AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions Practice Exam
Prepare confidently for the AZ-400 certification exam with Exam Sage’s comprehensive practice test designed specifically for Microsoft Azure DevOps professionals. The AZ-400 exam validates your expertise in combining people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end-user needs and business objectives.
What is the AZ-400 Certification Exam?
The AZ-400 exam is a key certification for DevOps engineers and professionals working with Microsoft Azure. It measures your ability to design and implement DevOps practices, including continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), infrastructure as code, configuration management, monitoring, and collaboration across development and operations teams. Passing this exam demonstrates your skills in streamlining software delivery and improving reliability in modern cloud environments.
What Will You Learn?
By practicing with Exam Sage’s AZ-400 exam simulator, you will strengthen your understanding of essential DevOps principles and Microsoft Azure tools, including:
Designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps
Managing source control with Git and branching strategies
Automating infrastructure deployment with ARM templates and Terraform
Implementing containerization and Kubernetes deployments
Configuring security and compliance policies for DevOps workflows
Monitoring applications and infrastructure for performance and reliability
Collaborating effectively across teams using Agile and DevOps best practices
Key Topics Covered
Our practice exam covers all critical domains outlined by Microsoft for the AZ-400 certification, such as:
Develop an instrumentation strategy
Manage source control
Facilitate communication and collaboration
Implement continuous integration
Implement continuous delivery
Implement dependency management
Implement application infrastructure
Implement continuous feedback
Why Choose Exam Sage for Your AZ-400 Exam Prep?
Exam Sage offers expertly crafted, up-to-date practice questions and detailed explanations that mirror the real exam’s difficulty and scope. Our platform enables you to:
Test your knowledge with realistic, scenario-based questions
Identify areas for improvement with comprehensive answer explanations
Track your progress and boost confidence before the actual exam
Access the practice exam anytime, anywhere, on any device
Take the first step toward becoming a certified Microsoft DevOps Engineer by using Exam Sage’s AZ-400 practice exam — your trusted partner in exam success
Sample Questions and Answers
1. What is the primary purpose of Azure DevOps Pipelines?
A) To create infrastructure templates
B) To automate build and deployment workflows
C) To manage project requirements
D) To store container images
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure DevOps Pipelines are used to automate the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) process, which includes building, testing, and deploying applications.
2. Which Azure DevOps service is used to manage work items and track progress?
A) Azure Repos
B) Azure Boards
C) Azure Artifacts
D) Azure Pipelines
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure Boards provides tools to manage work items, backlogs, sprints, and kanban boards for project tracking and planning.
3. In YAML pipelines, which keyword is used to define a job?
A) task
B) steps
C) job
D) stage
Answer: C
Explanation: The job keyword defines a job, which is a collection of steps that run sequentially in a pipeline.
4. Which of the following is a benefit of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in DevOps?
A) Manual resource management
B) Automated provisioning and configuration
C) Static infrastructure environments
D) Manual deployment approval
Answer: B
Explanation: IaC allows automated, consistent, and repeatable provisioning of infrastructure, reducing errors and speeding up deployments.
5. What is the primary use of Azure Artifacts in Azure DevOps?
A) Storing code repositories
B) Hosting build and release pipelines
C) Managing package dependencies
D) Tracking work progress
Answer: C
Explanation: Azure Artifacts is used to create, host, and share packages such as NuGet, npm, Maven, and Python packages.
6. What is the purpose of service connections in Azure DevOps?
A) To link Azure DevOps to external services or environments
B) To create new projects in Azure DevOps
C) To configure pipeline triggers
D) To store build artifacts
Answer: A
Explanation: Service connections allow Azure DevOps pipelines to authenticate and interact with external services, including Azure subscriptions.
7. Which Azure DevOps feature supports Git version control?
A) Azure Repos
B) Azure Boards
C) Azure Pipelines
D) Azure Test Plans
Answer: A
Explanation: Azure Repos supports Git repositories and Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC).
8. In a pipeline, how can you ensure a deployment only happens when changes are merged into the main branch?
A) Use branch filters on triggers
B) Use approval gates
C) Use manual deployment tasks
D) Use Azure Boards
Answer: A
Explanation: Branch filters restrict pipeline triggers to specific branches like main or master.
9. What tool would you use to automate infrastructure deployment for Azure resources?
A) Azure Monitor
B) Azure CLI
C) Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
D) Azure DevTest Labs
Answer: C
Explanation: ARM templates are JSON files that define Azure resources declaratively for automated deployments.
10. Which Azure DevOps service integrates with testing frameworks to run automated tests during builds?
A) Azure Artifacts
B) Azure Boards
C) Azure Pipelines
D) Azure Repos
Answer: C
Explanation: Azure Pipelines can integrate with various testing tools to run automated tests during the build process.
11. What is the function of a deployment slot in Azure App Services?
A) To store application logs
B) To create isolated test environments
C) To host static content
D) To provision database instances
Answer: B
Explanation: Deployment slots enable you to deploy different versions of your app to separate slots and swap between them with no downtime.
12. Which policy would you use to enforce code review before pull requests are merged?
A) Branch policies
B) Work item policies
C) Artifact policies
D) Build policies
Answer: A
Explanation: Branch policies in Azure Repos enforce rules like mandatory code reviews before merging.
13. What is the role of Terraform in a DevOps environment?
A) Monitoring application performance
B) Version control of source code
C) Infrastructure provisioning through code
D) Building and testing software
Answer: C
Explanation: Terraform is an IaC tool that allows infrastructure to be described and deployed via configuration files.
14. How does Azure DevOps ensure artifact security?
A) By using role-based access control (RBAC)
B) By disabling pipeline triggers
C) By storing artifacts on public repositories
D) By running manual builds only
Answer: A
Explanation: Azure DevOps secures artifacts using RBAC to control access permissions.
15. In Azure Pipelines, what is a “stage”?
A) A single task executed on a build agent
B) A logical division of a pipeline consisting of jobs
C) A repository for source code
D) A test suite execution
Answer: B
Explanation: A stage is a major division of a pipeline, usually representing phases like Build, Test, and Deploy.
16. Which of the following best describes Continuous Integration (CI)?
A) Delivering software to production continuously
B) Regularly merging code changes to a shared repository and testing them
C) Automating infrastructure setup
D) Manual approval of deployments
Answer: B
Explanation: CI involves frequent code commits integrated and tested automatically in a shared repository.
17. What is a YAML pipeline template used for?
A) To store pipeline logs
B) To reuse pipeline components across multiple pipelines
C) To manage Azure subscriptions
D) To create service connections
Answer: B
Explanation: Templates allow reuse of pipeline steps, jobs, or stages across multiple YAML pipelines.
18. How can you monitor the health and performance of a pipeline?
A) Azure Monitor and Pipeline dashboards
B) Azure Repos pull request views
C) Azure Boards work item status
D) Azure Artifacts package versions
Answer: A
Explanation: Azure Monitor and Azure DevOps dashboards provide insights into pipeline runs and performance.
19. What does the term “immutable infrastructure” mean in a DevOps context?
A) Infrastructure that cannot be deleted
B) Infrastructure that is replaced rather than modified
C) Infrastructure that is manually configured
D) Infrastructure that is highly scalable
Answer: B
Explanation: Immutable infrastructure means that instead of modifying existing infrastructure, new instances are deployed, ensuring consistency and reducing configuration drift.
20. Which Azure DevOps tool can you use to define approval gates for a release pipeline?
A) Azure Boards
B) Release approvals and gates
C) Azure Artifacts
D) Azure Repos
Answer: B
Explanation: Release pipelines support approval gates, allowing manual or automated checks before deployment proceeds.
21. What is an Azure DevOps Agent?
A) A user who manages Azure subscriptions
B) A compute resource that runs pipeline jobs
C) A repository for source code
D) A security feature in Azure DevOps
Answer: B
Explanation: An Azure DevOps Agent is a server or VM that executes pipeline jobs (builds or releases).
22. How do you secure sensitive data like passwords in Azure Pipelines?
A) Store them directly in pipeline scripts
B) Use Azure Key Vault or pipeline secrets variables
C) Share them via email
D) Save them in source control
Answer: B
Explanation: Sensitive data should be stored in Azure Key Vault or pipeline secret variables to prevent exposure.
23. What is the benefit of containerizing applications in DevOps pipelines?
A) Slower deployments
B) Consistent environments across development, testing, and production
C) Dependency on host operating system versions
D) Requires manual setup on each environment
Answer: B
Explanation: Containers ensure that applications run consistently regardless of the underlying host environment.
24. Which Azure DevOps feature supports artifact versioning?
A) Azure Boards
B) Azure Artifacts
C) Azure Repos
D) Azure Pipelines
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure Artifacts supports versioning for packages to manage multiple versions efficiently.
25. What is the use of deployment groups in Azure Pipelines?
A) To manage source code branches
B) To group target machines for deployment jobs
C) To create work items
D) To organize pipelines
Answer: B
Explanation: Deployment groups define logical groups of target machines for deploying applications.
26. Which practice aims to reduce risk by deploying smaller, incremental changes?
A) Blue-green deployment
B) Continuous Delivery
C) Feature toggles and canary releases
D) Manual deployments
Answer: C
Explanation: Canary releases and feature toggles allow incremental feature exposure to reduce deployment risk.
27. What is the difference between Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment?
A) Continuous Delivery automates builds only
B) Continuous Deployment automatically releases code to production without manual intervention
C) Continuous Delivery is manual deployment
D) There is no difference
Answer: B
Explanation: Continuous Delivery automates build and testing but may require manual deployment approval; Continuous Deployment automates everything, including production release.
28. What type of pipeline task would you use to run unit tests?
A) Build task
B) Test task
C) Publish artifact task
D) Deployment task
Answer: B
Explanation: Test tasks execute automated unit or integration tests as part of the pipeline.
29. How can you rollback a failed deployment in Azure DevOps?
A) Delete the pipeline
B) Use deployment slots or re-deploy the last successful version
C) Manually edit the code in production
D) Disable the release pipeline
Answer: B
Explanation: Deployment slots or redeploying previous successful builds help quickly rollback failed releases.
30. What is the main advantage of using Azure DevOps for a DevOps team?
A) It is only for Microsoft products
B) It integrates tools for planning, development, testing, and deployment into one platform
C) It requires no configuration
D) It replaces all cloud providers
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure DevOps provides an integrated suite of services that cover the full DevOps lifecycle.
31. What is the function of the checkout step in a YAML pipeline?
A) To compile the code
B) To clone the source repository to the agent
C) To deploy the application
D) To trigger a build
Answer: B
Explanation: The checkout step fetches the source code repository so the pipeline can access the code to build or test.
32. In Azure Pipelines, what is a task?
A) A unit of work, like running a script or tool, inside a pipeline job
B) A full pipeline run
C) A container instance
D) A manual approval step
Answer: A
Explanation: Tasks are the smallest building blocks in pipelines and represent actions executed on the agent.
33. Which command-line tool would you use to interact with Azure DevOps from your local machine?
A) az cli
B) git cli
C) Azure DevOps CLI (az devops)
D) PowerShell only
Answer: C
Explanation: The Azure DevOps CLI (az devops) is used to interact with Azure DevOps services from the command line.
34. What is the role of an artifact in a DevOps pipeline?
A) To define pipeline triggers
B) To store built binaries or packages for deployment
C) To monitor system performance
D) To manage source code
Answer: B
Explanation: Artifacts are outputs from build pipelines that are used as inputs to release pipelines.
35. Which Azure DevOps component provides detailed audit trails for compliance?
A) Azure Boards
B) Azure Pipelines
C) Azure DevOps Audit Logs
D) Azure Artifacts
Answer: C
Explanation: Azure DevOps Audit Logs track user and system activities for security and compliance.
36. How can you optimize pipeline speed by reusing previous pipeline runs?
A) Use caching and artifact downloads
B) Disable parallel jobs
C) Delete pipeline history
D) Use manual triggers only
Answer: A
Explanation: Caching dependencies and downloading artifacts from previous runs can speed up pipeline executions.
37. What is the primary benefit of using deployment gates?
A) To automatically deploy code without checks
B) To pause deployment until specific conditions or approvals are met
C) To speed up deployments
D) To disable branch policies
Answer: B
Explanation: Deployment gates introduce automated or manual checks that must pass before continuing deployment.
38. In Azure DevOps, what is a branch strategy used for?
A) To merge multiple pipelines
B) To organize source code management and control how code changes flow through environments
C) To deploy artifacts
D) To create work items
Answer: B
Explanation: Branch strategies define how development, testing, and release branches are managed and merged.
39. What is the main purpose of Azure DevTest Labs in a DevOps workflow?
A) Build automation
B) Quick provisioning of test environments
C) Continuous integration
D) Code repository management
Answer: B
Explanation: DevTest Labs helps create and manage test environments quickly and cost-effectively.
40. How can you define a matrix build in Azure Pipelines?
A) Using the matrix keyword in YAML to run jobs with multiple configurations in parallel
B) By scheduling multiple builds manually
C) By defining sequential jobs only
D) By disabling parallel jobs
Answer: A
Explanation: Matrix builds allow you to run the same job across different configurations like OS versions or runtime versions.
41. What Azure service would you use for storing secrets and keys for pipeline usage?
A) Azure Storage Accounts
B) Azure Key Vault
C) Azure Cosmos DB
D) Azure App Service
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure Key Vault is designed for secure storage of secrets, keys, and certificates.
42. Which of the following best practices is recommended for pipeline variables containing secrets?
A) Store them in plain text within YAML files
B) Use pipeline secret variables or link with Azure Key Vault
C) Share via email among team members
D) Commit them to the source repository
Answer: B
Explanation: Secrets should be stored securely using secret variables or Azure Key Vault integration.
43. What is the significance of ‘self-hosted agents’ in Azure Pipelines?
A) They are managed by Microsoft in the cloud
B) They are user-managed machines that run pipeline jobs
C) They replace Azure Repos
D) They provide unlimited parallel jobs
Answer: B
Explanation: Self-hosted agents allow teams to run jobs on their own infrastructure for specialized environments or compliance.
44. How do you implement Continuous Testing in Azure DevOps?
A) Run manual tests after deployment
B) Integrate automated tests in the pipeline to validate every build or release
C) Disable tests in the pipeline
D) Use Azure Boards for testing
Answer: B
Explanation: Continuous Testing involves integrating automated test execution into the CI/CD pipelines.
45. Which is NOT a supported trigger type in Azure Pipelines?
A) CI trigger on code push
B) Scheduled trigger at specific times
C) Manual trigger
D) Trigger based on user login activity
Answer: D
Explanation: Azure Pipelines supports CI, scheduled, and manual triggers, but not triggers based on user login.
46. What is a “pull request” in the context of Azure Repos?
A) An automated build pipeline
B) A request to merge code changes from one branch to another with review
C) A deployment slot
D) A test suite
Answer: B
Explanation: Pull requests allow developers to review and discuss changes before merging into main branches.
47. Which YAML keyword is used to define pipeline variables?
A) params
B) variables
C) env
D) settings
Answer: B
Explanation: The variables keyword is used to declare pipeline variables.
48. How do you implement approvals for releases in Azure Pipelines?
A) Using manual intervention steps or environment approvals before deployment
B) By disabling deployment gates
C) By using Azure Boards only
D) By setting branch policies
Answer: A
Explanation: Azure Pipelines allow configuration of approval gates that require manual or automated approvals.
49. What is the advantage of Blue-Green Deployment?
A) Faster builds
B) Reduces downtime by having two identical production environments and switching traffic
C) Simplifies coding
D) Eliminates the need for testing
Answer: B
Explanation: Blue-Green deployment uses two identical environments to minimize downtime and risk during deployment.
50. What does a pipeline “agent pool” represent?
A) A collection of pipeline variables
B) A set of machines (agents) available to run pipeline jobs
C) A group of repositories
D) A set of test plans
Answer: B
Explanation: An agent pool is a logical group of build and deployment agents that pipeline jobs can be assigned to.
51. What is the purpose of the publish task in Azure Pipelines?
A) To compile source code
B) To upload build artifacts for later stages or deployments
C) To deploy to production
D) To trigger other pipelines
Answer: B
Explanation: The publish task uploads build outputs as artifacts to be consumed by release pipelines or other jobs.
52. How can you ensure compliance and audit readiness in a DevOps pipeline?
A) Use manual testing only
B) Implement pipeline logging, audit trails, and approval gates
C) Disable version control
D) Avoid documentation
Answer: B
Explanation: Compliance requires audit trails, pipeline logs, and enforced approval gates for traceability and control.
53. Which of the following best describes a “multi-stage pipeline”?
A) A pipeline with multiple parallel jobs only
B) A pipeline divided into logical stages like Build, Test, and Deploy, executed sequentially or conditionally
C) A pipeline with only one stage
D) A pipeline that runs manually
Answer: B
Explanation: Multi-stage pipelines organize workflows into distinct phases, often with dependencies between stages.
54. What is the use of the dependsOn keyword in a YAML pipeline?
A) To specify that a job or stage should wait for another to complete before starting
B) To include external templates
C) To define pipeline variables
D) To set environment variables
Answer: A
Explanation: dependsOn creates dependencies between jobs or stages to control execution order.
55. How would you implement secret scanning to prevent sensitive data from being committed?
A) Use Azure Repos branch policies and integrate secret scanning tools in the pipeline
B) Allow all commits without scanning
C) Store secrets in source code
D) Use manual reviews only
Answer: A
Explanation: Integrating secret scanning tools helps detect and block commits containing sensitive info.
56. What is the best practice for managing environment-specific configuration in DevOps?
A) Hard-code configurations in source code
B) Use variable groups or Azure Key Vault to manage environment secrets and configs
C) Commit configuration files with secrets to repo
D) Avoid environment variables
Answer: B
Explanation: Using variable groups or Key Vault secures environment configurations outside the source code.
57. Which Azure DevOps service provides integrated testing management, including test case management?
A) Azure Boards
B) Azure Test Plans
C) Azure Artifacts
D) Azure Pipelines
Answer: B
Explanation: Azure Test Plans supports manual and exploratory testing along with test case management.
58. Which tool can be integrated with Azure DevOps to manage containerized deployments?
A) Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
B) Azure DevTest Labs
C) Azure Functions
D) Azure Blob Storage
Answer: A
Explanation: AKS integrates with Azure Pipelines to automate containerized application deployment.
59. How do you automate rollback on failure in Azure Pipelines?
A) Use deployment conditions and release pipeline rollback tasks or deployment slots
B) Delete failed builds manually
C) Use Azure Boards
D) Disable pipeline triggers
Answer: A
Explanation: Pipelines can be configured to automatically rollback deployments on failure using slots or scripted rollback.
60. What is the benefit of implementing “shift-left” testing in DevOps?
A) Testing occurs later in the pipeline
B) Testing is done earlier in the development cycle to catch defects sooner
C) Testing is only manual
D) Testing is skipped
Answer: B
Explanation: Shift-left testing promotes early testing to reduce defects and improve software quality.
