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Delivery & Platform 90 days 2-3 hours/day updated 2026-06-01

BuildOps 90-Day Learning Path

Master BuildOps in 90 days — build system optimization, artifact management, dependency security, and reproducible builds. Cut build times and eliminate flaky pipelines.

What BuildOps means

BuildOps focuses on the engineering and operation of build systems, artifact pipelines, and dependency management at scale. It covers everything from compiler caching and incremental build strategies to software supply chain security and artifact governance. Fast, reproducible builds are a force multiplier for every engineering team.

Who should follow this path

  • DevOps engineers owning CI infrastructure
  • Build engineers optimizing large monorepos
  • Platform engineers managing artifact pipelines
  • Security engineers hardening software supply chains

Prerequisites

  • Experience with at least one CI/CD platform
  • Familiarity with package managers such as npm, Maven, or pip
  • Basic Docker and container build knowledge
  • Understanding of Git and branching strategies

The 90-day plan

Daily study recommendation: 2-3 hours/day, six days a week. Consistency beats intensity — block the time in your calendar like a meeting.

Days 1–15: Foundation

  • Build system taxonomy: Make, Gradle, Bazel, Maven
  • Incremental and distributed build concepts
  • Dependency resolution and lockfiles
  • Build reproducibility principles
  • Monorepo vs polyrepo build trade-offs

Outcome: Choose and configure the right build system for a given codebase and team structure.

Days 16–30: Core concepts

  • Dockerfile optimization and layer caching
  • Multi-stage Docker builds
  • BuildKit and BuildX advanced features
  • Container image size reduction techniques
  • Build argument and secret injection

Outcome: Produce minimal, optimized container images using advanced Docker build patterns.

Days 31–45: Tools and workflows

  • Artifact registry management (Nexus, Artifactory, ECR)
  • Artifact versioning and promotion policies
  • Dependency vulnerability scanning with Trivy and Snyk
  • SBOM generation with Syft
  • License compliance scanning

Outcome: Operate an artifact registry with vulnerability gates and automated SBOM generation.

Days 46–60: Hands-on projects

  • CI build farm capacity planning
  • Remote build caching with Bazel, Gradle, and Turborepo
  • Test parallelization and flake detection
  • Build observability and trace visualization
  • Ephemeral build environments

Outcome: Reduce CI build times by 50 percent through caching, parallelization, and build tracing.

Days 61–75: Advanced practices

  • Software supply chain security (SLSA framework)
  • Sigstore Cosign for image signing
  • SBOM attestation and verification
  • Provenance and build integrity
  • Dependency update automation with Dependabot and Renovate

Outcome: Achieve SLSA Level 2 compliance with signed artifacts and verified provenance.

Days 76–90: Portfolio, interview & certification prep

  • Portfolio: optimized build platform for a monorepo
  • BuildOps interview question preparation
  • Supply chain security certification paths
  • Writing build engineering design documents
  • Build cost analysis and optimization reporting

Outcome: Present a secure, high-performance build platform portfolio and articulate supply chain security.

Weekly outcomes at a glance

PhaseOutcome
Days 1–15Choose and configure the right build system for a given codebase and team structure.
Days 16–30Produce minimal, optimized container images using advanced Docker build patterns.
Days 31–45Operate an artifact registry with vulnerability gates and automated SBOM generation.
Days 46–60Reduce CI build times by 50 percent through caching, parallelization, and build tracing.
Days 61–75Achieve SLSA Level 2 compliance with signed artifacts and verified provenance.
Days 76–90Present a secure, high-performance build platform portfolio and articulate supply chain security.

Tools to learn

  • Bazel
  • Gradle
  • Turborepo
  • Docker BuildKit
  • Artifactory
  • Nexus
  • Trivy
  • Syft
  • Cosign
  • Renovate
  • GitHub Actions

Labs to practice

Mini projects

  • Migrate a polyrepo CI setup to a monorepo with remote caching
  • Build an SBOM generation and vulnerability gating pipeline
  • Implement Sigstore image signing in a GitHub Actions workflow

Interview questions to prepare

  1. What is a reproducible build and why does it matter for security?
  2. How does remote build caching work in Bazel or Gradle?
  3. Explain the SLSA framework and its levels.
  4. How do you detect and eliminate flaky tests in CI?
  5. What is an SBOM and when is it required?
  6. How would you reduce a 30-minute build to under 10 minutes?
  7. Describe a strategy for managing transitive dependency vulnerabilities.

Certification suggestions

  • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional — AWS
  • Google Professional DevOps Engineer — Google Cloud
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) — CNCF

Browse the full certification registry for exam details and official links.

Free resources

// instructor-led option

Prefer live, guided training with mentors and certification support? DevOpsSchool.com runs paid instructor-led programs that pair well with this free path.

Explore paid training on DevOpsSchool.com ↗