CPA Version Control & DevOps Practices Flashcards

In a CI/CD pipeline, what is the purpose of the 'CD' (Continuous Delivery) stage?

Answer: To automatically prepare every successful build for potential release to production

Continuous Delivery ensures every passing build is automatically packaged and released to a staging environment, making it ready for deployment to production at any time.

What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

Answer: Managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes

IaC treats infrastructure configuration as versioned code, enabling repeatable, automated provisioning with tools like Terraform or Ansible.

What does a `.gitignore` file do?

Answer: Specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should not track or stage

A .gitignore file contains patterns for files and directories that Git should exclude from tracking, such as build artifacts, logs, and secrets.

What is a Docker container?

Answer: A lightweight, portable runtime environment that packages an application with its dependencies

A Docker container is a standardized, isolated runtime unit that bundles an application and all its dependencies, ensuring consistent behavior across environments.

In Git, what is a 'merge conflict'?

Answer: A situation where two branches have made incompatible changes to the same part of a file

A merge conflict occurs when Git cannot automatically reconcile differing changes to the same lines in the same file from two branches being merged.

What is the role of an artifact repository (e.g., Nexus, Artifactory) in a DevOps pipeline?

Answer: To store and manage binary build artifacts, libraries, and deployment packages

An artifact repository centrally stores versioned build outputs (JARs, Docker images, npm packages) so they can be reliably retrieved and deployed across environments.