DOP-C02 SDLC Automation Practice Question
A development team uses AWS CodePipeline to orchestrate builds and deployments. They want to automatically deploy to a staging environment only if a manual approval step is granted. Which configuration should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse manual approval with manual invocation, not realizing that a manual approval action pauses the pipeline for a decision, whereas manual invocation means the action is never automatically triggered by the pipeline.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Add an approval action in the pipeline stage before the deploy action.
AWS CodePipeline supports a manual approval action that pauses the pipeline at a specified stage until an authorized user approves or rejects the deployment. By placing the approval action in the stage before the deploy action, the pipeline will only proceed to the staging deployment after the manual approval is granted, satisfying the requirement exactly.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Add an approval action in the pipeline stage before the deploy action.
Why this is correct
Adding a manual approval action is the native CodePipeline mechanism for inserting a human gate before a deploy action. When the pipeline reaches this action, the execution status changes to OnHold, and the pipeline pauses until an authorized user approves or rejects the action via the console, AWS CLI, or API. You can also configure an SNS notification or a custom URL (e.g., a change request ticket) to guide the approver; if approved, the deploy action automatically proceeds, which directly satisfies the requirement for a manual sign-off before deployment.
- ✗
Use a Lambda function to check a parameter in Parameter Store.
Why it's wrong here
Using a Lambda function to check a parameter in Parameter Store is not a built-in approval mechanism; it is a custom automation pattern that would awkwardly simulate a manual gate. A Lambda-backed action either succeeds or fails automatically based on the parameter's value, and it does not provide an interactive human approval step with approver identity, comments, or explicit approve/reject semantics. Moreover, a pipeline that includes such an action runs automatically without pausing, so it cannot truly require a person to review and approve the deployment before it continues.
- ✗
Configure a CloudWatch Events rule to trigger deployment after a manual event.
Why it's wrong here
Configuring a CloudWatch Events rule to trigger deployment after a manual event bypasses the pipeline's integrated stage sequencing, because the event would start an entirely new pipeline execution rather than inserting a pause within the current execution. CodePipeline does support CloudWatch Events as an external trigger (e.g., on a manual AWS API call), but this does not block or gate the deploy action within the pipeline itself; the pipeline would still run all preceding and succeeding actions automatically once invoked. This approach lacks the built-in approval workflow, approval history, and optional SNS notifications that a manual approval action provides.
- ✗
Set the deploy action to manual invocation only.
Why it's wrong here
CodePipeline actions are not designed to have a "manual invocation only" mode; each action in a stage is automatically executed when the pipeline runs, and you cannot selectively mark a deploy action to require manual invocation while other actions remain automated. You could disable stage transitions to pause the pipeline between stages, but that is a coarse-grained stage-level control, not a deploy-action-specific manual gate. Manually invoking the pipeline again (via StartPipelineExecution) would simply rerun the pipeline from the beginning, which does not give you a controlled, in-band approval point immediately before the deploy action.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DOP-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DOP-C02 exam.