AZ-400 Practice Question: Design and implement a source control strategy
This AZ-400 practice question tests your understanding of design and implement a source control strategy. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your team uses Azure Repos and has a repository with a large number of binary files (e.g., images, compiled libraries) that bloat the repository size. You want to reduce clone times and storage usage while still maintaining version history for those files. Which approach should you recommend?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use Git Large File Storage (LFS) to track large files with pointers.
Git LFS (Large File Storage) replaces large binary files in the repository with text pointers, while storing the actual file content in a separate remote store. This keeps the repository lightweight for cloning and fetching, but still preserves the full version history of the binary files because each pointer references a specific version in the LFS store. It integrates natively with Azure Repos and requires minimal workflow changes.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Split the repository into two: one for code and one for binaries.
Why it's wrong here
This is a valid approach but not as seamless as Git LFS.
✗
Use git annex to manage large files with a separate store.
Why it's wrong here
git annex is not natively supported in Azure Repos.
✗
Use git submodules to reference the large files from another repository.
Why it's wrong here
Submodules do not reduce the main repo size.
✓
Use Git Large File Storage (LFS) to track large files with pointers.
Why this is correct
Git LFS is supported and reduces clone size.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse git submodules or repo splitting as valid solutions for large files, but they fail to realize that those approaches do not actually reduce clone times or storage usage for the binary files themselves—they only reorganize the problem.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Git LFS uses a smudge/clean filter mechanism: when you checkout a commit, the smudge filter downloads the actual binary from the LFS endpoint, and when you stage a file, the clean filter replaces it with a pointer file (e.g., 'version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1 oid sha256:... size 12345'). This means the .git directory remains small, but the working directory contains the full binary. A real-world scenario is a game development team storing .png textures and .fbx models—without LFS, a single clone could be 10+ GB; with LFS, the initial clone is fast, and only the files needed for the current branch are downloaded on demand.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-400 question in full detail.
Design and implement a source control strategy — This question tests Design and implement a source control strategy — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Git Large File Storage (LFS) to track large files with pointers. — Git LFS (Large File Storage) replaces large binary files in the repository with text pointers, while storing the actual file content in a separate remote store. This keeps the repository lightweight for cloning and fetching, but still preserves the full version history of the binary files because each pointer references a specific version in the LFS store. It integrates natively with Azure Repos and requires minimal workflow changes.
What should I do if I get this AZ-400 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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