AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement a source control strategy
Your company is migrating from TFVC to Git in Azure Repos. The repository contains a large number of binary files (e.g., .dll, .exe) that are frequently updated. You need to minimize repository size and clone time. What should you include in your migration plan?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse sparse checkout (which only affects the working tree) with a solution for repository size, or assume a shallow clone is sufficient without realizing it does not prevent binary bloat from accumulating in the repository history.
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
✓
Use Git LFS to track binary files.
Git LFS (Large File Storage) replaces large binary files in the repository with lightweight text pointers, storing the actual binary content in external storage. This prevents the repository from bloating with frequently updated binaries, reducing clone time and repository size since only the pointers are cloned.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Perform a shallow clone of the last commit only.
Why it's wrong here
A shallow clone with --depth 1 only retrieves the latest commit's tree and blobs, reducing local history, but it does not remove large binary files from that snapshot—those objects are still stored and transmitted. Thus, both the central repository size and the clone size remain large, and you lose the full history needed after a TFVC migration.
- ✓
Use Git LFS to track binary files.
Why this is correct
Git LFS stores binary files in a separate remote store and replaces them in Git with small text pointers, so cloning fetches only the pointers and downloads actual binaries on demand (via `git lfs fetch` or by checking out the working tree). This keeps the .git directory and clone time small, and Azure Repos fully supports Git LFS for repos, making it the correct solution for large binary files.
- ✗
Use sparse checkout to exclude binary files from the working tree.
Why it's wrong here
Sparse checkout only restricts which directories appear in the working tree; it does not change the objects stored in .git, and all blobs, including large binaries, are still downloaded during clone or fetch. Consequently, the repository size on the server and local disk remains unchanged, so it provides no relief from repository bloat.
- ✗
Use TFVC to Git converter with default settings.
Why it's wrong here
Default TFVC-to-Git converters (such as git-tfs or the Azure DevOps migration tool) convert the full history and check in every binary file as a regular blob, resulting in a large, unwieldy Git repository. They also fail to automatically integrate Git LFS, so you must explicitly configure LFS and retrofit the migration, making default settings an inefficient approach for repositories with significant binary content.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
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.
Key term
Git
Git is a version control system that tracks changes to files so multiple people can work on the same project without overwriting each other's work.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-400 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-400 exam.