AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
You are designing a build pipeline that must be triggered only when changes are made to specific folders in the repository. The pipeline should ignore documentation changes. Which trigger configuration should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse branch triggers with path triggers, thinking that filtering by branch alone can ignore documentation changes, but branch filters only control which branches trigger the pipeline, not which files within those branches.
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
✓
Configure a path trigger with include paths for source code and exclude paths for docs.
Azure Pipelines path triggers allow you to specify include and exclude filters on file paths. By including only source code folders and excluding the docs folder, the pipeline will only run when relevant code changes are made, ignoring documentation updates.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a scheduled trigger to run the pipeline daily.
Why it's wrong here
A scheduled trigger executes the pipeline at fixed cron intervals (e.g., daily) regardless of whether any source code changed, so it cannot respond to commits that modify code. This fails the requirement because builds would run at arbitrary times, not on every relevant file update.
- ✗
Configure a branch trigger with an include filter for the main branch.
Why it's wrong here
A branch trigger with an include filter for main starts the pipeline for every push to that branch, irrespective of which files changed. Since it has no path filtering, a commit that only updates docs would still trigger a build, violating the need to exclude documentation changes.
- ✓
Configure a path trigger with include paths for source code and exclude paths for docs.
Why this is correct
A path trigger uses include/exclude patterns on file paths to decide whether a push starts the pipeline. By including paths to source code folders and excluding paths to docs, the pipeline runs only when actual code changes, precisely matching the trigger requirement while ignoring doc-only commits.
- ✗
Configure a tag trigger with a pattern that matches release tags.
Why it's wrong here
A tag trigger activates only when a git tag matching the configured pattern is created, not when files are modified in a folder. Release tags are typically applied at release time, independent of source code edits, so this would not fire on incremental code changes as required.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Pipeline
A pipeline is an automated series of steps that takes code from development to production, ensuring quality and speed.
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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