Real Linux machines • Not a simulator

Production is down.
Can you fix it?

ProdDown drops you into real broken servers with a live terminal, a ticking clock, and automated grading. Practice the incidents that get people hired — before they happen in production.

2 free labs/week SSH into real machines Auto-graded in seconds
proddown-lab-042 — bash
09:42SEV-2
root@lab:/etc/nginx$

↑ This is a real terminal. You investigate, you fix, the platform grades your work.

Trusted by engineers preparing forAWSGoogleMetaStripeDatadog

Three things that make ProdDown different

Every other platform gives you multiple choice or guided walkthroughs. We give you a broken machine and a timer.

Real environments

Full root access to a Linux server. Run any command. Edit any file. No guardrails, no hand-holding.

Pressure that trains

A 10-minute clock forces you to triage like production. Speed comes from repetition, not memorization.

Proof of skill

Automated checks validate your fix in real-time. Pass = the service is healthy. No partial credit.

Four steps from signup to skilled

01

Pick an incident

Choose from 502 errors, disk full, expired certs, crashed services, and more.

02

Get dropped in

A container boots in under 2 seconds with a real terminal. You have root.

03

Investigate & fix

Use curl, vim, systemctl, journalctl — whatever you need. No restrictions.

04

Get graded

Hit Submit. We run health checks inside the container. Pass or keep going.

Real incidents. Real complexity.

Every scenario is modeled after outages that actually happen in production environments.

Browse all labs
Nginx10 min

502 Bad Gateway

Beginner
Security10 min

SSL Cert Expired

Beginner
Linux10 min

Disk Full

Beginner
Linux10 min

Service Down

Beginner

Start free. Upgrade when you're hooked.

No credit card required. Upgrade only if you want unlimited labs and advanced scenarios.

Free

$0/forever

Perfect for getting started and trying your first incidents.

  • 2 labs per week
  • Beginner + Medium difficulty
  • Real terminal access
  • Leaderboard access
Get Started Free
Most Popular

Pro

$15/month

For engineers serious about on-call readiness and interview prep.

  • Unlimited labs
  • All difficulty levels
  • Hints & solution reveals
  • Priority container boot
  • Progress analytics
Start Pro Trial

Team

$49/month

For teams that want to level up together before on-call rotations.

  • Up to 10 members
  • Everything in Pro
  • Team leaderboard
  • Manager dashboard
  • Custom scenarios
Contact Sales

Whether you're preparing or already on-call

Interview prep

DevOps interviews increasingly test incident response. Practice before the whiteboard.

On-call engineers

Build muscle memory for 3am incidents. Faster MTTR starts with repetition in a safe space.

Teams & bootcamps

Run your team through real scenarios before they inherit the pager. Measure readiness.

Your next production incident shouldn't be your first.

Join engineers who practice incident response like athletes practice their sport. Free to start.