AZ-400 : Practice Tests

Integrate build and release with communication platforms:

• Set up webhooks or use tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to notify the team of build/release successes or failures in real-time.
• Integrate GitHub pull request approvals using mobile apps by configuring notification services like Twilio or PagerDuty for critical alerts.

Implement a continuous integration (CI) strategy:

• Design and implement a CI pipeline that automatically triggers builds on code check-ins, incorporating linting, unit tests, integration tests, and other quality checks.
• Integrate external tools for security scanning, code coverage, and dependency checking within the CI pipeline.
• Implement quality gates such as minimum code coverage thresholds, internationalization support, and mandatory peer reviews before merging pull requests.
• Develop a testing strategy that includes integration tests, load testing, fuzzing, API testing, and chaos engineering to ensure robustness and reliability.
• Integrate multiple CI tools like GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or Jenkins to provide flexibility and scalability.

Design a package management strategy:

• Recommend appropriate package management tools such as GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts, or third-party solutions like Jfrog Artifactory or Sonatype Nexus.
• Design an Azure Artifacts implementation, including linked feeds for different access levels and permissions.
• Establish a versioning strategy using Semantic Versioning (SemVer) or date-based tagging for code assets to maintain consistency and traceability.
• Plan for assessing and updating dependencies using tools like GitHub Automated Security Updates, NuKeeper, or GreenKeeper to ensure security and compliance.

Design an application infrastructure management strategy:

• Assess and select a configuration management tool that integrates with your infrastructure, such as Ansible, Chef, or Puppet.
• Define and enforce the desired state configuration for various environments like development, staging, and production.

Implement a build strategy:

• Design and implement a scalable and maintainable build agent infrastructure, considering factors such as cost, tool selection, licenses, and performance.
• Develop build trigger rules that align with the team's development workflow.
• Create build pipelines that automate the compilation, testing, and packaging of applications.
• Orchestrate complex builds, especially for containerized agents, hybrid environments, or GPU-based computations.

Maintain build strategy:

• Monitor CI pipeline health to identify trends in failure rates, durations, and flaky tests.
• Continuously optimize the build process for cost savings, performance improvements, and reliability enhancements.
• Analyze CI load to determine the optimal configuration and capacity of build agents.

Standardize builds across the organization:

• Manage self-hosted build agents using VM templates or containerization for consistency and scalability.
• Create reusable build subsystems such as YAML templates, Task Groups, or Variable Groups to promote code reuse and reduce duplication of effort.

Implement a continuous delivery (CD) and release management strategy:

• Develop deployment scripts and templates that are idempotent and reproducible.
• Recommend a deployment solution that fits the organization's needs, such as GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or others.
• Design Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like ARM templates, Terraform, or PowerShell DSC to automate infrastructure provisioning.
• Develop application deployment processes for containers, binary artifacts, and scripts, considering the specific needs of different environments such as IoT, Azure IoT Edge, mobile applications, and disaster recovery setups.

Implement an orchestration automation solution:

• Combine various release targets into a cohesive delivery plan that accounts for infrastructure, code, assets, etc.
• Design the release pipeline to ensure a reliable order of dependency deployments.
• Organize shared release configurations and processes for reusability and standardization.

Plan the deployment environment strategy:

• Implement strategies for minimizing downtime during deployments using techniques like VIP swapping or rolling updates in load balancers.
• Design a hotfix path plan for critical fixes, ensuring rapid response to high-priority issues while maintaining code stability and system integrity.