DevOps Interview question and answers | DevOps Interview Quiz Test Challenge: CI/CD, Containers, and Automation

DevOps Interview Challenge: CI/CD, Containers, and Automation

Test your knowledge of the **DevOps Culture, Principles, CI/CD Pipeline tools, Containerization (Docker), and Orchestration (Kubernetes)**. **Pass with 80% to proceed to the next difficulty level.**

Level 1: Fundamentals & Principles: 0/10 (0%)

Level 2: CI/CD & Automation Tools: 0/10 (0%)

Level 3: Containers & Orchestration: 0/10 (0%)

Level 1: Fundamentals & Principles

1.1 What is the primary difference between Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD)?

A. CI is manual, CD is automated. B. CI focuses on merging and testing code changes frequently; CD focuses on automating the release of validated code to environments. C. CI runs in production, CD runs in staging.

**Correct Answer: B. CI focuses on merging and testing code changes frequently...** CI is the *build and test* phase; CD is the *release and deploy* phase.

1.2 Which concept involves provisioning and managing system resources (like servers, networks, and databases) through machine-readable definition files?

A. Continuous Monitoring (CM) B. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) C. Software as a Service (SaaS)

**Correct Answer: B. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)**. Tools like Terraform and CloudFormation allow infrastructure to be treated like application code.

1.3 What is the primary function of a Version Control System (VCS) like Git?

A. Automatically deploying code to production. B. Running unit tests on code changes. C. Tracking and managing changes to source code over time.

**Correct Answer: C. Tracking and managing changes to source code over time.** Git enables collaboration, history review, and rollback capabilities.

1.4 Which of the following is an example of an open-source Configuration Management (CM) tool?

A. Docker Hub B. Puppet C. Nexus

**Correct Answer: B. Puppet**. Other popular CM tools include Ansible, Chef, and SaltStack.

1.5 What is a Monolith in terms of software architecture?

A. An application composed of many small, independent services. B. A single, unified, and often large code base where all functions are tightly coupled. C. A system that runs only in the cloud.

**Correct Answer: B. A single, unified, and often large code base...** DevOps often facilitates the transition *from* monoliths *to* microservices.

1.6 Which of the following is not an advantage of using Microservices?

A. Independent deployment of services. B. Technology diversity (using different languages/databases for different services). C. Reduced operational overhead due to simpler network complexity.

**Correct Answer: C. Reduced operational overhead...** Microservices *increase* operational complexity by requiring more monitoring, logging, and distributed tracing.

1.7 What is the purpose of Telemetry in DevOps monitoring?

A. Encrypting communication between services. B. Collecting and transmitting data (metrics, logs, traces) about the performance and health of an application or system. C. Running security penetration tests.

**Correct Answer: B. Collecting and transmitting data...** Telemetry data is essential for the "Continuous Feedback" loop in DevOps.

1.8 The ability of a system to continue operating effectively despite the failure of one or more components is known as:

A. Scalability B. Fault Tolerance C. Isolation

**Correct Answer: B. Fault Tolerance**. Designing for failure (e.g., using redundant components) is a core aspect of modern DevOps and SRE practices.

1.9 Which Git operation is used to download changes from a remote repository into your local branch and automatically merge them?

A. `git fetch` B. `git pull` C. `git push`

**Correct Answer: B. `git pull`**. This is a shortcut for `git fetch` followed by `git merge`.

1.10 What is the primary benefit of treating infrastructure as Immutable?

A. Servers are manually patched and updated in place. C. Consistency and reduced risk of configuration drift, as any change requires rebuilding and replacing the environment. C. Faster build times.

**Correct Answer: C. Consistency and reduced risk of configuration drift...** This contrasts with mutable infrastructure where servers are constantly modified.

**End of Fundamentals & Principles. Click "Next Level" to continue.**

Level 2: CI/CD & Automation Tools

2.1 What language is primarily used for defining Ansible Playbooks?

A. Python B. Groovy C. YAML

**Correct Answer: C. YAML**. Ansible playbooks are defined using YAML, which specifies the desired state and the tasks to be executed.

2.2 In Terraform, what is a Provider?

A. A central repository for Terraform modules. B. A plugin that allows Terraform to interact with a specific service API (e.g., AWS, Azure, or Kubernetes). C. The file that stores the state of the infrastructure.

**Correct Answer: B. A plugin that allows Terraform to interact with a specific service API...** Providers translate the HCL configuration into API calls.

2.3 When setting up a Jenkins Pipeline, what kind of file contains the entire definition of the CI/CD process?

A. `build.sh` B. `Jenkinsfile` C. `jenkins-config.xml`

**Correct Answer: B. `Jenkinsfile`**. This file, written in Groovy (Scripted) or declarative syntax, lives in the source code repository, enabling "Pipeline as Code."

2.4 What type of deployment involves gradually shifting a small fraction of real user traffic from the old version to the new version?

A. Blue/Green Deployment B. Canary Deployment C. Rolling Update

**Correct Answer: B. Canary Deployment**. This minimizes risk by exposing the new version to only a small subset of users initially.

2.5 Which tool is widely used for centralized logging in a typical open-source stack?

A. Prometheus B. ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) C. Git

**Correct Answer: B. ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)**. This combination is a standard solution for collecting, processing, storing, and visualizing logs.

2.6 What does SRE stand for, and what is its relationship to DevOps?

A. Software Release Engineer; it’s a role focused purely on deployments. B. Site Reliability Engineering; it's a specific, codified implementation of DevOps principles, often using automation to achieve reliability goals. C. System Requirement Enforcer; it dictates non-functional requirements.

**Correct Answer: B. Site Reliability Engineering...** SRE is often described as "DevOps with a measurable Service Level Objective (SLO)."

2.7 Which CI/CD practice is most closely associated with the Deployment Frequency DORA metric?

A. Manual testing B. Using Git tags C. Fully automated Continuous Delivery or Deployment

**Correct Answer: C. Fully automated Continuous Delivery or Deployment**. High deployment frequency is a hallmark of high-performing DevOps organizations.

2.8 What is the significance of the Artifact Repository in the CI/CD pipeline?

A. It compiles the source code. B. It provides a stable, secure, and versioned storage location for built binaries (JAR, WAR, Docker images) before deployment. C. It runs end-to-end tests.

**Correct Answer: B. It provides a stable, secure, and versioned storage location...** This ensures traceability and consistency across environments.

2.9 In a Bash script, which of the following ensures that the script will exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status?

A. `set -i` B. `set -e` C. `set -x`

**Correct Answer: B. `set -e`**. This is critical for robust CI/CD scripting to prevent silent failures. (`set -x` is for debugging.)

2.10 What is a Secret Management Tool (e.g., HashiCorp Vault)?

A. A tool for tracking application errors. B. A secure way to manage code branching strategies. C. A system for centrally storing, accessing, and tightly controlling sensitive data like API keys, passwords, and certificates.

**Correct Answer: C. A system for centrally storing, accessing, and tightly controlling sensitive data...** This avoids hardcoding secrets in configuration files or code.

**End of CI/CD & Automation Tools. Click "Next Level" to continue.**

Level 3: Containers & Orchestration

3.1 What is the role of the `ENTRYPOINT` instruction in a `Dockerfile` compared to `CMD`?

A. `CMD` is executed first; `ENTRYPOINT` is executed last. B. `ENTRYPOINT` sets the command that will always be executed; `CMD` provides default arguments to that command (which can be overridden). C. They are interchangeable and serve the same purpose.

**Correct Answer: B. `ENTRYPOINT` sets the command that will always be executed...** This is key for creating executable containers.

3.2 In Kubernetes, what is the API object used to provide a stable, external entry point for HTTP and HTTPS traffic into the cluster, often managing path-based routing?

A. NodePort Service B. ConfigMap C. Ingress

**Correct Answer: C. Ingress**. Ingress manages external access to the services in a cluster, typically for HTTP.

3.3 What is the primary function of the Kube-proxy component in the Kubernetes Control Plane/Node?

A. Storing the cluster state in a key-value store. B. Maintaining network rules on nodes to allow network communication to and from Pods and Services. C. Running the container runtime (e.g., Docker or Containerd).

**Correct Answer: B. Maintaining network rules on nodes...** Kube-proxy ensures that the virtual IP addresses of Services resolve correctly to the Pods backing them.

3.4 Which Kubernetes object is ideal for running batch jobs that are expected to terminate successfully?

A. Deployment B. DaemonSet C. Job

**Correct Answer: C. Job**. Jobs create one or more Pods and ensure that a specified number of them successfully terminate. Use a CronJob for scheduled jobs.

3.5 What is a PersistentVolume (PV) in Kubernetes?

B. A piece of storage in the cluster provisioned by an administrator or dynamically, that outlives the Pod using it. B. Storage that is local to the Pod and disappears when the Pod restarts. C. A way to share secrets between Pods.

**Correct Answer: B. A piece of storage in the cluster...** PVs abstract underlying storage, while PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) are requests for that storage by a Pod.

3.6 What is the purpose of the Helm package manager for Kubernetes?

A. To manage cluster security policies. B. To define, install, and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications using reusable packages called Charts. C. To run distributed service meshes.

**Correct Answer: B. To define, install, and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications...** Helm simplifies deployment complexity by templating YAML definitions.

3.7 How does GitOps fundamentally differ from traditional CI/CD deployment methods?

A. GitOps uses only one repository for both code and infrastructure. B. GitOps uses only proprietary tools. C. GitOps uses Git as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and application states, with an automated controller (like ArgoCD or Flux) syncing the cluster state to Git.

**Correct Answer: C. GitOps uses Git as the single source of truth...** This paradigm shifts the deployment trigger from the CI system to the state management tool (controller).

3.8 In Docker Compose, what is the purpose of a network definition?

A. To map host ports to container ports. B. To create a private, internal DNS-resolvable network for inter-container communication. C. To limit the bandwidth used by a service.

**Correct Answer: B. To create a private, internal DNS-resolvable network...** Services on the same Docker Compose network can communicate using their service names.

3.9 What is a DaemonSet in Kubernetes?

A. An object that creates exactly one Pod in the entire cluster. B. An object that ensures a copy of a Pod is running on every (or specified) Node in the cluster. C. An object used exclusively for persistent storage.

**Correct Answer: B. An object that ensures a copy of a Pod is running on every Node...** This is commonly used for cluster-level services like log collectors (Fluentd) or monitoring agents (Node Exporter).

3.10 In Linux, which command is used to display and modify the kernel's network packet filtering rules (essential for container networking)?

A. `netstat` C. `iptables` (or `nftables` in modern distributions) C. `route`

**Correct Answer: C. `iptables` (or `nftables` in modern distributions)**. Container runtimes and Kubernetes (via `kube-proxy`) heavily rely on `iptables` for forwarding traffic and enforcing isolation rules.

**DevOps Mastered! Click "Finish Quiz" to see your final summary.**

Final Quiz Summary 📋

Related Topics & Tags

DevOps CI/CD Automation Docker Kubernetes K8s Ansible Terraform IaC Git Jenkins GitOps SRE Monitoring Prometheus Grafana Logging ELKStack Linux ShellScripting Microservices Containers CloudNative AWS Azure GCP Security Vault DeploymentStrategies InterviewPrep

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