AZ-400 Design and implement source control — All Questions With Answers

Question 1

Your team manages a large monorepo in Azure Repos containing multiple microservices. The repository has grown to over 10,000 files and 500 MB. Developers report that cloning and fetching operations are slow, often taking more than 10 minutes. Additionally, the CI pipeline triggers on every push to any branch, causing long queue times. You need to improve the developer experience and CI efficiency without splitting the repository. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Use Git sparse checkout to clone only the folders needed for each microservice, and configure path-based CI triggers to run only when files in specific directories change.. Git sparse checkout allows developers to limit the working tree to specific directories, reducing local disk usage and checkout time. However, a standard sparse checkout alone does not reduce the amount of data downloaded during a full clone—this requires combining it with shallow or partial clone options. In Azure Pipelines, path-based CI triggers ensure pipelines run only when files in relevant directories change, reducing unnecessary builds and queue times. This approach improves both developer experience and CI efficiency without splitting the monorepo.

Answer

Configure shallow clone (depth=1) for all operations and disable CI triggers on feature branches.

Answer

Break the monorepo into multiple smaller repositories and use Git submodules to manage dependencies.

Answer

Implement Git Virtual File System (GVFS) for the repository and use CI triggers only on the main branch.

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. A developer attempts to push a commit directly to the main branch of FabrikamWeb repository but receives a push rejection. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The developer does not have permission to push to the main branch due to branch policies requiring pull requests.. The developer's direct push to main was rejected because the main branch has an active branch policy that requires all changes to be introduced via pull requests. In Azure DevOps, any branch policy (such as 'Require a minimum number of reviewers' or 'Require pull request comments resolution') blocks direct pushes to that branch, even if the user has 'Contribute' permission. The exhibit likely shows branch policies applied to the main branch, which prevents direct pushes. An incorrect remote URL would typically result in a 'repository not found' error, and a non-existent branch would produce a different error. Therefore, the most likely reason is that branch policies on main require pull requests.

Answer

The developer tried to push to the wrong remote URL.

Answer

The FabrikamWeb repository has a minimum number of reviewers policy set to 1, which blocks direct pushes.

Answer

The main branch does not exist in the FabrikamWeb repository.

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. A developer sees this error when running a YAML pipeline in Azure DevOps. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The Azure DevOps organization has no available parallel jobs.. The pipeline error requires the exhibit to identify the exact message. Without it, none of the options can be confirmed as the most likely cause. The question should be revised or removed.

Answer

The pipeline agent pool is misconfigured.

Answer

The pipeline YAML file has a syntax error.

Answer

The Azure subscription is not linked to the Azure DevOps organization.

Question 4

A team uses a monorepo with multiple projects in one Git repository. They want to enforce that each commit message must reference a work item from Azure Boards. Which branch policy should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Use a build validation policy to check commit messages. The 'Require a work item linking policy' in Azure Repos ensures each pull request is linked to a work item, but it does not validate that each commit message contains a reference. To enforce that commit messages themselves reference an Azure Boards work item, a build validation policy can run a script to verify the commit message format. Therefore, option D is the correct choice.

Answer

Automatically include work items in pull request descriptions

Answer

Require a work item linking policy in branch policies

Answer

Configure a minimum number of reviewers policy

Question 5

An organization has multiple Git repositories. Developers often forget to update the repository README file after making changes. What is the most effective way to ensure the README is always up-to-date?

Accepted Answer

Add a task in the CI pipeline that checks if the README was modified. Adding a task in the CI pipeline that checks whether the README was modified directly enforces that developers include README updates in the same pull request that contains code changes. This ensures the README stays current with the codebase. In Azure Repos, CI pipelines can easily validate file changes using scripts or tasks. Option C (repository template) only ensures a README exists for new repositories but does not enforce updates after initial creation, so it does not address the core issue of keeping the README up-to-date over time.

Answer

Apply a label to PRs that touch certain files and require review

Answer

Use a repository template with a mandatory README file structure

Answer

Require a pull request comment that confirms README update

Question 6

A development team uses a forking workflow in Azure Repos. They want to ensure that only specific users can create forks of the main repository. How can they achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Remove the 'Create Fork' permission from all users except the required group. In Azure Repos, the ability to create forks is controlled by the 'Create Fork' permission, which is a repository-level permission, not a branch-level setting. By default, all contributors have this permission. To restrict fork creation to only specific users, navigate to the repository settings, go to Security (or Permissions), remove the 'Create Fork' permission from all users and groups, then explicitly grant it only to the desired group or individuals. Therefore, the correct answer is D: remove the 'Create Fork' permission from all users except the required group.

Answer

Use branch security to restrict who can create forks

Answer

Set branch policies on the main branch to prevent forks

Answer

Configure the repository to disable forks globally

Question 7

A team uses Git for source control. They want to automatically squash all commits in a feature branch into a single commit when merging to the main branch. Which merge type should they use?

Accepted Answer

Squash commit. B is correct because the squash commit merge type collapses all commits in a feature branch into a single new commit on the target branch. This satisfies the requirement to automatically squash all commits when merging to main, as it creates a clean, linear history with one combined commit that contains all changes from the feature branch.

Answer

Rebase and fast-forward

Answer

Merge commit (no fast-forward)

Answer

Semi-linear merge

Question 8

A company has a policy that all code changes must be reviewed by at least two people. However, for urgent bug fixes, they want to allow a single reviewer. How should they configure the branch policy?

Accepted Answer

Set minimum number of reviewers to 2, but allow policy override for urgent fixes. Azure Repos branch policies allow you to set a minimum number of reviewers (e.g., 2) and then enable the 'Allow policy override' setting for urgent fixes. This lets authorized users bypass the two-reviewer requirement for critical bug fixes while maintaining the default policy for normal changes.

Answer

Set minimum number of reviewers to 1 and require a separate approval from a manager

Answer

Set minimum number of reviewers to 2 and allow resetting code review votes on new pushes

Answer

Configure a build validation policy that checks number of approvals

Question 9

A team uses Git-LFS to store large binary files. They observe that cloning the repository takes a long time because Git-LFS files are downloaded. How can they improve clone performance?

Accepted Answer

Use the --filter=blob:none option when cloning. The `--filter=blob:none` option performs a partial clone, which omits all blob objects (including Git-LFS pointer files and other large blobs) from the initial download. This significantly reduces clone time by only fetching commit and tree metadata, and then lazily downloading blobs on demand when they are actually accessed. For Git-LFS specifically, this avoids downloading the large binary files stored in LFS until they are needed, improving clone performance.

Answer

Use a shallow clone with depth 1

Answer

Use sparse checkout to limit files in working directory

Answer

Configure git lfs prune to run automatically

Question 10

A developer accidentally committed a sensitive password to a Git repository. The commit has already been pushed to the remote. What is the first step to remediate the situation?

Accepted Answer

Immediately notify the security team and rotate the password. Once a secret is pushed to a remote Git repository, it must be considered compromised because the commit may already be fetched by others, and old commits remain in reflogs and other clones. The first step is to immediately notify the security team and rotate/revoke the password to prevent unauthorized use. Only after the credential is invalidated should you attempt to remove it from Git history (e.g., by amending, rebasing, or using filter-repo) and force push, understanding that history rewriting may not fully eliminate all copies.

Answer

Delete the file from the repository and commit the deletion

Answer

Remove the password from the file, amend the commit, and force push

Answer

Revert the commit that introduced the password

Question 11

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git. They have a large codebase with many branches. What is the recommended approach to preserve the history during migration?

Accepted Answer

Use the git-tfs tool to clone the TFVC repository with changesets. Git-tfs is a specialized bridge tool that converts TFVC changesets into Git commits, preserving the full history, author information, and branch structure during migration. Unlike Git-TF, which is deprecated and lacks support for newer TFVC features, git-tfs handles complex scenarios like merges and shelvesets, making it the recommended approach for preserving history when moving from TFVC to Git.

Answer

Copy the latest version of the code to a new Git repository and start fresh

Answer

Use the Git-TF tool to clone the TFVC repository

Answer

Export TFVC as a Git bundle and import with --no-metadata

Question 12

Which TWO branch policies can be configured in Azure Repos to enforce code quality?

Accepted Answer

Status check. Status check (A) is correct because Azure Repos allows you to require that a status check passes before a pull request can be completed. This enforces code quality by integrating with external or built-in services (e.g., Azure Pipelines, SonarQube) that run automated tests, linting, or security scans. Build validation (C) is correct because it triggers a build pipeline automatically when a pull request is created, ensuring the code compiles and passes defined quality gates before merging.

Answer

Comment requirements

Answer

Work item linking

Answer

Merge strategy

Question 13

Which THREE are benefits of using a monorepo vs multiple repositories?

Accepted Answer

Easier code sharing and refactoring across projects. A monorepo enables easier code sharing and refactoring across projects by allowing all code to reside in a single repository. This eliminates the need for cross-repository package publishing or versioning, as shared libraries can be directly referenced and refactored atomically across all dependent projects within the same commit.

Answer

Reduced risk of configuration drift

Answer

Faster clone times due to smaller repository size

Question 14

Which THREE are valid Git merge strategies available in Azure Repos pull requests?

Accepted Answer

Semi-linear merge. Among the given options, the valid merge strategies are: 'Merge commit (no fast-forward)' (Option B), 'Semi-linear merge' (Option A), and 'Squash merge' (Option D). 'Merge commit (no fast-forward)' preserves the full history of both branches. 'Semi-linear merge' rebases the source branch onto the target before creating a merge commit, ensuring linear history. 'Squash merge' combines all source branch commits into a single commit on the target. Note that Azure Repos also supports 'Rebase and fast-forward' as a valid merge strategy, but it is not among the options. Options C and E are not valid merge strategies in Azure Repos pull requests.

Answer

Fast-forward only

Answer

Rebase only

Question 15

You are a DevOps engineer at a company that develops a cloud-based SaaS application. The application consists of multiple microservices, each stored in its own Git repository within a single Azure DevOps project. The team has grown rapidly, and developers frequently need to make changes that span multiple services. They often complain about the overhead of managing multiple pull requests and coordinating merges across repositories. To improve efficiency, the team lead suggests consolidating all microservices into a single monorepo. However, the lead architect is concerned about the impact on build times, as the CI pipeline currently builds each service independently. You are tasked with designing a source control strategy that reduces cross-repository coordination overhead while maintaining fast, independent builds. You propose using a monorepo with a structure that allows selective building. Which approach should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Create a single monorepo with a build pipeline that uses path filters to trigger builds only for changed services. Using a single monorepo with path filters in the build pipeline allows you to trigger builds only for the microservices that have changed, reducing cross-repository coordination overhead while maintaining fast, independent builds. Path filters in Azure Pipelines (e.g., `paths` in YAML) enable selective triggering based on file paths, so unchanged services are not rebuilt, preserving CI efficiency.

Answer

Keep separate repositories but create a meta-repo that references them as submodules

Answer

Keep separate repositories but use Git submodules to share code

Answer

Create a single monorepo with all services and a single build pipeline that builds everything

Question 16

You are a DevOps consultant for a financial services company that is migrating from TFVC to Git. The existing TFVC repository has several branches: main, dev, feature branches, and release branches. The history is linear with no branching. The company requires that all future Git commits follow a strict naming convention: 'type(scope): description' (e.g., 'feat(api): add new endpoint'). They also want to prevent direct commits to the main branch; all changes must go through pull requests with at least one reviewer. Additionally, they want to ensure that each commit message is validated before it is merged. The team is small (5 developers) and they want a simple setup without complex tooling. Which approach should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Configure branch policies on the main branch: require a minimum of one reviewer, and add a status check that runs a script to validate the commit message format. Azure Repos branch policies allow you to enforce pull request requirements (e.g., minimum number of reviewers) and require a status check that runs a custom script to validate commit message format. This ensures all commits merged into main comply with the naming convention and review policy without complex tooling, fitting the small team's need for a simple, server-side enforcement mechanism.

Answer

Create a build pipeline that validates commit messages and fails the build if invalid

Answer

Use a server-side pre-receive hook in the Git repository

Answer

Install a client-side pre-commit hook on each developer's machine to validate messages

Question 17

A development team uses Git for source control. They want to ensure that all code changes are reviewed before merging into the main branch. Which branch policy should they configure in Azure Repos?

Accepted Answer

Configure a branch policy that requires a minimum number of reviewers and resolves all comments.. Azure Repos branch policies allow you to enforce that pull requests require a minimum number of reviewers and that all comments are resolved before merging. This directly ensures that all code changes are reviewed and any feedback is addressed, meeting the team's requirement for mandatory code review before merging into the main branch.

Answer

Configure a branch policy that requires commit messages to follow a specific pattern.

Answer

Configure a branch policy that requires a successful build.

Answer

Configure a branch policy that requires linked work items.

Question 18

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git in Azure Repos. They have a large repository with a history of 10,000+ commits. They want to preserve the full history while minimizing migration time. Which approach should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Use git-tfs to clone the TFVC repository with full history, then push to Azure Repos.. Git-tfs is a specialized bridge tool that can clone a TFVC repository with full history into a local Git repository, preserving all commits, branches, and metadata. This approach minimizes migration time by performing the conversion locally without network overhead, after which the Git repo can be pushed to Azure Repos. Other methods either lose history or are not supported for TFVC-to-Git migration.

Answer

Check out the latest version from TFVC, initialize a new Git repo, and push.

Answer

Use the Azure Repos import repository feature to import from TFVC.

Answer

Clone the TFVC repository using Git and push to Azure Repos.

Question 19

An organization uses Azure Repos with multiple Git repositories. They want to enforce that all commits to the main branch are signed using GPG keys. Which combination of actions is required to enforce commit signing?

Accepted Answer

Configure branch policy to require signed commits and have developers configure Git to sign commits with their GPG key.. Azure Repos supports a branch policy that requires commits to be signed, and developers must configure Git to sign commits with their GPG key using `git config --global user.signingkey` and `git commit -S`. This ensures that only signed commits are accepted into the main branch, enforcing non-repudiation and integrity.

Answer

Configure branch policy to require signed commits and have developers add their SSH public key to Azure Repos.

Answer

Configure repository settings to require a personal access token (PAT) for each commit.

Answer

Use Azure Key Vault to store signing keys and configure Azure Repos to automatically sign commits.

Question 20

A team uses a monorepo in Azure Repos. They want to implement a build validation policy that only triggers builds for code changes in specific folders to reduce build times. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Configure the build policy in Azure Repos with a path filter to limit which folders trigger the policy.. Azure Repos build validation policies allow you to specify path filters when configuring the policy. These path filters restrict when the policy requires a build, based on the files changed in the pull request. By setting the path filter to the specific folders of interest, the build validation only triggers for changes in those folders, directly reducing build times for unrelated changes. Pipeline trigger path filters (Option D) control CI builds on push, not the build validation policy for pull requests.

Answer

Use a manual trigger and have developers specify which folder to build.

Answer

Create separate YAML pipelines for each folder and configure branch policies to require all pipelines.

Answer

Configure path filters in the pipeline trigger to include only the changed folder.

AZ-400 Design and implement source control — All Questions With Answers

Refer to the exhibit. A developer attempts to push a commit directly to the main branch of FabrikamWeb repository but receives a push rejection. What is the most likely reason?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer sees this error when running a YAML pipeline in Azure DevOps. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

A team uses a monorepo with multiple projects in one Git repository. They want to enforce that each commit message must reference a work item from Azure Boards. Which branch policy should they configure?

An organization has multiple Git repositories. Developers often forget to update the repository README file after making changes. What is the most effective way to ensure the README is always up-to-date?

A development team uses a forking workflow in Azure Repos. They want to ensure that only specific users can create forks of the main repository. How can they achieve this?

A team uses Git for source control. They want to automatically squash all commits in a feature branch into a single commit when merging to the main branch. Which merge type should they use?

A company has a policy that all code changes must be reviewed by at least two people. However, for urgent bug fixes, they want to allow a single reviewer. How should they configure the branch policy?

A team uses Git-LFS to store large binary files. They observe that cloning the repository takes a long time because Git-LFS files are downloaded. How can they improve clone performance?

A developer accidentally committed a sensitive password to a Git repository. The commit has already been pushed to the remote. What is the first step to remediate the situation?

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git. They have a large codebase with many branches. What is the recommended approach to preserve the history during migration?

Which TWO branch policies can be configured in Azure Repos to enforce code quality?

Which THREE are benefits of using a monorepo vs multiple repositories?

Which THREE are valid Git merge strategies available in Azure Repos pull requests?

A development team uses Git for source control. They want to ensure that all code changes are reviewed before merging into the main branch. Which branch policy should they configure in Azure Repos?

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git in Azure Repos. They have a large repository with a history of 10,000+ commits. They want to preserve the full history while minimizing migration time. Which approach should they recommend?

An organization uses Azure Repos with multiple Git repositories. They want to enforce that all commits to the main branch are signed using GPG keys. Which combination of actions is required to enforce commit signing?

A team uses a monorepo in Azure Repos. They want to implement a build validation policy that only triggers builds for code changes in specific folders to reduce build times. Which approach should they use?

Which TWO actions should you take to ensure that your Git repository in Azure Repos remains performant as it grows?

Drag and drop the steps to set up a continuous integration pipeline in Azure Pipelines into the correct order.

Drag and drop the steps to troubleshoot a failed Azure DevOps release pipeline into the correct order.

Match each Git branching strategy to its description.

Match each Azure Artifacts feed type to its description.

Refer to the exhibit. A developer is working on the feature/login branch and wants to ensure that the latest changes from main are incorporated before creating a pull request. Which command should the developer run next?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer pushes a commit to a branch named 'feature/new-login'. Which of the following will occur?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A team wants to release version 1.0 from the main branch. They notice that the tag v1.0 is already on the current main commit. However, they also see that the origin/feature/experiment branch has commits that are not merged into main. What is the most likely scenario?

Refer to the exhibit. After executing the delete command, what is the state of the repository?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer runs the pipeline on a branch called 'feature/abc'. What will happen?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A developer pushes a new commit to an existing pull request targeting the main branch. What is the effect on the pull request?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A developer is on the 'feature/login' branch and wants to integrate the latest changes from 'feature/user-profile' without creating a merge commit. Which Git command should the developer use?

Refer to the exhibit. A pipeline in repository 'MyProject/AppRepo' is configured to trigger when changes are pushed to 'SharedRepo'. A developer pushes a commit to the 'release/v1' branch of 'SharedRepo'. What will happen?

Exhibit

AZ-400 Design and implement source control — All Questions With Answers

Refer to the exhibit. A developer attempts to push a commit directly to the main branch of FabrikamWeb repository but receives a push rejection. What is the most likely reason?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer sees this error when running a YAML pipeline in Azure DevOps. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

A team uses a monorepo with multiple projects in one Git repository. They want to enforce that each commit message must reference a work item from Azure Boards. Which branch policy should they configure?

An organization has multiple Git repositories. Developers often forget to update the repository README file after making changes. What is the most effective way to ensure the README is always up-to-date?

A development team uses a forking workflow in Azure Repos. They want to ensure that only specific users can create forks of the main repository. How can they achieve this?

A team uses Git for source control. They want to automatically squash all commits in a feature branch into a single commit when merging to the main branch. Which merge type should they use?

A company has a policy that all code changes must be reviewed by at least two people. However, for urgent bug fixes, they want to allow a single reviewer. How should they configure the branch policy?

A team uses Git-LFS to store large binary files. They observe that cloning the repository takes a long time because Git-LFS files are downloaded. How can they improve clone performance?

A developer accidentally committed a sensitive password to a Git repository. The commit has already been pushed to the remote. What is the first step to remediate the situation?

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git. They have a large codebase with many branches. What is the recommended approach to preserve the history during migration?

Which TWO branch policies can be configured in Azure Repos to enforce code quality?

Which THREE are benefits of using a monorepo vs multiple repositories?

Which THREE are valid Git merge strategies available in Azure Repos pull requests?

A development team uses Git for source control. They want to ensure that all code changes are reviewed before merging into the main branch. Which branch policy should they configure in Azure Repos?

A team is migrating from TFVC to Git in Azure Repos. They have a large repository with a history of 10,000+ commits. They want to preserve the full history while minimizing migration time. Which approach should they recommend?

An organization uses Azure Repos with multiple Git repositories. They want to enforce that all commits to the main branch are signed using GPG keys. Which combination of actions is required to enforce commit signing?

A team uses a monorepo in Azure Repos. They want to implement a build validation policy that only triggers builds for code changes in specific folders to reduce build times. Which approach should they use?

Which TWO actions should you take to ensure that your Git repository in Azure Repos remains performant as it grows?

Drag and drop the steps to set up a continuous integration pipeline in Azure Pipelines into the correct order.

Drag and drop the steps to troubleshoot a failed Azure DevOps release pipeline into the correct order.

Match each Git branching strategy to its description.

Match each Azure Artifacts feed type to its description.

Refer to the exhibit. A developer is working on the feature/login branch and wants to ensure that the latest changes from main are incorporated before creating a pull request. Which command should the developer run next?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer pushes a commit to a branch named 'feature/new-login'. Which of the following will occur?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A team wants to release version 1.0 from the main branch. They notice that the tag v1.0 is already on the current main commit. However, they also see that the origin/feature/experiment branch has commits that are not merged into main. What is the most likely scenario?

Refer to the exhibit. After executing the delete command, what is the state of the repository?

Refer to the exhibit. A developer runs the pipeline on a branch called 'feature/abc'. What will happen?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A developer pushes a new commit to an existing pull request targeting the main branch. What is the effect on the pull request?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit. A developer is on the 'feature/login' branch and wants to integrate the latest changes from 'feature/user-profile' without creating a merge commit. Which Git command should the developer use?

Refer to the exhibit. A pipeline in repository 'MyProject/AppRepo' is configured to trigger when changes are pushed to 'SharedRepo'. A developer pushes a commit to the 'release/v1' branch of 'SharedRepo'. What will happen?

Exhibit