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Pipeline Variables and Templates Flashcards

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  1. You want to reuse a YAML template stored in a different Azure DevOps repository. What must you configure first?

    Answer: A resources.repositories reference with the repository alias

    Cross-repository templates require declaring the source repo under `resources.repositories` with a `ref` and `type` before you can reference its templates.

  2. What is the syntax to reference a variable set in a previous stage named 'Build' from job 'CompileJob' within a subsequent stage?

    Answer: $[stageDependencies.Build.CompileJob.outputs['stepName.outputVar']]

    Cross-stage output variable references use `$[stageDependencies.StageName.JobName.outputs['stepName.varName']]` runtime expression syntax.

  3. Which template parameter type allows passing a sequence of arbitrary values such as a list of environment names?

    Answer: object

    The `object` parameter type accepts YAML sequences and mappings, making it suitable for passing lists or dictionaries to templates.

  4. A developer sets `variables: [{name: API_URL, value: https://dev.api.com}]` at the pipeline level and also sets the same variable at the job level to a production URL. Which value is used during job execution?

    Answer: The job-level value because job scope overrides pipeline scope

    Job-level variable definitions override pipeline-level definitions because narrower scopes take higher precedence in Azure Pipelines.

  5. Which Azure CLI command updates a pipeline variable to be secret after the pipeline has already been created?

    Answer: az pipelines variable update --name VAR --secret true

    The `az pipelines variable update --name VAR --secret true` command converts an existing pipeline variable to a secret type.

  6. What does the `${{ variables.myVar }}` template expression return if `myVar` is a runtime-only variable set by a previous step?

    Answer: An empty string, because template expressions are resolved before runtime

    Template expressions (`${{ }}`) are resolved at compile/queue time, so runtime-only variables are not yet available and result in an empty string.

  7. How can you prevent a pipeline consumer from overriding a specific template parameter at queue time?

    Answer: Do not expose the value as a parameter; hardcode it inside the template

    Hardcoding values inside a template rather than exposing them as parameters prevents consumers from overriding those values.