EX294 Transform data with filters and plugins Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which filter converts a string like 'hello' into a list of characters ['h','e','l','l','o']?

Accepted Answer

`list`. The `list` filter in Ansible converts a string into a list of its individual characters by iterating over the string and creating a list where each element is a single character. This is a built-in Jinja2 filter that works directly on strings, making option A correct for transforming 'hello' into ['h','e','l','l','o'].

Answer

`split`

Answer

`join`

Answer

`map`

Question 2

What does the `| quote` filter do in an Ansible task?

Accepted Answer

It escapes shell metacharacters to prevent shell injection.. The `| quote` filter in Ansible is designed to escape shell metacharacters (e.g., spaces, semicolons, backticks, dollar signs) in a string, ensuring that the value is safely passed to a shell command without risk of shell injection. This is critical when using variables in `command` or `shell` modules where user-supplied data could otherwise break the command or introduce security vulnerabilities.

Answer

It converts the string to uppercase.

Answer

It returns the string wrapped in double quotes.

Answer

It encodes the string for use in URLs.

Question 3

Which lookup plugin is used to retrieve values from an AWS SSM Parameter Store?

Accepted Answer

`aws_ssm`. The `aws_ssm` lookup plugin is the correct choice because it is the official Ansible lookup plugin designed to retrieve values from the AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store. It is part of the `amazon.aws` collection and is invoked via `lookup('aws_ssm', 'parameter_name')` in playbooks.

Answer

`ssm`

Answer

`amazon_ssm`

Answer

`ssm_parameter`

Question 4

You run a playbook with `msg: "{{ 'mypassword' | password_hash('sha512') }}"`. What is the output?

Accepted Answer

A hashed representation of the password using SHA-512.. The `password_hash` filter in Ansible uses the `passlib` library (when available) to generate a cryptographically hashed representation of the input string. When the hash type is specified as `'sha512'`, it produces a SHA-512 crypt hash (typically starting with `$6$`), not the original plaintext. This is a standard Ansible filter for securely transforming passwords into hashed formats for use in user modules or configuration files.

Answer

An error because password_hash requires the `passlib` library.

Answer

A random alphanumeric string.

Answer

The string 'mypassword' unchanged.

Question 5

You have two dictionaries: `dict1: {a: 1, b: 2}` and `dict2: {b: 3, c: 4}`. You want a new dict that combines both, with `dict2` values taking precedence for overlapping keys. Which filter chain achieves this?

Accepted Answer

`dict2 | combine(dict1, recursive=True)`. With recursive=True, the combine filter performs a deep merge where the left-hand operand (dict2) retains its values for overlapping keys when combined with dict1. This satisfies the requirement that dict2 values take precedence for the overlapping key 'b', resulting in {a: 1, b: 3, c: 4}.

Answer

`dict2 | combine(dict1)`

Answer

`[dict1, dict2] | combine`

Answer

`dict1 | combine(dict2)`

Question 6

Which TWO filters can be used to combine two lists into one? (Select exactly two.)

Accepted Answer

`zip`. Option A, `zip`, is correct because it is a Jinja2/Ansible filter that takes two or more lists and merges them element-by-element into a single list of tuples (e.g., `[1,2] | zip([3,4])` yields `[(1,3),(2,4)]`), effectively combining two lists into one. Option B, `union`, is correct because it is an Ansible filter that returns a single list containing all unique elements from both input lists (e.g., `[1,2] | union([2,3])` yields `[1,2,3]`), thereby combining two lists into one. Option C, `intersect`, is not correct because it returns only the elements common to both lists, producing a single list of shared items rather than combining the lists' contents. Option D, `combine`, is not correct because it merges two dictionaries (hashes) into one dictionary, not two lists. Option E, `flatten`, is not correct because it operates on a single nested list, collapsing its sublists into one flat list, and does not take two separate lists as input.

Answer

`intersect`

Answer

`combine`

Answer

`flatten`

Question 7

What is the most likely cause of this error?

Accepted Answer

The filter name is incorrect; no filter named 'encrypt_string' exists by default.. The error occurs because there is no built-in filter named 'encrypt_string' in Ansible. While Ansible provides many filters for data transformation, 'encrypt_string' is not one of them by default. This filter would need to be provided by a custom filter plugin or a collection, and since it is not present, Ansible raises an undefined filter error.

Answer

The `filter_plugins` path is misconfigured.

Answer

The `encrypt_string` filter plugin is not installed.

Answer

The playbook syntax is invalid.

Question 8

A DevOps engineer needs to extract the first 10 lines of a log file and store them in a variable for further processing. Which Ansible filter should be used?

Accepted Answer

slice. The `slice` filter in Ansible can be used to extract a portion of a list or string. When applied to a list of lines (obtained by splitting the file content), `slice(0,10)` returns the first 10 lines. While `head` also works on lists, it is not valid for strings when line extraction is needed, as it returns characters. The `slice` filter provides the necessary flexibility to specify a range, making it the most appropriate choice for this scenario.

Answer

regex

Answer

first

Answer

head

Question 9

An Ansible role is designed to work on both RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 systems. The role uses the 'redhat_subscription' module. However, on RHEL 8, the module requires a different parameter name. The developer wants to use a conditional parameter based on the OS version. Which filter allows checking the operating system version from 'ansible_facts'?

Accepted Answer

version. 'version', because the `version` filter in Ansible is specifically designed to compare version strings from `ansible_facts` (e.g., `ansible_facts['ansible_distribution_version']`). It allows conditional logic based on OS version, such as checking if the version is '8.0' or higher, which is exactly what the developer needs to handle the different parameter names for the `redhat_subscription` module between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8.

Answer

int

Answer

sys.version

Answer

bool

Question 10

A junior admin is tasked with creating a playbook that sets a variable 'app_status' to 'starting' if a service file exists, otherwise sets it to 'stopped'. Which filter should be used to test if a file exists from Ansible facts?

Accepted Answer

file. The `file` test in Jinja2 checks whether a path exists as a file, returning a boolean. It can be used directly in `when` conditions like `when: mypath is file`. Option B is incorrect because there is no built-in `exists` filter in Ansible; the `exists` attribute comes from the `stat` module result, not a filter. The junior admin should use the `file` test or the `stat` module with its `exists` attribute.

Answer

path

Answer

exists

Answer

is_dir

Question 11

A senior engineer needs to debug an Ansible playbook that uses lookups. Which TWO plugins can be used to retrieve data from a file on the control node? (Select exactly two.)

Accepted Answer

file. The `file` lookup plugin reads the content of a file from the control node's filesystem and returns it as a string. This is the standard way to retrieve file data directly from the Ansible control node without transferring the file to the managed host.

Answer

ini

Answer

password

Answer

csvfile

Question 12

Refer to the exhibit. After running the playbook, what is the value of 'clean_list'?

Accepted Answer

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']. The `lower` filter converts all strings to lowercase, and the `map('trim')` filter removes leading and trailing whitespace from each element. The playbook applies these filters sequentially to the `fruits` list, resulting in `['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']`.

Answer

[' apple ', 'BANANA', '  cherry  ']

Answer

[' apple ', 'banana', '  cherry  ']

Answer

['APPLE', 'BANANA', 'CHERRY']

Question 13

Refer to the exhibit. Assuming the managed node is RHEL 7.9, what is the output of the debug task?

Accepted Answer

True. The debug task uses the `debug` module with `msg: "{{ ansible_distribution_version is version('7.9', '>=') }}"`. The `version` filter compares the string `'7.9'` (from `ansible_distribution_version`) against the string `'7.9'` using the `>=` operator. Since the managed node is RHEL 7.9, the comparison evaluates to `True`, so the debug module outputs `True`.

Answer

7.9

Answer

An error

Answer

False

Question 14

A large-scale Ansible deployment processes a list of thousands of network devices. Using the `subelements` filter to iterate over interfaces is causing very slow playbook execution. Which approach can significantly improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Use a custom filter plugin in Python that uses list comprehensions. The `subelements` filter in Ansible processes nested data structures by iterating over each parent element and its child elements, which can be extremely slow for large datasets due to the overhead of Jinja2 template evaluation and repeated lookups. A custom filter plugin written in Python using list comprehensions avoids this overhead by executing native Python code directly, which is significantly faster because it operates at the interpreter level without the iterative Jinja2 expansion. This approach reduces the number of tasks and template evaluations, improving performance for thousands of network devices.

Answer

Use `with_nested` instead

Answer

Use `set_fact` with loops inside the task

Answer

Use `with_items` with `json_query` instead

Question 15

An Ansible playbook needs to extract the domain name from a list of email addresses stored in variable `emails`. The domain appears after the '@' symbol. Which filter should be used?

Accepted Answer

regex_replace. The `regex_replace` filter can extract the domain by matching the pattern `.*@(.*)` and replacing with `\1`, isolating the part after '@'. This is the correct approach because Ansible's Jinja2 filters include `regex_replace` for pattern-based string extraction, while `split` would require additional steps to isolate the domain.

Answer

split

Answer

urldecode

Answer

base64