AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement build and release pipelines
Your team uses Azure Pipelines and wants to automatically create a release every time a build succeeds on the main branch. Which trigger should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse CI triggers (which apply to build pipelines) with release triggers, leading them to incorrectly select option B, not realizing that release pipelines use build completion triggers instead of CI 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
✓
Build completion trigger in the release pipeline
A build completion trigger in the release pipeline allows you to automatically create a release whenever a specific build pipeline succeeds on the main branch. This trigger monitors the build pipeline for successful completions and initiates the release process, which directly matches the requirement of creating a release after every successful build on main.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Pull request trigger in the build pipeline
Why it's wrong here
A pull request trigger on a build pipeline only starts a validation build when a PR is opened or updated; it does not create a release or deploy artifacts. To automatically create a release after a build, you must use a release pipeline trigger, not a build pipeline trigger.
- ✗
Continuous integration (CI) trigger in the release pipeline
Why it's wrong here
Release pipelines in Azure DevOps do not have a built-in 'Continuous integration' trigger; CI triggers are exclusively defined on build pipelines. Release pipelines can be configured with triggers such as build completion, scheduled, or manual, but a CI trigger is not an option for release automation.
- ✓
Build completion trigger in the release pipeline
Why this is correct
A build completion trigger in a release pipeline is the correct choice because it automatically starts a release as soon as a specified build pipeline finishes successfully. This is the standard mechanism to deploy the artifacts produced by a CI build, enabling a fully automated build-and-release workflow.
- ✗
Scheduled trigger in the release pipeline
Why it's wrong here
A scheduled trigger in a release pipeline runs releases at predetermined times (e.g., nightly), regardless of whether a new build has completed. It does not react to build completions, so it cannot automatically create a release immediately after a build finishes.
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
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.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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