Platform & Infrastructure
Platform Engineer
Every other engineer in the company is, in a sense, a customer. Platform engineers build the internal tools, deployment pipelines, and abstractions that let product teams ship without rebuilding the same Kubernetes manifests from scratch.
The role is for people who get satisfaction from making other people's work easier — designing Terraform modules that hold up, CI workflows that fail loudly when they should, and golden paths developers actually want to follow. Students grow into platform engineering by deeply understanding the software development lifecycle, then learning the infrastructure underneath it.
Good platform engineers think in interfaces and treat developer experience as a product. The work is invisible when it goes right, which is much of the appeal.
- CodeIntermediateNew
Build a Self-Service Internal Developer Platform on Backstage
Stand up a Backstage instance (Docker-Compose for local, EKS for prototype hosting). Build 3 software templates: (1) New Go microservice (repo + CI + ECS service + Terraform + b…
- Internal Developer Platform
- Backstage
- Terraform
Cloud Computing - DesignIntermediateNew
Design Multi-Tenant Network Policies with Calico Tier Enforcement
Receive the cluster topology (120 customer namespaces + 4 platform namespaces), the application traffic patterns (frontend talks to backend talks to its tenant's database), and …
- Kubernetes Orchestration
- Network Policy
- Calico
Container Orchestration with Kubernetes - CodeIntermediateNew
Software Analytics Dashboard for an Engineering Org
Author a metric catalog defining each of ~15 metrics with formula, data source, refresh cadence, and known caveats (e.g. lead-time-for-changes excludes WIP-flagged PRs to avoid …
- Software Analytics
- Dora Metrics
- Space Framework
Advanced Software Engineering - CodeSeniorNew
Linkerd to Istio Migration for a Multi-Cluster Platform
Phase 1: install Istio alongside Linkerd in PERMISSIVE mode (Istio sidecars injected, Linkerd proxies remain). Phase 2: migrate non-critical namespaces first (4 namespaces) by r…
- Istio
- Linkerd
- Service Mesh
Service Mesh and Microservices Networking Practice your coursework on real scenarios.
Every challenge is shaped from real-world context — not generic exercises. The work mirrors what your degree prepares you for.
Why Ewance
- DesignIntermediateNew
Design Schema Evolution for a Multi-Tenant Event Platform
Design a schema-evolution model covering: schema-registry topology (per-tenant subjects vs shared), compatibility modes per topic class (strict vs forward-only vs none), tenant-…
- Schema Evolution
- Kafka Event Streaming
- Schema Registry
Event-Driven Architecture - CodeSeniorNew
Build a Unikernel for a Privacy-Focused VPN Provider
Choose either MirageOS or Unikraft as the unikernel framework. Build an image running a minimal WireGuard data plane (existing OCaml or Rust WireGuard reference implementation i…
- Unikernels
- Virtualization
- Wireguard
Advanced Operating Systems - DesignIntermediateNew
Drift-Detect + Self-Heal a Multi-Tenant Kubernetes Estate
Enable ArgoCD auto-sync with selfHeal + prune across all 28 clusters. Add Kyverno cluster policies enforcing baseline standards (registry, resource limits, network policy). Buil…
- Argocd
- Kyverno
- Drift Detection
GitOps and Continuous Delivery - CodeIntermediateNew
Build an Internal Developer Portal with Backstage for a FinTech
Deploy Backstage on the fintech's existing Kubernetes platform. Build catalog-info.yaml generators that crawl their GitHub orgs (300+ repos) and Jira (ownership tags) to seed th…
- Backstage
- Platform Engineering
- Service Catalog
Platform Engineering - Browse challenges
Explore role
Product Manager
Ship product that solves real user problems. Combine user research, prototyping, and stakeholder alignment to turn ambiguous briefs into measurable wins — the role at the centre of modern software teams.
- CodeIntermediateNew
Migrate an Internal Service from REST to gRPC
Receive the existing OpenAPI spec, the Go service code, and 7 days of traffic data. Pick the top 2 RPS-by-method endpoints and design Protocol Buffers (protobuf) message + servi…
- Grpc
- Protobuf
- REST API Design
API Design and GraphQL - StrategyIntermediateNew
Refactor a Tangled Terraform Repo for a Multi-Account AWS Estate
Audit the existing repo and produce a dependency map across modules and accounts. Design the target layout: account-level base modules, region-level shared infra, environment-le…
- Terraform
- Terragrunt
- Terraform
DevOps and Secure Deployment - DesignIntermediateNew
Change-Impact Analysis for a Cross-Service API Migration
Pull API logs over 30 days from the API gateway to enumerate all consumers + per-endpoint call volume. Cross-reference with service-catalog ownership to map 23 consumers to team…
- Change Impact Analysis
- API Migration
- Parallel Run
Software Evolution and Maintenance - CodeIntermediateNew
Roll Out mTLS Across 80 Microservices with Istio
Install Istio (current LTS) in ambient mode where possible, sidecar mode where ambient is not yet supported by the service. Phase 1: enable PERMISSIVE mTLS namespace by namespac…
- Istio
- Mtls
- Kubernetes Orchestration
Service Mesh and Microservices Networking Build a verifiable portfolio.
Submissions become evidence. Reviewers with shipping experience score against a rubric; the result becomes a credential anyone can verify.
Why Ewance
- CodeIntermediateNew
Build a Custom Kubernetes Operator for a Multi-Tenant SaaS
Receive the current Helm + bash setup, a description of the per-tenant resources to manage, and the cluster details (EKS 1.29, Strimzi for Kafka). Design a TenantPipeline CRD wi…
- Kubernetes Operators
- Crds
- Kubebuilder
Container Orchestration with Kubernetes - DesignBeginnerNew
Bootstrap ArgoCD on a Multi-Cluster Platform for an EdTech
Design the repo topology: per-environment vs per-tenant kustomize overlays, ApplicationSet generators for service-per-cluster fan-out, a sync-wave strategy for ordered deploys. …
- Argocd
- Kubernetes Orchestration
- Kustomize
GitOps and Continuous Delivery - CodeIntermediateNew
Design a Multi-Tenant Kubernetes Namespace-Provisioning Self-Service
Design and build a Backstage scaffolder that lets a squad request a namespace (specifying environment, owners, expected scale). The scaffolder generates a pull request to a GitO…
- Platform Engineering
- Kubernetes Orchestration
- Self Service
Platform Engineering - AnalysisIntermediateNew
Evaluate OS-Level Containment for a Multi-Tenant Edge Platform
Set up reproducible environments for gVisor, Firecracker, and Wasmtime on identical hardware (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM). Run the platform's 4 workload archetypes (anonymized): API proxy…
- Containment
- Virtualization
- Wasm
Advanced Operating Systems - AnalysisBeginnerNew
Measure and Reduce Developer Cognitive Load Across 6 Squads
Run the Team Topologies team self-assessment (cognitive-load survey, 12 questions) with 5 representatives per squad (30 total). Inventory each squad's tool surface: services own…
- Platform Engineering
- Cognitive Load
- Team Topologies
Platform Engineering - AnalysisBeginnerNew
Cardinality and Cost Control on a Datadog-Based Gaming Platform
Receive an anonymized export of Datadog metric inventory (metric names, tag-cardinality counts, monthly cost per metric, team owner). Identify the top 30 cost-driver metrics, cl…
- Cardinality Control
- Datadog
- Finops & Cost Optimization
Software Observability - DesignBeginnerNew
Design a Golden-Path Service Template for a Series-D Scale-Up
Design a golden-path template producing a Go (or Node) microservice with: REST + gRPC scaffolding, structured logging (slog or pino), OpenTelemetry tracing, Prometheus metrics, …
- Platform Engineering
- Golden Paths
- Backstage
Platform Engineering
How it works
From brief to credential, in six steps.
Step 01
Browse challenges aligned to your studies.
Step 02
Accept the one that fits your goals.
Step 03
Work through it with AI Copilot guidance.
Step 04
Submit for structured evaluation.
Step 05
Earn a verified credential.
Step 06
Add it to LinkedIn with one click.
Related roles you may want to explore
Browse all roles →Platform & Infrastructure
Cloud Engineer
Cloud engineers are the reason a website still works when the marketing team forgets to warn them about a campaign. The role is part automation, part operations: writing Terraform that makes infrastructure reproducible, tuning Kubernetes clusters that actually behave under load, and building the unglamorous pipelines that let other engineers ship safely. Good work here looks like a system that recovers from failure faster than humans can notice it failed. Students grow into this path by getting comfortable with Linux, networking fundamentals, and the patient debugging that comes from chasing latency through five layers of abstraction. If you like the satisfaction of turning chaos into something predictable, this work compounds quickly.
Platform & Infrastructure
Database Administrator
Quietly, in the background of almost every digital service, sits a database that has to be fast, available, and not on fire at 3 a.m. The database administrator is the person responsible for that. DBAs tune queries, plan capacity, manage backups, and design migrations that move terabytes of information without losing a row. The role suits students who enjoy depth over breadth and find satisfaction in making complex systems behave. A good DBA can read an execution plan the way a mechanic reads an engine, and increasingly works across cloud platforms like AWS RDS and Azure SQL. You grow into it through deep SQL fluency, one specific database engine learned cold, and a calm temperament when production traffic spikes.
Platform & Infrastructure
DevOps Engineer
Between the code a developer writes and the service a customer uses lies a whole world of automation, and the devops engineer lives there. They build the pipelines that test and ship software safely, the infrastructure that scales when traffic spikes, and the alerting that catches problems before users do. The role suits students who like building tools that other engineers depend on. Days mix Terraform for infrastructure, Kubernetes for orchestration, and Bash for the glue between them. Strong devops engineers care about reliability the way good architects care about load-bearing walls. You grow into it through one cloud platform learned deeply, real fluency with Linux, and a temperament that treats incidents as puzzles rather than emergencies.
Platform & Infrastructure
Site Reliability Engineer
Pagers go off at 3 a.m. for a reason, and SREs exist so that reason is rarer and better understood. The discipline brings software engineering rigor to operations: Kubernetes clusters defined in Terraform, deployment pipelines written in Go or Python, capacity planning grounded in actual load tests rather than vibes. You'll learn to design systems that fail gracefully and to write runbooks that someone half-asleep can follow. Strong SREs are honest about error budgets and resist the temptation to treat every incident as exceptional. Students who enjoyed both their algorithms course and their first Linux deep-dive often find a home here. Growth comes through owning real services, leading blameless post-mortems, and earning trust from developers as a partner rather than a gatekeeper.
Platform & Infrastructure
Systems Architect
Systems architects make the decisions whose consequences are felt for years. The role is about choosing: which cloud provider, which integration pattern, which trade-off between cost and reliability deserves an Architecture Decision Record so the next team understands the reasoning. You'll work in C4 diagrams, ArchiMate models, and the AWS or Azure Well-Architected Framework, but the real artifact is clarity of thought. Strong architects know when to standardize and when to let a team diverge, and they write documents that survive a leadership change. Students drawn here usually loved their distributed systems course and are patient enough to think before they build. Growth happens through scars: owning architectures end-to-end, watching them strain under real load, and learning which abstractions earned their place.
Industry teams behind a decade of practitioner briefs
Hiring from this pool?
Sponsor a challenge and meet candidates through actual work.
Industry teams can shape briefs around the skills they hire for, then evaluate students on rubric-scored deliverables — not resumes.
Skills and disciplines shown on this page are derived from the Ewance challenge catalogue. When the median annual salary is available for this role via Adzuna, it will be shown above with the sample size and country.
Portrait: Photo by Danny Postma on Unsplash.