AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
Which THREE of the following are valid deployment strategies that can be implemented using Azure DevOps release pipelines? (Select THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates may confuse 'red-black' with 'blue-green' because of similar color-based naming, but 'red-black' is not a formally defined strategy in Azure DevOps, and 'linear deployment' is not a recognized pattern. However, note that red-black is essentially the same as blue-green in many contexts, so this trap is misleading; the key differentiator is that Azure DevOps does not use this terminology or provide specific support for it.
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
✓
Rolling deployment.
Rolling deployment is a valid strategy in Azure DevOps release pipelines, where instances of the previous version are gradually replaced with the new version, typically by updating a subset of instances (e.g., in a virtual machine scale set or Kubernetes cluster) while the rest continue serving traffic. Blue-green deployment is also valid, maintaining two identical environments and switching all traffic from the blue (old) to the green (new) environment after validation, often implemented using deployment slots or Kubernetes namespaces. Canary deployment is a third valid strategy, where a small percentage of traffic is routed to the new version initially, gradually increasing it while monitoring health, commonly implemented with deployment slots or progressive exposure in Kubernetes. Red-black, while sometimes used as a synonym for blue-green, is not a distinct deployment strategy recognized in Azure DevOps documentation, and linear deployment is not a recognized industry-standard pattern.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Red-black deployment.
Why it's wrong here
Red-black deployment is not a recognized standard deployment strategy; the valid terminology is blue-green deployment, which uses two identical environments and switches traffic atomically. Red-black (often confused with blue-green in some tools) is not a distinct pattern because it lacks the formal definition of a color-based cutover with instant rollback.
- ✓
Rolling deployment.
Why this is correct
Rolling deployment replaces instances incrementally, typically across batches or availability zones, ensuring that some capacity remains available during the update. It minimizes downtime and supports progressive exposure, with automated health checks deciding whether to continue or roll back.
- ✓
Blue-green deployment.
Why this is correct
Blue-green deployment uses two identical environments (blue and green) where only one serves live traffic at a time; after validating the new version, the router or load balancer switches traffic instantly from blue to green. This provides immediate rollback by switching back if issues arise, though it requires double infrastructure.
- ✓
Canary deployment.
Why this is correct
Canary deployment releases a new version to a small subset of users or servers first, while the majority continues on the stable version; metrics and health checks are observed before gradually increasing the canary's traffic. This reduces blast radius and enables fast rollback if anomalies are detected.
- ✗
Linear deployment.
Why it's wrong here
Linear deployment is not a recognized term in deployment strategies; it likely confuses linear progression with patterns like rolling or canary, which are formally defined. There is no standardized 'linear deployment' pattern in Azure DevOps or common CD literature.
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Blue-green deployment
Blue-green deployment is a release strategy that reduces downtime and risk by running two identical production environments, one live and one idle, enabling instant traffic switching between them.
Key term
Environment
An environment is a dedicated set of computing resources, configurations, and services used to develop, test, or host software applications in a controlled and repeatable way.
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