CDM Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CDM facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which cloud service model gives a DevOps team the most control over the operating system and runtime environment? → IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
2. When assessment results for a Certified DevOps Master evaluation are inconclusive, the BEST practice is to: → Conduct additional assessment using alternative methods
3. In Certified DevOps Master practice, what is the CORRECT sequence when performing a technical procedure? → Plan, prepare, execute, verify, and document
4. What is a build pipeline? → Automated code process
5. Which foundational principle is MOST important for success in Certified DevOps Master? → Commitment to continuous learning, ethical practice, and quality outcomes
6. What role does calibration play in maintaining technical accuracy for Certified DevOps Master professionals? → It ensures instruments produce accurate, consistent results over time
7. What is the role of audit logging in a DevSecOps-compliant system? → To provide a tamper-evident record of who did what and when for compliance and forensics
8. Which of these is a benefit of a DevOps culture? → Faster delivery and better quality
9. What does Continuous Delivery (CD) enable? → Automated release to production
10. Which of the following is the best approach for managing secrets (API keys, passwords) in a CI/CD pipeline? → Use a dedicated secrets manager such as HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager
11. What is a 'fork' in the context of Git collaboration platforms like GitHub? → A copy of a repository in your own account, used to propose changes via pull requests
12. When documenting assessment findings in CDM practice, which approach is MOST appropriate? → Record objective findings, measurements, and observations factually
13. What is the MOST important factor when selecting assessment tools for CDM certification work? → Validity, reliability, and appropriateness for the specific context
14. In a blameless postmortem, what is the primary goal of the 'five whys' technique? → To iteratively ask 'why' to trace from symptoms to root systemic causes
15. In the context of DevSecOps, what is a 'threat model'? → A structured analysis of potential threats, attack vectors, and mitigations for a system
16. What is an incident response plan? → Procedure for managing incidents
17. What is the MOST important reason for maintaining equipment maintenance logs in CDM practice? → To track maintenance history, predict failures, and demonstrate compliance
18. Which tool is commonly used for CI/CD pipelines? → Jenkins
19. Which metric measures the time taken from code commit to deployment? → Lead time
20. In Trunk-Based Development, how frequently should developers integrate their changes into the main branch? → At least once per day
21. In DevSecOps, what is a Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tool primarily used for? → Identifying vulnerabilities in open-source libraries and dependencies
22. Which practice is essential in DevOps for continuous integration? → Continuous integration
23. What is Static Application Security Testing (SAST)? → Analyzing source code or binaries for security flaws without executing the application
24. Which tool is commonly used for centralized logging? → ELK Stack
25. What is the MOST important reason for maintaining equipment maintenance logs in CDM practice? → To track maintenance history, predict failures, and demonstrate compliance
26. Why is automation important in configuration management? → Reduce errors and speed deployments
27. What role does calibration play in maintaining technical accuracy for Certified DevOps Master professionals? → It ensures instruments produce accurate, consistent results over time
28. Which factor MOST significantly affects the quality of technical outcomes in CDM practice? → The practitioner's training, preparation, and attention to detail
29. A DevOps team wants to detect when a cron job has silently stopped running. Which alerting pattern is designed specifically for this scenario? → Dead man's switch (heartbeat alert)
30. How does a blameless culture support DevOps? → Encourage learning, not blame