https://razorops.
com/blog/top-50-ci-cd-tools-interview-question-and-answers/
What is CI/CD in DevOps?
Answer: CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment/Delivery,
a DevOps approach that automates integration, testing, and deployment to streamline
software releases.
2. Explain the benefits of CI/CD.
Answer: CI/CD offers faster releases, higher quality code, reduced errors, early bug
detection, and streamlined collaboration across teams.
3. What are the main components of CI/CD pipelines?
Answer: The main components are source code management (SCM), build, test, and
deploy stages.
4. How do you implement CI/CD pipelines?
Answer: Implement CI/CD by using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, or GitHub
Actions to automate steps such as code integration, testing, and deployment.
5. What is Jenkins?
Answer: Jenkins is an open-source automation server for building CI/CD pipelines and
integrating various DevOps processes.
6. What is GitLab CI/CD?
Answer: GitLab CI/CD is a built-in CI/CD system in GitLab that automates testing,
deployment, and continuous integration for GitLab repositories.
7. Describe CircleCI.
Answer: CircleCI is a CI/CD tool that automates software builds, tests, and deployment,
known for its ease of use with cloud and self-hosted options.
8. What are some popular CI/CD tools?
Answer: Popular CI/CD tools include Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Travis CI, Bamboo, and
GitHub Actions.
9. What is Travis CI?
Answer: Travis CI is a cloud-based CI/CD tool popular for open-source projects, providing
automated testing and deployment integration.
10. How does GitHub Actions work?
Answer: GitHub Actions automates workflows directly in GitHub by running jobs based
on triggers like code commits or pull requests.
11. What is CodePipeline?
Answer: AWS CodePipeline is a continuous integration and continuous delivery service
for fast and reliable application updates on AWS.
12. What is ArgoCD?
Answer: ArgoCD is a declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes.
13. What is the use of Docker in CI/CD?
Answer: Docker is used to containerize applications, ensuring consistent environments
across development, testing, and production.
14. Explain the term “pipeline as code.”
Answer: Pipeline as code refers to defining CI/CD pipeline configurations as code, usually
in YAML format, for versioning and easier maintenance.
15. What is the role of a build server in CI/CD?
Answer: A build server compiles code and runs tests to ensure that the codebase is
functional and ready for deployment.
16. What is CodeBuild?
Answer: AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed build service that compiles source code, runs
tests, and produces software packages.
17. Explain Canary Deployment.
Answer: Canary deployment is a strategy to gradually roll out new code to a subset of
users, minimizing risk in production.
18. What is Blue-Green Deployment?
Answer: Blue-Green deployment is a method of deploying updates by maintaining two
identical environments and switching traffic to the new environment once verified.
19. What is continuous testing?
Answer: Continuous testing involves automated testing at every stage of the CI/CD
pipeline to ensure quality and reduce manual testing efforts.
20. What are the benefits of using GitLab CI over Jenkins?
Answer: GitLab CI offers seamless integration with GitLab repositories, built-in features,
and often simpler setup than Jenkins.
21. Explain the difference between CI and CD.
Answer: CI focuses on code integration and testing, while CD extends to automated
deployment, either continuously delivering to a repository or deploying to production.
22. What is a YAML file in CI/CD?
Answer: YAML files are commonly used to define pipeline configurations in CI/CD, as
they are readable and compatible with many CI/CD tools.
23. What is an artifact in CI/CD?
Answer: Artifacts are files created during the build process, often used in deployment or
testing, such as executables or code packages.
24. What is CodeDeploy?
Answer: AWS CodeDeploy automates application deployment to various compute
services like EC2, Lambda, and on-premises servers.
25. What is meant by a self-hosted CI/CD tool?
Answer: Self-hosted CI/CD tools are hosted on-premises or on private cloud servers,
giving more control over infrastructure.
26. What are environment variables in CI/CD?
Answer: Environment variables are configuration values stored in the CI/CD system and
used within pipelines for flexibility and security.
27. What is the purpose of caching in CI/CD?
Answer: Caching in CI/CD saves previously downloaded dependencies or built
components, reducing time for repeated tasks.
28. Explain “pipeline as code” using GitLab CI/CD.
Answer: In GitLab CI/CD, pipelines are defined in .gitlab-ci.yml, allowing version control
and reusability of pipeline steps.
29. What is the purpose of test automation in CI/CD?
Answer: Test automation ensures code correctness and stability by running automated
tests continuously throughout the pipeline.
30. What is Jenkinsfile?
Answer: Jenkinsfile is a text file that contains the definition of a Jenkins pipeline, written
in Groovy syntax.
31. What is the difference between Docker and Kubernetes in CI/CD?
Answer: Docker containerizes applications for consistency, while Kubernetes manages
the deployment and scaling of these containers in a CI/CD setup.
32. What is the function of CI/CD pipelines in DevOps?
Answer: CI/CD pipelines automate code integration, testing, and deployment,
streamlining and standardizing the release process.
33. What is Bitbucket Pipelines?
Answer: Bitbucket Pipelines is a CI/CD service integrated with Bitbucket for building,
testing, and deploying code.
34. What is Spinnaker?
Answer: Spinnaker is an open-source continuous delivery platform for multi-cloud
environments.
35. How do you handle secrets in CI/CD pipelines?
Answer: Secrets are managed using secure storage solutions, such as AWS Secrets
Manager, Vault, or encrypted environment variables.
36. What is Tekton?
Answer: Tekton is a Kubernetes-native CI/CD pipeline framework that allows for highly
flexible pipeline building.
37. What is the purpose of Jenkins agents?
Answer: Jenkins agents execute jobs, allowing the main server to distribute tasks across
multiple nodes.
38. What is Drone CI?
Answer: Drone CI is a container-native CI/CD tool, ideal for building pipelines using a
declarative YAML configuration.
39. What is the purpose of linting in CI/CD?
Answer: Linting checks code for syntax errors and enforces style guidelines before
deployment, improving code quality.
40. What is Azure DevOps Pipelines?
Answer: Azure DevOps Pipelines is Microsoft’s CI/CD service that automates build, test,
and deploy processes.
41. What is rollback in CI/CD?
Answer: Rollback is reverting to a previous stable version in case of a deployment
failure, minimizing downtime.
42. What is Codefresh?
Answer: Codefresh is a CI/CD platform built for Kubernetes and Docker, focusing on
DevOps automation for cloud-native applications.
43. What is the purpose of GitOps in CI/CD?
Answer: GitOps automates infrastructure and application updates using Git as the
source of truth for deployment configurations.
44. What is a multibranch pipeline in Jenkins?
Answer: A multibranch pipeline automatically creates pipelines for all branches in a
repository, ideal for CI/CD in branching workflows.
45. Explain post-deployment verification.
Answer: Post-deployment verification checks if a deployment was successful, using tests
or monitoring metrics to ensure stability.
46. What is Harness?
Answer: Harness is a CI/CD tool focused on simplifying deployment, release, and
rollback with features like continuous verification.
47. What is GoCD?
Answer: GoCD is a free and open-source tool that specializes in modeling complex build
workflows.
48. What are manual triggers in CI/CD?
Answer: Manual triggers require human intervention to start, enabling control over
certain steps in automated pipelines.
49. What is a webhook in CI/CD?
Answer: A webhook triggers automated processes in response to events