AZ-400 Design and implement source control Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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.

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Comment requirements

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Work item linking

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Merge strategy

Question 2

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.

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Reduced risk of configuration drift

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Faster clone times due to smaller repository size

Question 3

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.

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Fast-forward only

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Rebase only

Question 4

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.

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

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Keep separate repositories but use Git submodules to share code

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

Question 5

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.

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

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

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

Question 6

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.

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

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Configure a branch policy that requires a successful build.

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Configure a branch policy that requires linked work items.

Question 7

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.

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

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

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

Question 8

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.

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

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

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

Question 9

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.

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

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

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

Question 10

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

Accepted Answer

Use shallow clones in CI/CD pipelines.. Shallow clones fetch only the most recent commit history rather than the entire repository history, which significantly reduces the amount of data transferred and stored during CI/CD pipeline runs. This keeps pipeline execution fast and avoids performance degradation as the repository grows. Azure Repos and Azure Pipelines support shallow clone options via the `--depth` parameter in Git commands or through pipeline YAML settings.

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Store large binary files directly in the repository.

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Keep all branches indefinitely to preserve history.

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Encourage developers to commit all changes in a single commit per day.

Question 11

A development team uses Git for source control. They want to enforce a branching strategy where all feature work is done in short-lived branches that are merged to main via pull requests. The team also requires that every commit on main builds successfully. Which TWO practices should the team implement?

Accepted Answer

Configure a branch policy on main that requires a successful build before merging.. Option A configures a branch policy on main that requires a successful build before merging, directly ensuring every commit on main has passed a build. Option C requires at least one approver on all pull requests targeting main, which enforces the code review process as part of the pull request workflow, a key practice for maintaining a healthy branching strategy with short-lived feature branches. Together, these two practices enforce both the build-success requirement and the pull-request-based workflow.

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Use squash merge when completing pull requests to main.

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Create feature branches from main and keep them long-lived for stability.

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Allow developers to commit directly to main for urgent fixes.

Question 12

Your team manages a large monorepo in Azure Repos containing multiple projects. Developers frequently complain that cloning the entire repository takes too long and that they only need a subset of the code. The team uses Git LFS for large binary files. The repository currently has 50,000 commits and is 5 GB in size. You want to improve clone performance without sacrificing the ability to contribute to any part of the repo. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Instruct developers to use a shallow clone with depth 1 to reduce clone time.. Using a shallow clone with depth 1 significantly reduces clone time by fetching only the latest commit history instead of all 50,000 commits. This minimizes the data transferred over the network, which is the primary cause of slow clones. Developers can later deepen the clone if they need more history. Sparse checkout alone does not reduce the data transferred during clone; it only limits what appears in the working directory. Git LFS is already being used for large binaries, so that is not the issue. Splitting the monorepo would require significant restructuring and may complicate cross-project contributions.

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Configure sparse checkout so developers can clone only the directories they need.

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Move all large binary files to Git LFS to reduce repository size.

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Split the monorepo into multiple repositories and use submodules to aggregate them.

Question 13

A development team is using Git for source control. They have a main branch that should always be deployable. Developers work on feature branches and create pull requests to merge into main. Recently, a feature branch with incomplete work was accidentally merged into main, causing build failures. What is the best Git branch strategy to prevent this in the future while maintaining fast feedback?

Accepted Answer

Configure branch protection on main to require status checks (CI build and tests) to pass before merging.. Configuring branch protection on main to require status checks (CI build and tests) to pass before merging directly prevents incomplete or broken code from being merged. This enforces that every pull request must pass automated validation, ensuring main remains deployable while still allowing fast feedback through the CI pipeline.

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Require at least one code reviewer approval for all pull requests into main.

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Adopt a GitFlow-like branching model with a separate release branch for stable code.

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Disable direct pushes to main and enforce all merges through pull requests.

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Require a linear history on main by enabling 'Rebase and merge' for all pull requests.

Question 14

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

Accepted Answer

Create the pipeline, then select the source repository, then configure triggers, then add tasks, then validate the pipeline.. The correct order for setting up a continuous integration pipeline in Azure Pipelines is: first create the pipeline, then select the source repository (e.g., Azure Repos or GitHub), then configure triggers (e.g., on commit or PR), then add tasks (build, test, etc.), and finally validate the pipeline by running it. This sequence is reflected in option A. Starting with source selection or adding tasks before creation is incorrect.

Answer

Create the pipeline, then configure triggers, then select the source repository, then add tasks, then validate the pipeline.

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Create the pipeline, then add tasks, then select the source repository, then configure triggers, then validate the pipeline.

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Select the source repository, then create the pipeline, then configure triggers, then add tasks, then validate the pipeline.

Question 15

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

Accepted Answer

Review pipeline logs, then identify the failing task, then check variable values and conditions, then run in debug mode, then apply a fix and retrigger. Troubleshooting starts with logs, then task identification, variable check, debug run, and fix.

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Run in debug mode, then review pipeline logs, then identify the failing task, then check variable values and conditions, then apply a fix and retrigger

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Identify the failing task, then check variable values and conditions, then run in debug mode, then review pipeline logs, then apply a fix and retrigger

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Check variable values and conditions, then apply a fix and retrigger, then review pipeline logs, then identify the failing task, then run in debug mode