AZ-400 Design and implement build and release pipelines Practice Test 26 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You have a multi-stage YAML pipeline that builds and deploys a Java application. The pipeline runs on a Microsoft-hosted agent. The build stage fails intermittently with 'OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space'. What should you do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Set the environment variable 'MAVEN_OPTS' to '-Xmx2048m'.. Option D is correct because you can set JAVA_OPTS to increase heap size for the Maven build. Option A is wrong because using a self-hosted agent doesn't directly increase heap; you would still set JAVA_OPTS. Option B is wrong because parallel jobs would increase resource usage, not fix memory. Option C is wrong because the variable is for Gradle, not Maven.

Answer

Use a self-hosted agent with more memory.

Answer

Set the environment variable 'GRADLE_OPTS' to '-Xmx2048m'.

Answer

Use the 'Maven@3' task with the 'jdkVersion' option set to 'jdk11'.

Question 2

You are designing a release strategy for a critical application that must maintain high availability. You decide to use Azure Traffic Manager to route traffic between deployments in two Azure regions. Your release pipeline deploys the application to the secondary region first, then switches Traffic Manager priority to route traffic to the secondary region while the primary region is updated. This strategy is known as:

Accepted Answer

Rolling deployment across regions. Option B is correct because it describes deploying to a secondary region, switching traffic, then updating primary. Option A is wrong because blue-green deploys a full parallel environment. Option C is wrong because rolling updates update instances gradually. Option D is wrong because canary releases a small subset.

Answer

Blue-green deployment

Answer

Canary deployment

Answer

Red/Black deployment

Question 3

Your team uses Azure Pipelines for CI/CD. You want to enforce that every build produces a versioned artifact that includes the Git commit ID. Which predefined variable should you use to get the commit ID in a YAML pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Build.SourceVersion. Option C is correct because Build.SourceVersion returns the commit ID. Option A is wrong because Build.BuildId is the pipeline build number. Option B is wrong because Build.SourceBranch is the branch name. Option D is wrong because Build.Repository.Name is the repo name.

Answer

Build.Repository.Name

Answer

Build.BuildId

Answer

Build.SourceBranch

Question 4

Refer to the exhibit. You are creating an ARM template to deploy an App Service and its Application Insights configuration. The template fails to deploy with error: 'The resource 'Microsoft.Insights/components/...' is not defined in the template.' What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The Application Insights component is not defined as a resource in the template.. Option A is correct because the reference function cannot reference a resource that is not defined in the template unless it exists already. Option B is wrong because the expression syntax is correct for ARM. Option C is wrong because apiVersion is valid. Option D is wrong because the reference function can be used in outputs if the resource is defined.

Answer

The reference function cannot be used in a properties object.

Answer

The reference function syntax is incorrect.

Answer

The apiVersion for the config resource is outdated.

Question 5

Your team is adopting Azure Pipelines for a new project. You need to ensure that only authorized users can approve releases to production. Which two methods can you use to implement approval checks?

Accepted Answer

Configure pre-deployment approvals on the Production environment.. Options B and E are correct. Pre-deployment approvals can be added to a specific environment, and a single required approver can be designated. Options A and C are not valid for classic release pipelines; manual intervention is a task, not an approval. Option D is wrong because there is no 'Approval Gates' feature; gates are automated.

Answer

Use Deployment Gates with a manual approval gate.

Answer

Add a Manual Intervention task in the release pipeline.

Answer

Add an Approval Check to the agent pool.

Question 6

You are designing a YAML pipeline that builds a .NET application and publishes it as a NuGet package to Azure Artifacts. Which three tasks should you include in the build stage?

Accepted Answer

DotNetCoreCLI@2 with command 'build'. Options A, B, and E are correct. First restore dependencies, then build the project, then pack into a NuGet package. Option C is wrong because NuGet push is not needed in build stage if you push later. Option D is wrong because NuGet install is for packages.config, not SDK-style projects.

Answer

NuGetCommand@2 with command 'install'

Answer

DotNetCoreCLI@2 with command 'push'

Question 7

Your organization uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD. You need to ensure that workflows are only triggered when changes are pushed to the main branch or when a pull request is opened against main. Which two trigger types should you specify in the workflow?

Accepted Answer

pull_request: branches: [ main ]. Options A and C are correct. Option A triggers on push to main. Option C triggers on pull request events targeting main. Option B is wrong because workflow_dispatch is manual. Option D is wrong because schedule is time-based. Option E is wrong because release triggers on GitHub releases.

Answer

release

Answer

workflow_dispatch

Answer

schedule

Question 8

You are a DevOps engineer at a large enterprise that develops a cloud-native application using microservices architecture. The application consists of 15 microservices, each stored in a separate GitHub repository. Your team uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for production. The current deployment process is manual and error-prone. You need to design an automated CI/CD pipeline that supports the following requirements:

1. Each microservice must have its own build and test pipeline triggered on pull requests and merges to the main branch.
2. Upon merging to main, a container image must be built, tagged with the Git commit SHA, and pushed to Azure Container Registry (ACR).
3. A separate release pipeline must deploy the updated images to AKS using a GitOps approach with Flux v2.
4. The release pipeline must support rolling back to a previous version quickly if a deployment fails.
5. The entire solution must be defined as code to ensure reproducibility.

Which approach should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Use GitHub Actions in each microservice repo for CI to build and push images to ACR. Use a separate GitOps repository that contains Kubernetes manifests. Configure Flux v2 in AKS to sync from the GitOps repo. When a new image is pushed to ACR, update the manifest in the GitOps repo via a GitHub Action, triggering Flux to deploy. For rollback, revert the commit in the GitOps repo.. Option A is correct because it uses GitHub Actions for CI per microservice, pushes to ACR, and uses Flux v2 for GitOps-based deployment with rollback by reverting Git. Option B is wrong because Azure Pipelines is not preferred if the team already uses GitHub Actions and GitOps. Option C is wrong because multi-branch pipelines in a single repo would mix concerns and violate requirement 1 (separate repos). Option D is wrong because Argo CD is not a native GitHub or Azure solution and introduces complexity.

Answer

Create a single monorepo with all microservices. Use GitHub Actions with a multi-branch pipeline that builds only changed services. Deploy to AKS using kubectl commands in the pipeline. For rollback, redeploy the previous image tag.

Answer

Use Azure Pipelines with a single build pipeline that triggers on any change in any repo using webhooks. Use Azure DevOps Release Pipelines to deploy to AKS using Helm. Store Helm charts in Azure Container Registry. For rollback, use Helm rollback command.

Answer

Use GitHub Actions for CI and deploy directly to AKS using kubectl in the same workflow. Store Kubernetes manifests in each microservice repo. Use Argo CD to monitor the repos and sync.

Question 9

Your team is migrating from Jenkins to Azure Pipelines. You have a Jenkins pipeline that builds a Java application, runs unit tests, performs static code analysis with SonarQube, packages the application as a WAR file, and deploys to a Tomcat server. You need to replicate this pipeline in Azure Pipelines using YAML. The build and deployment must be triggered by commits to the main branch. You also need to ensure that the SonarQube analysis results are published to the SonarQube server and that the pipeline breaks if the quality gate fails. The Tomcat server is on-premises and requires a service connection. Which YAML pipeline structure should you use?

Accepted Answer

Use the Maven task with SonarQube goals (sonar:sonar) for analysis, then use the Copy Files task and Windows Machine File Copy task to deploy to the on-premises Tomcat server.. Option C is correct because it uses Maven for build/test, SonarQubePrepare/Analyze tasks (or Maven with SonarQube goals), and a CopyFiles/WindowsMachineFileCopy task for on-premises deployment. Option A is wrong because SSH tasks may not work for Tomcat deployment directly. Option B is wrong because Azure App Service is not on-premises. Option D is wrong because it uses PowerShell to copy files, which is less maintainable and doesn't leverage Azure Pipelines tasks.

Answer

Use the Maven task to build and test, and use the Azure Web App task to deploy to Azure App Service.

Answer

Use the Maven task to build, then use PowerShell to copy the WAR file to the Tomcat server via Invoke-Command.

Answer

Use the Maven task to build and test, and use SSH tasks to copy the WAR file to the Tomcat server and restart the service.

Question 10

Your team uses a multi-stage YAML pipeline to build and deploy a .NET Core application. The build stage runs successfully, but the deployment to a Linux web app fails with an error indicating that the Kudu service cannot start because the startup command is missing. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The pipeline is missing the 'AzureWebApp@1' task with a 'StartupCommand' parameter.. The Azure Web App task for Linux web apps requires a startup command to be specified if the container image does not have a default entry point. Without it, Kudu cannot start.

Answer

The service connection lacks permission to access the web app.

Answer

The web app is configured with a Windows runtime stack.

Answer

The build output does not include the web.config file.

Question 11

Your organization uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD. You need to ensure that secrets stored in GitHub are not exposed in build logs. A developer accidentally printed a secret to the console in a workflow step. What built-in feature of GitHub Actions automatically prevents this?

Accepted Answer

Automatic log redaction. GitHub Actions automatically redacts secrets from logs when they are printed or used in commands. This is a built-in security feature.

Answer

Audit log monitoring

Answer

Secret scanning alerts

Answer

Required reviewers on workflows

Question 12

You are configuring a release pipeline in Azure DevOps to deploy to multiple environments (dev, test, prod). You need to ensure that the production deployment requires manual approval from the release manager. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Set pre-deployment approvals on the production stage.. Pre-deployment approvals on the production stage gate the deployment until the specified approvers grant approval.

Answer

Add a manual intervention task before the production deployment.

Answer

Set post-deployment approvals on the test stage.

Answer

Use a condition on the production stage to check a variable.

Question 13

You are designing a build validation policy for a GitHub repository. You want to ensure that all pull requests pass a CI check before they can be merged. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Add a GitHub Actions workflow that runs on 'pull_request' and set it as a required status check in branch protection.. Branch protection rules in GitHub can require status checks to pass before merging. You set up a rule that requires the CI workflow to succeed.

Answer

Enable Dependabot alerts on the repository.

Answer

Configure a repository rule to require a pull request before merging.

Answer

Create a webhook to trigger a build on Azure Pipelines.

Question 14

Your Azure Pipelines build takes 45 minutes. You want to reduce build time by caching dependencies. Which task should you add to the pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Cache@2. The Cache task allows you to cache folders (like npm packages or NuGet packages) to speed up subsequent runs.

Answer

PublishBuildArtifacts@1

Answer

CopyFiles@2

Answer

DownloadBuildArtifacts@0

Question 15

You have a classic release pipeline that deploys to Azure App Service. You need to implement a canary deployment strategy where 10% of traffic is routed to the new version for 30 minutes before full rollout. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Use slot swap with 'Swap with preview' and set traffic percentage in the swap settings.. Azure App Service deployment slots with slot swap with preview allow you to route a percentage of traffic to the new version before swapping fully.

Answer

Configure multiple deployment slots and use Traffic Manager to distribute traffic.

Answer

Use the 'Azure App Service deploy' task with the 'Deploy to Slot' option, then manually adjust routing rules.

Answer

Deploy to a staging slot and then use Azure CLI to update routing rules after deployment.