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Ansible for the Absolute Beginner - Hands-On - DevOps (Udemy.com)

This course introduces Ansible to the absolute beginner in DevOps. Practice Ansible with coding exercises in browser.

Created by: Mumshad Mannambeth

Last updated September 2026

Our take

Based on the ratings of 53,661 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in September 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.

This is Mumshad Mannambeth's short introduction to Ansible: inventory, playbooks, modules, variables, conditionals, loops, and roles, packed into 48 lectures and just 2.3 hours. The standout feature is the coding exercises, which run in the browser so nobody has to set up a Linux box or Ansible install first. It's aimed at system administrators, cloud engineers, and automation engineers who already have basic Linux skills and want a fast, hands-on primer rather than a deep reference.

Reviewers consistently praise the labs. People say they learn more from typing along in the exercises than from the lecture theory. The complaints cluster around speed and depth: multiple reviewers had to pause or rewind because the instructor moves quickly and reads concepts rather than demonstrating them live, especially in the variables and inventory sections. A few also note the labs assume things the lectures never explain, so you end up reading Ansible's own docs to finish an exercise, and several reviewers wanted a PDF or better notes since slide copies alone aren't enough to study from.

At 2.3 hours this is one of the shorter ways to get oriented in Ansible, and with a 4.5 rating across more than 53,000 reviews plus a Bestseller badge and an update from this month, it's clearly working for most students. Just go in knowing it's a fast overview built around labs, not a slow-paced beginner walkthrough with reference notes. If that pace or the lack of takeaway documentation sounds frustrating, a longer, more narrated course will serve you better.

Best forSysadmins or DevOps beginners who want browser-based Ansible labs, not just slides.
Skip it ifYou want slow, from-scratch teaching with downloadable notes and live command demos.

Pros

  • Coding exercises run in the browser, no local Ansible or Linux setup needed
  • Animated slides make abstract concepts like inventory and playbooks easier to follow
  • Short at 2.3 hours, easy to finish in a weekend
  • 4.5 rating across more than 53,000 reviews with a Bestseller badge

Cons

  • Instructor moves fast; several reviewers had to pause or rewind to keep up
  • Several reviewers wanted a PDF or better notes, saying slide copies alone aren't enough to study from
  • Some labs require concepts the lectures never fully explain, sending students to Ansible's own docs
The information layout shared is easy to follow. And the instructor has a great energy level that helps you stay focused on what he is saying while seeing the video details.
Raymond Smith, a student

Labeled beginner, but reviewers say it suits those with some Linux and YAML familiarity best.

Featured in our guide: The Best DevOps Courses on Udemy in 2026

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What you will learn

  • Beginner level introduction to Ansible
  • Introduction to YAML and Hands-on Exercises
  • Build Ansible Inventory Files with Hands-on Exercises
  • Build Ansible Inventory Files with Hands-on Exercises
  • Automate provisioning and web server deployment

Course content

9 sections · 48 lectures · 2.3 hours of video 16 articles

  1. 1Introduction 2 free previews4 lectures · 7 min
  2. 2Configuration and Basic Concepts 1 free preview5 lectures · 10 min
  3. 3Ansible Inventory4 lectures · 8 min
  4. 4Ansible Variables7 lectures · 18 min
  5. 5Ansible Playbooks9 lectures · 22 min
  6. 6Ansible Modules5 lectures · 11 min
  7. 7Ansible Handlers, Roles and Collections4 lectures · 10 min
  8. 8Advanced Topics4 lectures · 7 min
  9. 9Appendix 1 free preview6 lectures · 45 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • System Administrators
  • Cloud Infrastructure Engineers
  • Automation Engineers
  • Anyone who wants to learn to automate without coding

What you need before you start

  • Basic Linux Administrator Skills
  • Good to have (Not Mandatory) access to a Linux System to setup Ansible to follow along

How it compares

Against the other 219 rated Udemy courses in DevOps on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 55% of them
  • Reviews53,661#7 of 220 by number of reviews
  • Length2.3 hoursshorter than 83% of them
  • Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 94% of them

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Course Description

"Course is simple and awesome. I have always wanted to learn Ansible. I have been through several courses, and this is the best." - Student Testimonial.

What's in this course?

This course introduces a beginner in DevOps to basic fundamentals of Ansible with easy-to-do hands-on exercises that you can practice right in the browser. The course introduces basic use cases of Ansible, followed by an introduction to Ansible Inventory, Playbooks, Modules, Variables, Conditionals, Loops, Handlers, Collections, Templates, and Roles. Each lecture is accompanied by a set of coding exercises, giving the user a hands-on experience in developing Ansible Playbooks.

What is so special about THIS course?

Lectures backed by animated slides make it simple and easy to understand. This is the only course that provides Coding Exercises where you can practice Ansible Playbooks right in your browser.

"One of the best courses I've taken. The contents and the explanation are wonderful" - Student Testimonial.

"I liked the hands-on with task completion. Would recommend it to anyone looking for a getting started guide with hands-on experience" - Student Testimonial.

What is Ansible?

Ansible is a radically simple IT automation platform that makes your applications and systems easier to deploy. Avoid writing scripts or custom code to deploy and update your applications— automate in a language that approaches plain English, using SSH, with no agents to install on remote systems.


What Are the Benefits of Learning Ansible Basics?

  • It is a free and open-source community project with a huge audience.

  • Battle-tested over many years as the preferred tool of IT wizards.

  • Easy to start and use from day one, without the need for any special coding skills.

  • Simple deployment workflow without any extra agents.

  • Includes some sophisticated features around modularity and reusability that come in handy as users become more proficient.

  • Extensive and comprehensive official documentation that is complemented by a plethora of online material produced by its community.


Important Update: Major Additions to Our Ansible for Absolute Beginners Course!

We're thrilled to bring you some major updates to our "Ansible for the Absolute Beginners" course on Udemy.

Our commitment to keeping courses updated ensures you're always in sync with industry trends.


What's New?

Here's a quick rundown of the new videos and topics we've added to enrich your learning experience:

  • Inventory Format

  • Grouping and Parent-Child Relationships

  • Variable Types: Know the different types and use cases.

  • Registering Variables and Variable Precedence

  • Variable Scoping

  • Magic Variables

  • Ansible Facts

  • Verifying Playbooks

  • Ansible-lint

  • Ansible Conditionals

  • Ansible Plugins

  • Modules & Plugins Index

  • Ansible Handlers

  • Ansible Collections

  • Jinja2 Templates


Why You Should Check It Out

Our enhanced course now offers a more comprehensive view of Ansible, allowing you to tackle real-world challenges confidently. From variable types to inventory management and plugins, you’ll be armed with skills that are in high demand.

We're committed to ensuring your learning journey keeps pace with the fast-evolving DevOps landscape.

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Instructor Details

Mumshad Mannambeth

Mumshad is an IT Solutions Architect and specializes in Cloud Native Computing, Automation and DevOps. He is the founder of KodeKloud - a hands-on learning platform and a Certified Kubernetes Training Partner. He is passionate about learning new technology and teaching. He believes the best way to learn is to learn by doing and in a fun way.  Mumshad has authored multiple courses on DevOps, Cloud and Automation technologies. His courses focus on providing students with an interactive and hands-on experience in learning new technology that makes learning really interesting.

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Reviews

4.5

53,661 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Raymond Smith on 9/3/2026

The information layout shared is easy to follow. And the instructor has a great energy level that helps you stay focused on what he is saying while seeing the video details.

By Jose Esteban Sandoval Mora on 8/28/2026

The course is really to good to have foundations on Ansilble. In my personal opinion, I feel the instructure assumes there is already some knowledge the audience may have, and have the tendency of going really fast. I also have the feeling of videos at the end being cut abrubtly at the end. In general, I think the content is really good and the lab platform is very interactive and hands on.

By Nihal Mansour on 8/21/2026

good course and clear explanation for beginners. but I would prefer to share the content as a power point slides because PDF document corrupts the inside content.

By Erick Jackson on 6/26/2026

Mumshad Mannambeth is, in my opinion, an excellent instructor. He has skillfully put together a course that I feel is indispensable to a new beginner being able to learn and grasp the more complex Ansible topics. You come away from the experience confident to take on industry work!

By Graham Hadaway on 6/24/2026

This is a beginner's course. I want to walk away with a handfull of notes that I can refer to as I start my first coding. I didn't get this. This course is very much a 'show & tell', from which I can get an appreciation of the material, but not notes to guide me. Copies of the slides are not self explanatory.

By Mirko Hainke on 6/9/2026

Course was good and well designed. Lab was not always stable. When lab needed to restart you need to go again through all steps (not skipping) to get the system in the state where it should be. This is not efficient and time consuming. (especially in the last lab)

By Maxthon25 on 5/25/2026

Я только начал изучать Ansible. Из всех лекторов и проведение лабораторных практических работ, этот курс понравился больше всех. Рекомендую прослушать.

By Joshua Stark on 5/24/2026

Really not clear if this is a beginner course. Info is all over the place and not ordered very well. Seem to have just jumped into things that have not been explained Update: Seems ok, order of the info could be better to explain this to a beginner. There is a lot of assumptions that the person doing the course as a decent understanding of Unix and how to use the CLI Final Update: At first, the order of the information seems a little out of order, but by the end of it, all the knowledge for the basics is there. I think the labs are really good to get hands on with the details. The examples are really clear and well setup to follow. I think I got more out of the labs then the training material.

By Olumuyiwa Ojo on 4/19/2026

The best ansible course that will get you started and open your horizon in both systems administration and cloud engineering domain along side DevOps.

By Michael Kirk on 2/25/2026

Good course and contnt, however I fund that when peforming the labs the enviroments where a bit slow and hung. Also the content didn't completely match some of the questions in the lab, so I had to make use of the ansible documentation to fill in the blanks.

By Bryan James Ilaga on 11/15/2020

I had a lot of fun with the lecture and coding exercises.

By Lalit Sharma on 11/15/2020

Really good course for the beginner, thanks !!

Showing 12 of 310 reviews

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 90 / 100