Skills Check

Table of contents

• Novice
• Advanced Beginner
• Competent
• Proficient
• Expert

Test your grasp of containers with the following checks. Which of these can you do?

Novice

1. Install Docker Desktop on your local computer and sign into Docker.
2. Know the basic docker commands to pull a container image, list images, and delete an image.
3. Understand the two modes for running a container.
4. Be familiar with how to list running containers.

Advanced Beginner

1. Know how to pass an environment variable into a container when issuing the run command.
2. Understand how to stop a running container and start it back again.
3. Be familiar with container registries, image tagging, and how to push/pull images to a registry.
4. Use docker exec -it to gain the terminal of a running container, and understand how to troubleshoot errors or issues from within the container.

Competent

1. Be familiar with port mapping between a running container and its local host machine.
2. Be familiar with volume mapping between a running container and its local host machine.
3. Write a Dockerfile and build your own code into a container image.
4. Know how to view resource consumption for a running container.
5. Undertand how to inspect every parameter for a running container: its image, networking, env variables, etc.

Proficient

1. Understand ways to build small, or “slim,” container images.
2. Know how to follow the output log of a running container.
3. Explain what multi-arch container images are and why they exist.

Expert

1. Be familiar with docker compose and how to launch multiple containers as part of a solution.
2. Know how to communicate across containers. For instance, if an API container needs to connect to a containerized database service, what address does it use?
3. Set up automated container builds as part of a GitHub Action.
4. Run a custom container as an AWS Lambda function.