Skip to content

Advanced Linux internals & tooling

Advanced Linux mastery that is not about hardening: find and fix bottlenecks with the USE method and the right tools, understand systemd and the boot process deeply, manage storage with LVM and filesystems, and see how the kernel, /proc, namespaces, and cgroups actually work. Seventeen lessons across five sections, each ending with a self-test.

Advanced5 sections · 17 lessons · ~7h total · 59-question self-test

01

Performance analysis

4 lessonsTest yourself

01The USE method & finding bottlenecksA repeatable way to locate the constraint.14 min 02CPU & memory: load, vmstat, pressureRead load average, PSI, and memory reality.14 min 03Disk & network I/Oiostat, iotop, ss, and where time goes.12 min 04Tracing with perf & eBPF toolsSee what a slow process is actually doing.12 min

02

systemd & boot, deep

3 lessonsTest yourself

01Units, dependencies & targetsHow systemd orders and wires the system.14 min 02The boot process & systemd-analyzeFrom firmware to a running system, timed.12 min 03Resource control with slices & cgroupsCap CPU, memory, and IO per service.12 min

03

Storage & filesystems

2 lessonsTest yourself

01LVM: flexible storageVolumes, resizing, and snapshots.14 min 02Filesystems & mountsext4, xfs, mount options, and repair.12 min

04

Kernel from first principles

3 lessonsTest yourself

01/proc, /sys & sysctlThe kernel as a filesystem you can read.12 min 02Namespaces & cgroups by handBuild a container with no Docker.14 min 03Kernel tuning for performanceThe sysctls that actually move the needle.12 min

05

Advanced tooling & observability

5 lessonsTest yourself

01Flame graphs & CPU profilingperf + FlameGraph: see the hot path at a glance.14 min 02The BPF toolkit (bcc & bpftrace)The famous production-safe tracing tools.14 min 03Network debugging toolstcpdump, ss, mtr, nmap, iperf.14 min 04Debugging & power toolsgdb, ltrace, core dumps, jq, ripgrep, fzf.14 min 05Power editing & text processingvim/vi mastery, and advanced sed & awk.16 min

Progress is saved in this browser only — no account required.

Final exam

Test yourself on everything

59 questions drawn from all 5 sections — every answer explained as you pick.

Start final exam