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Azure DevOps job interview with this comprehensive list of 100 essential questions and detailed answers. Covering beginner to advanced topics like CI/CD pipelines, Azure services, security, and best practices, this guide helps freshers and experienced professionals ace their interviews and land roles in cloud DevOps engineering.

Below is a curated list of the top 100 Azure DevOps interview questions and answers, compiled from industry experts and real-world scenarios. Questions are categorized into Beginner (1-30), Intermediate (31-70), and Advanced (71-100) for easier navigation.

Beginner Level Questions (1-30)

1. What is Azure DevOps? Azure DevOps is a Microsoft cloud-based platform that provides a set of development tools and services for end-to-end DevOps practices. It includes services like Azure Repos for version control, Azure Pipelines for CI/CD, Azure Boards for work tracking, Azure Artifacts for package management, and Azure Test Plans for testing.
2. What are the key components of Azure DevOps? The key components are Azure Boards (planning), Azure Repos (source control), Azure Pipelines (build and release), Azure Test Plans (testing), and Azure Artifacts (package management).
3. What is the difference between Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server? Azure DevOps Services is cloud-hosted and scalable, while Azure DevOps Server (formerly TFS) is on-premises with SQL Server backend for organizations needing data control.
4. What is Continuous Integration (CI) in Azure DevOps? CI is the practice of automatically building and testing code changes upon commit to a repository, ensuring early detection of issues using Azure Pipelines.
5. What is Continuous Deployment (CD) in Azure DevOps? CD automates the release of validated code to production environments, often with manual approvals for safety, via Azure Pipelines.
6. How do you create a new project in Azure DevOps? Log in to Azure DevOps, click “New Project,” provide a name, visibility (public/private), and version control (Git/TFVC), then create.
7. What is Azure Repos? Azure Repos is a Git-based repository service for version control, supporting unlimited private repos and integration with IDEs like Visual Studio.
8. What is a Pull Request in Azure Repos? A Pull Request (PR) is a method to review and merge code changes from a feature branch into the main branch, enabling collaboration and quality checks.
9. How does Azure Boards help in project management? Azure Boards provides Kanban boards, sprints, backlogs, and work item tracking to manage tasks, bugs, and features collaboratively.
10. What is Azure Artifacts? Azure Artifacts is a package management system for hosting NuGet, npm, Maven, and other feeds, enabling secure sharing of dependencies.
11. Explain Azure Test Plans. Azure Test Plans supports manual and exploratory testing, test case management, and integration with automated tests for quality assurance.
12. What is a YAML pipeline in Azure DevOps? A YAML pipeline is a code-defined CI/CD pipeline using YAML files in the repo, offering version control and reusability over classic pipelines.
13. What is an Agent in Azure Pipelines? An agent is a machine (hosted or self-hosted) that executes pipeline tasks like building and deploying code.
14. Difference between Hosted and Self-Hosted Agents? Hosted agents are Microsoft-managed VMs for quick setup; self-hosted agents run on your infrastructure for custom tools and compliance.
15. What is a Service Connection in Azure DevOps? A service connection securely links Azure DevOps to external services like Azure subscriptions or GitHub for authentication.
16. How do you trigger a pipeline in Azure DevOps? Pipelines can be triggered on commits, PRs, schedules, or manually via the Azure DevOps UI or API.
17. What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in Azure DevOps? IaC uses tools like ARM templates or Terraform to provision infrastructure via code, integrated into pipelines for automation.
18. Explain Branching Strategies in Azure Repos. Common strategies include GitFlow (feature/release branches) or trunk-based development for frequent integrations.
19. What is Azure Key Vault and its role in DevOps? Azure Key Vault stores secrets, keys, and certificates securely; it’s integrated into pipelines to avoid hardcoding sensitive data.
20. How do you handle variables in Azure Pipelines? Variables are defined in the pipeline YAML or UI, with secret variables encrypted for secure use in tasks.
21. What is a Multi-Stage Pipeline? A multi-stage pipeline defines build, test, and deploy stages in one YAML file for streamlined CI/CD.
22. Explain Work Items in Azure Boards. Work items are customizable entities like epics, features, user stories, tasks, and bugs for tracking progress.
23. What is the purpose of Azure Wikis? Azure Wikis provide a collaborative space for documentation, processes, and knowledge sharing within projects.
24. How do you integrate GitHub with Azure Pipelines? Use a GitHub service connection and configure webhook triggers for CI on commits or PRs.
25. What is Check-in Policy in Azure DevOps? Check-in policies enforce rules like code analysis or work item association before allowing commits.
26. Explain the role of Azure CLI in DevOps. Azure CLI is a command-line tool for managing Azure resources, often used in pipelines for scripting deployments.
27. What is a Deployment Group? A deployment group is a logical set of target machines for deploying artifacts in release pipelines.
28. How do you secure a pipeline? Use service principals, variable groups, approvals, and checks to restrict access and protect secrets.
29. What is the difference between Build and Release Pipelines? Build pipelines compile and test code; release pipelines deploy artifacts to environments.
30. Explain Artifact Sources. Artifact sources are outputs from builds (e.g., .zip files) published to feeds for use in releases.

Intermediate Level Questions (31-70)

31. How do you implement automated testing in Azure Pipelines? Integrate testing frameworks like NUnit or Selenium as tasks in the YAML pipeline, running on agents post-build.
32. What is Blue-Green Deployment in Azure DevOps? Blue-Green involves switching traffic between two identical environments (blue live, green staging) for zero-downtime releases.
33. Explain Canary Releases. Canary releases gradually roll out changes to a subset of users, monitoring metrics before full deployment.
34. How do you manage environments in Azure Pipelines? Define environments with approval gates, checks, and resources to control deployments across dev, staging, prod.
35. What is Helm and its integration with Azure DevOps? Helm is a Kubernetes package manager; integrate via tasks in pipelines to deploy charts to AKS.
36. How do you use Terraform in Azure DevOps? Add Terraform tasks to pipelines for IaC, using service connections for Azure auth and state management in storage.
37. Explain Pipeline Variables Groups. Variable groups store shared variables across pipelines, linked to Key Vault for secrets, promoting reusability.
38. What is GitOps in the context of Azure DevOps? GitOps uses Git as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and app deployments, automated via pipelines.
39. How do you monitor pipeline runs? Use built-in logs, integrate with Azure Monitor, or Application Insights for metrics and alerts on failures.
40. What are Extension Tasks in Azure DevOps? Extension tasks are Marketplace plugins for custom steps, like SonarQube analysis or Docker builds.
41. Explain Branch Policies. Branch policies enforce PR requirements like reviews, builds, and status checks before merging to protected branches.
42. How do you handle multi-repo pipelines? Use checkout steps for multiple repos or templates to reference resources from other repositories.
43. What is Azure Container Registry (ACR) integration? ACR stores Docker images; pipelines push/pull images using tasks with service connections for secure access.
44. Explain Approval and Checks. Approvals require manual sign-off; checks run gates like invocations or invocations for automated validation.
45. How do you deploy to Kubernetes using Azure DevOps? Use Kubernetes tasks or Helm to apply manifests, targeting AKS clusters via service accounts.
46. What is the role of PowerShell in pipelines? PowerShell tasks execute scripts for custom logic, like API calls or file manipulations during builds.
47. Explain Artifact Feeds. Feeds host packages for consumption in builds/releases, supporting universal packages and versioning.
48. How do you implement secrets management? Store secrets in Key Vault, reference via variable groups, and use Azure Managed Identities for auth.
49. What is a Template in YAML Pipelines? Templates are reusable YAML snippets for steps, stages, or jobs, referenced across pipelines for DRY code.
50. Explain Integration with Jira. Use connectors or webhooks to sync work items between Azure Boards and Jira for hybrid tracking.
51. How do you optimize pipeline performance? Use parallel jobs, caching for dependencies, and conditional steps to reduce runtime and costs.
52. What is Rollback Strategy in Deployments? Rollback reverts to previous artifact versions or uses blue-green/canary to switch back on issues.
53. Explain Service Hooks. Service hooks notify external systems (e.g., Slack) on events like build completion via webhooks.
54. How do you use Conditions in Tasks? Conditions evaluate expressions (e.g., on variable values) to skip or run tasks dynamically.
55. What is Azure Chaos Studio? It’s a tool for chaos engineering; integrate tests in pipelines to validate resilience.
56. Explain Multi-Job Pipelines. Jobs run in parallel or sequence; use dependencies to chain them for complex workflows.
57. How do you integrate SonarQube? Add SonarQube tasks to scan code quality during builds, failing on thresholds.
58. What is a Pool in Agents? Pools manage groups of agents; default Microsoft-hosted or custom self-hosted pools.
59. Explain Linking Work Items to Builds. Use @mentions in commits or PRs to automatically link work items for traceability.
60. How do you handle Large Files in Repos? Use Git LFS (Large File Storage) to manage binaries without bloating the repo.
61. What is Demand in Self-Hosted Agents? Demand specifies capabilities (e.g., OS, tools) required for an agent to run a job.
62. Explain Query in Azure Boards. Queries filter and visualize work items using WIQL for reporting and backlog management.
63. How do you migrate from TFS to Azure DevOps? Use the migration tools extension for repos, boards, and pipelines, handling history import.
64. What is Retention Policies for Pipelines? Policies auto-delete old runs and artifacts after a set period to manage storage.
65. Explain Integration with Slack. Configure service hooks to post notifications on pipeline events to Slack channels.
66. How do you use Parameters in YAML? Define runtime parameters for user input, like environment selection at queue time.
67. What is a Task Group? Task groups bundle reusable tasks into a single unit for classic pipelines (YAML uses templates).
68. Explain Code Coverage in Testing. Use tools like Coverlet in .NET tests; publish reports to Azure for threshold enforcement.
69. How do you scale Pipelines? Leverage parallel jobs (up to 1,800 minutes free/month) and self-hosted agents for heavy loads.
70. What is the REST API in Azure DevOps? REST APIs enable programmatic access to resources like work items, builds, and repos for automation.

Advanced Level Questions (71-100)

71. How do you implement GitOps with Azure DevOps and Flux? Use Flux to sync Git repo manifests to Kubernetes, triggered by Azure Pipelines on commits.
72. Explain Advanced Security in Pipelines. Use OIDC for token auth, scanning with Microsoft Defender, and least-privilege IAM roles.
73. What is Progressive Delivery? Combines canary and blue-green with feature flags for controlled, observable rollouts.
74. How do you orchestrate Multi-Cloud Deployments? Use cross-cloud service connections and conditional stages in pipelines for AWS/GCP alongside Azure.
75. Explain Custom Task Development. Build extensions with Node.js or PowerShell, package as VSIX, and publish to Marketplace.
76. What is A/B Testing Integration? Deploy variants via pipelines, use Application Insights for traffic splitting and metric analysis.
77. How do you handle Microservices CI/CD? Monorepo or polyrepo setups with per-service pipelines, shared libraries for consistency.
78. Explain Drift Detection in IaC. Use Terraform plan in pipelines to detect config drifts against desired state.
79. What is Federated Auth in Agents? Use workload identity federation for secure, short-lived tokens without secrets.
80. How do you implement Compliance as Code? Embed policy checks (e.g., OPA) in pipelines and use Azure Policy for resource enforcement.
81. Explain Advanced Monitoring with Prometheus. Deploy Prometheus in AKS, federate metrics to Azure Monitor via exporters in pipelines.
82. What is Serverless CI/CD? Use Azure Functions for event-driven builds, triggered by webhooks for lightweight pipelines.
83. How do you optimize Costs in Pipelines? Spot instances for agents, conditional parallelism, and auto-scaling pools.
84. Explain Event-Driven Pipelines. Use Azure Event Grid to trigger pipelines on repo events or resource changes.
85. What is Chaos Engineering in Azure DevOps? Integrate Chaos Studio experiments in test stages to validate system resilience.
86. How do you manage Schema Evolution in Databases? Use tools like Flyway in pipelines for versioned migrations with rollback support.
87. Explain Zero-Trust in DevOps. Assume breach: verify explicitly with mTLS, RBAC, and continuous auth in all pipeline interactions.
88. What is Advanced Branching with Feature Flags? Deploy all code but toggle features via LaunchDarkly, integrated in pipelines for safe releases.
89. How do you implement AIOps in Monitoring? Use Azure AI for anomaly detection on pipeline logs and app telemetry.
90. Explain Cross-Subscription Deployments. Use management groups and role assignments in service connections for multi-sub deploys.
91. What is Pipeline Orchestration with Logic Apps? Logic Apps coordinate complex workflows, calling pipelines as child processes.
92. How do you handle Data Pipeline Security? Encrypt data in transit/rest, use RBAC on Synapse, and scan with Purview in CI.
93. Explain Extensibility with Webhooks. Custom webhooks for real-time integrations, subscribing to events like PR comments.
94. What is Predictive Analytics in Boards? Use Analytics views and Power BI for forecasting velocity and burndown trends.
95. How do you Automate Compliance Reporting? Pipeline tasks generate audit logs, export to storage, and visualize in dashboards.
96. Explain Hybrid Cloud CI/CD. Self-hosted agents for on-prem, cloud for scalable builds, unified in one pipeline.
97. What is Advanced Caching in Pipelines? Cache nuget/npm restores across runs using task keys based on hash of dependencies.
98. How do you Integrate ML Models in Pipelines? Use ML.NET or Azure ML tasks to build, register, and deploy models as services.
99. Explain Disaster Recovery for Azure DevOps. Enable geo-replication for repos, backup pipelines, and multi-region agents for failover.
100. What are Best Practices for Large Teams? Use areas/iterations in Boards, project collections, and role-based access for scalability.

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