Hiring great Infrastructure talent isn’t easy. On paper, they all seem to have the right acronyms—AWS this, Cisco that, a sprinkle of Linux, and maybe a splash of scripting for flavour. But what really matters isn’t what they’ve listed on their CV—it’s what they can actually do when the pressure's on and the WiFi’s down.

Let’s face it…most candidates have their “Tell me about yourself” spiel down to a fine art. But when you're hiring someone to keep your systems secure, scalable, and not crashing every second Thursday, small talk won’t cut it.

So if you're still asking textbook questions like "What's your biggest weakness?" (and silently hoping they won’t say perfectionism again), this one's for you.

Here are the Infra interview questions that actually predict performance—questions that cut through the buzzwords and get to the good stuff.

1. “Can you walk me through a time something broke—and how you fixed it?”

This is a goldmine. Everyone loves a war story, and Infra pros have plenty. You’re looking for how they approach pressure, problem-solving, and communication. Did they panic? Did they Google? Did they call in backup or go full MacGyver with a bash script?

Why it works: You’re not just testing their technical know-how—you’re gauging resilience and how they perform under (server) pressure.

2. “How do you prioritise when everything is on fire?”

Welcome to Infra. There will be days when the VPN’s down, backups have failed, and your boss can’t log into their email. This question digs into their ability to triage—what’s critical, what can wait, and how they communicate those decisions.

Look for: Strategic thinking, calm in chaos, and a healthy respect for user impact.

3. “What’s a project you’re most proud of—and what made it work?”

This opens the door to hear about proactive work rather than reactive firefighting. Infrastructure pros are often unsung heroes, so let them show off a bit.

Why it matters: You're hearing what they define as success and whether they’re more ‘big-picture builder’ or ‘deep-dive debugger’.

4. “How do you keep your skills current?”

The Infra landscape moves fast. Yesterday’s shiny new tech is today’s legacy headache. You want someone who’s staying sharp—not stuck in the server room of 2012.

Listen for: Subscriptions, certs, side projects, lab environments—even a healthy obsession with Reddit threads.

5. “Explain [technical concept] to someone non-technical.”

Communication is critical. It’s no good having a brilliant engineer if they can’t explain to Karen in Finance why the shared drive is down without launching into a 30-minute monologue about packet loss.

Example: “Explain DNS like you’re talking to your gran.”

Why it's great: Tests empathy, patience, and whether they can distil complex concepts for a wider team.

6. “What’s your checklist before deploying to production?”

You want people with structure and foresight—not cowboy coders pushing changes at 4:59pm on a Friday.

Why it works: It tells you how organised they are, and whether they’ve left scars on a prod environment before.

7. “Have you ever disagreed with a technical decision? What did you do?”

Disagreements happen. It’s how they handle them that counts.

Listen for: Professionalism, critical thinking, and collaboration—not just moaning in Slack and passive-aggressive JIRA comments.

The takeaway?

Great Infrastructure candidates aren’t just about certs and uptime stats. They’re real humans with real problem-solving chops, the ability to think on their feet, and the confidence to ask why before hitting deploy.

The right questions will help you cut through the façade and find the people who can keep your infrastructure humming, even when the alarms are blaring.

Want help interviewing your next Infrastructure superstar?

We know the right questions—and more importantly, we know the right people.
Get in touch with Sara O’Toole, our IT Infrastructure queen of calm-under-pressure.

📧 [email protected]

📞 +353 89 433 2865

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