AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
Which TWO triggers can start a release in Azure Pipelines?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse triggers that apply to build pipelines (CI, PR) with those that apply to release pipelines, leading them to select 'Continuous integration' or 'Pull request' as valid release triggers.
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
✓
Schedule
In Azure Pipelines, a release can be triggered by a schedule, which allows you to define a cron-based trigger to deploy at specific times (e.g., nightly builds). The 'Build completion' trigger starts a release when a specific build pipeline completes, enabling chained deployments. Both are native release triggers in classic release pipelines.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Continuous integration
Why it's wrong here
Continuous integration triggers are for builds, not releases.
- ✓
Schedule
Why this is correct
A schedule trigger starts a release at a specified time.
- ✓
Build completion
Why this is correct
A build completion trigger automatically creates a release when a build artifact is produced.
- ✗
Work item state change
Why it's wrong here
Work item state changes are not a native trigger for releases.
- ✗
Pull request
Why it's wrong here
Pull request triggers are for builds, not releases.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Build pipeline
A build pipeline is an automated sequence of steps that compiles source code into a deployable artifact, running tests and checks along the way.
Key term
Azure Pipelines
Azure Pipelines is a cloud-based CI/CD service from Microsoft that automatically builds, tests, and deploys code to any platform or cloud.
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