Deployment Flashcards

What is the purpose of semantic versioning (SemVer) in deployments?

Answer: To communicate the nature of changes via MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH version numbers

SemVer uses MAJOR (breaking), MINOR (new features), and PATCH (bug fixes) numbers to signal change impact to consumers.

Which deployment artifact format does AWS Lambda primarily execute?

Answer: Docker images or ZIP archives containing function code and dependencies

Lambda accepts either a ZIP package with code and dependencies or a container image stored in ECR.

What problem does a container registry (like Docker Hub or ECR) solve?

Answer: Storing, versioning, and distributing container images to deployment targets

A container registry is a centralized store where teams push images and deployment systems pull them to run containers.

What is a deployment pipeline's 'artifact' stage responsible for?

Answer: Packaging the built application into a deployable unit (e.g., ZIP, image, tarball)

The artifact stage compiles and packages the application so the same immutable bundle can be promoted through environments.

Which strategy allows you to test a new feature with 10% of real users without a full deployment?

Answer: Feature flags

Feature flags let you toggle features on for a percentage of users without deploying new code for each change.

What does `kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml` do?

Answer: Creates or updates Kubernetes resources defined in the YAML file

`kubectl apply` is declarative — it creates resources that don't exist and updates those that do based on the YAML spec.

What is the role of a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in web deployment?

Answer: Caching and serving static assets from edge locations geographically closer to users

A CDN caches static content at edge nodes worldwide, reducing latency by serving assets from locations near the user.