🟢 Easy (Basics)
1. What is Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps is a Microsoft service providing CI/CD, version control, project tracking, and automation tools.
2. Components of Azure DevOps?
- Azure Repos → Git repositories
- Azure Pipelines → CI/CD pipelines
- Azure Boards → Agile project management
- Azure Test Plans → Manual & automated testing
- Azure Artifacts → Package management
3. Difference between Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions?
Azure DevOps = enterprise-focused, deep Microsoft integrations. GitHub Actions = lightweight, community-driven, GitHub-native.
4. What is a pipeline in Azure DevOps?
A pipeline automates build, test, and deployment of applications using YAML or classic editor.
5. What are Agents in Azure DevOps?
Agents are compute resources that execute pipeline jobs (Microsoft-hosted or self-hosted).
🟡 Medium (Hands-on)
6. YAML vs Classic pipelines?
YAML = code-based, reusable. Classic = GUI-based drag-and-drop.
7. What are Service Connections?
Secure connections that allow pipelines to access external services (Azure, GitHub, DockerHub).
8. What is Multi-stage Pipeline?
Pipeline with multiple environments (Build → Test → Deploy) and approvals.
9. What is Artifact in Azure DevOps?
Artifact = output of build pipeline (binaries, zip, container images) passed to release pipeline.
10. What is Continuous Deployment?
Automatically deploys code to environments after CI validations.
🔴 Hard (Advanced)
11. How to secure secrets?
Use Azure Key Vault, mask pipeline logs, variable groups with secrets.
12. IaC in Azure DevOps?
Use Terraform, ARM, or Bicep in pipelines to provision infra automatically.
13. Blue-Green or Canary deployments?
Use deployment slots, Traffic Manager/Front Door, staged rollouts in pipelines.
14. Integration with Kubernetes?
Use Helm or kubectl tasks to deploy manifests to AKS. Secure with service connections.
15. What are Checks and Approvals?
Checks = automated policies. Approvals = manual validation before next stage.
16. Optimizing pipeline performance?
Use caching, parallel jobs, reusable templates, and self-hosted agents.
17. Integrating SonarQube/security scans?
Add extension, configure quality gate tasks, fail build if thresholds not met.
18. Branch Policies?
Require PR validation builds, code reviews, restrict direct pushes.
19. Monitoring & Feedback?
Use Application Insights, pipeline monitoring, alerts for failures.
20. Real-world Example?
Push code → build pipeline → artifacts → release pipeline → deploy to Dev/QA/Prod with approvals, Terraform infra, Key Vault secrets, monitoring via App Insights.