AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
Your Azure Pipelines build is failing with the error: '##[error]No agent found in pool 'Default' that satisfies the specified demands: Agent.Version -gtVersion 2.200.0'. The pool 'Default' contains agents of various versions. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume the error is due to a syntax or configuration issue, when in fact it is a straightforward version mismatch — the pool simply lacks agents meeting the version demand.
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 'Default' agent pool has no agents with version greater than 2.200.0.
The error message explicitly states that no agent in the 'Default' pool satisfies the demand 'Agent.Version -gtVersion 2.200.0'. Since the pool contains agents of various versions, the most likely cause is that none of those agents have a version greater than 2.200.0. This demand is set in the pipeline YAML or classic editor to ensure the agent meets a minimum version requirement.
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 pipeline YAML has a syntax error in the 'demands' section.
Why it's wrong here
A YAML syntax error in the 'demands' section would be detected during pipeline compilation or validation, producing a structure or schema error before any agent is even selected. The runtime error about agent demands occurs after validation, so this is not the cause.
- ✗
The pipeline is configured to run on an agentless job.
Why it's wrong here
Agentless jobs (also called server jobs) run on the Azure DevOps service itself without a pool or an agent, so they never evaluate agent demands or capabilities. Since this error arises from agent matching, the pipeline must be using an agent job, making an agentless job impossible.
- ✗
The 'demands' keyword is not supported in Azure Pipelines.
Why it's wrong here
The 'demands' keyword is a documented and fully supported feature in Azure Pipelines, used to specify required agent capabilities or version conditions. If it were not supported, you would see a schema validation error, not the specific agent-matching failure described.
- ✓
The 'Default' agent pool has no agents with version greater than 2.200.0.
Why this is correct
The pipeline includes a demand such as 'Agent.Version -gtVersion 2.200.0', but every agent in the Default pool runs an agent version less than or equal to 2.200.0. As a result, no agent satisfies the demand, causing the build to fail with an error that no matching agent could be found.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Agent
An agent is a software component that runs on a local machine to perform automated tasks, collect data, or execute commands as part of a larger system like CI/CD or monitoring.
Key term
Pipeline
A pipeline is an automated series of steps that takes code from development to production, ensuring quality and speed.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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