AZ-400 Configure processes and communications Practice Question
Your team wants to implement a policy that requires all pull requests to have at least one approval from a member of the 'Senior Developers' group before merging. Which mechanism should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse CODEOWNERS (which only requests reviews) with a branch policy that enforces required approvals, leading them to choose option A even though it does not block merging without the required approval.
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
✓
Create a branch policy on the target branch that requires a minimum number of reviewers from the 'Senior Developers' group.
Azure Repos branch policies allow you to enforce required reviewers on pull requests. By creating a branch policy on the target branch that requires a minimum number of reviewers from the 'Senior Developers' group, you ensure that no pull request can be completed without at least one approval from that group. This directly meets the requirement without relying on file-level ownership or external scripts.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add a CODEOWNERS file that designates 'Senior Developers' as owners of all files.
Why it's wrong here
A CODEOWNERS file automatically adds Senior Developers as suggested reviewers on pull requests, but it does not require their approval; without a matching branch policy, their sign-off is optional and the PR can still be merged without it.
- ✓
Create a branch policy on the target branch that requires a minimum number of reviewers from the 'Senior Developers' group.
Why this is correct
A branch policy on the target branch that requires a minimum number of reviewers from the Senior Developers group enforces that at least that many senior devs must approve before the PR can be completed, and you can also set it to block merge until their approvals are obtained.
- ✗
Configure the pull request dashboard to display required reviewers.
Why it's wrong here
Configuring the pull request dashboard to display required reviewers only changes the visibility of the review queue; it does not create any enforcement mechanism, so developers could ignore it and merge the PR without the required approvals.
- ✗
Set up a build validation policy that runs a script to check approvals.
Why it's wrong here
A build validation policy runs an automated pipeline that can execute scripts and tests, but it cannot evaluate human reviewer approvals because those are tracked outside the build system; it therefore cannot replace a branch policy for requiring Senior Developer sign-off.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Branch policy
A branch policy is a set of rules and conditions enforced on a Git branch to control how code changes are proposed, reviewed, and merged, ensuring code quality and protecting critical branches.
Key term
Pull request
A pull request is a way for a developer to propose changes to a codebase and ask other team members to review and merge them into the main project.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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