AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
Which THREE of the following are valid steps to implement a trunk-based development workflow in Azure Repos? (Select THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse trunk-based development with GitFlow or release-based branching strategies, leading them to select options like creating release branches or infrequent merges, which are antithetical to the trunk-based workflow's emphasis on continuous integration and minimal branching.
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
✓
Run CI builds on the main branch.
Trunk-based development requires developers to integrate into the main branch frequently. In Azure Repos, you set a CI trigger on main so every commit is built and validated (A). Developers use short-lived feature branches that are merged into main within a day (D) to keep integration conflicts small. Feature flags and pair programming are supporting practices that allow work to be integrated even before a feature is complete, avoiding long-running branches (B). Merging to main only once per week (C) contradicts the continuous-integration principle, and creating a release branch for every production release (E) is characteristic of GitFlow/release-flow, not trunk-based development.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Run CI builds on the main branch.
Why this is correct
Running CI builds on the main branch is a core trunk-based development practice: every commit to main must compile and pass automated tests, ensuring the integration point is always stable and deployable, which allows teams to merge frequently without accumulating integration debt.
- ✓
Use feature flags and pair programming.
Why this is correct
Feature flags let incomplete or experimental functionality be merged to main without affecting users, enabling continuous integration of work-in-progress; pair programming improves code quality and knowledge sharing, reducing the risk of defects and rework, which together keep the trunk healthy and support frequent, low-risk merging.
- ✗
Merge to main only once per week.
Why it's wrong here
Merging to main only once per week contradicts trunk-based development's emphasis on small, frequent integrations; this long delay creates large, complex merge conflicts and bottlenecks, making integration and debugging harder rather than maintaining a continuously stable main branch, so it is not a valid step.
- ✓
Use short-lived feature branches that are merged within a day.
Why this is correct
Using short-lived feature branches that are merged within a day is a key trunk-based practice: it limits branch divergence, reduces merge complexity, and ensures that changes are integrated and tested quickly, preventing the cost of reconciliation and keeping the main branch continuously releasable.
- ✗
Create release branches for each production release.
Why it's wrong here
Creating release branches for each production release is a release-based branching strategy, not trunk-based development; it splits the codebase into multiple long-lived branches that need ongoing cherry-picking and merges, which undermines the single-source-of-truth model and continuous integration, so it is not a valid step for this approach.
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Branch
A branch is a pointer to a specific commit in a version control system that allows you to work on features or fixes in isolation from the main codebase.
Key term
Azure Repos
Azure Repos is a set of version control tools that allow teams to manage their source code, track changes, and collaborate on software projects using Git or Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem.
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