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200-901 Practice Question: A CI/CD pipeline for network automation includes…
A CI/CD pipeline for network automation includes a stage that runs Ansible playbooks against a staging environment. The pipeline is triggered by Git commits. After a commit, the pipeline fails because the Ansible inventory file is missing. What is the most likely reason?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the concept that CI/CD pipelines operate on the exact state of the repository at the commit, so any file not tracked by Git (e.g., due to .gitignore) will be missing, even if it exists locally on the developer's machine.
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
✓
The inventory file is listed in .gitignore
The most likely reason the Ansible inventory file is missing is that it is listed in .gitignore, which prevents it from being tracked by Git and thus not present in the repository when the pipeline clones it. Since the pipeline is triggered by Git commits, it only has access to files that are committed and pushed. If the inventory file is ignored, it will not be available for the Ansible playbook execution, causing the pipeline to fail.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The inventory file is listed in .gitignore
Why this is correct
If the inventory file is ignored by Git, it won't be in the repository, so the pipeline cannot find it.
- ✗
The pipeline script has a typo in the inventory path
Why it's wrong here
A typo would cause a file not found error, but the most common reason in a pipeline is that the file is not in the repository.
- ✗
The Ansible version in the pipeline is incompatible
Why it's wrong here
Version incompatibility would cause a different error (syntax or module missing).
- ✗
The staging environment is not reachable
Why it's wrong here
Network unreachability would cause an Ansible connection error, not a missing file error.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco 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 200-901 exam.