTPS35 minFREE Certificates & the Chain of Trust35 minFREE Debugging Certificate Errors in Production35 minFREE

About the Author

Sharon Sahadevan

AI Infrastructure Engineer

Building production GPU clusters on Kubernetes — H100s, large-scale model serving, and end-to-end ML infrastructure across Azure and AWS.

10+ years designing cloud-native platforms with deep expertise in Kubernetes orchestration, GitOps (Argo CD), Terraform, and MLOps pipelines for LLM deployment.

Author of KubeNatives, a weekly newsletter read by 3,000+ DevOps and ML engineers for production insights on K8s internals, GPU scheduling, and model-serving patterns.

Start learning now — completely free

7 modules, 23 lessons. No signup, no paywall.