Cloud Computing DevOps, Automation, and Operations Syllabus

DevOps, Automation, and Operations syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for DevOps, Automation, and Operations in Cloud Computing, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

   5 topics

   • Declarative vs Imperative IaC
   • Terraform
   • AWS CloudFormation
   • Pulumi and CDK
   • Configuration Management (Ansible)
2. 2

   CI/CD Pipelines

   4 topics

   • Continuous Integration Concepts
   • Continuous Delivery and Deployment
   • Pipeline Tools
   • Deployment Strategies
3. 3

   Observability and SRE

   4 topics

   • Metrics, Logs, and Traces
   • Service Level Objectives (SLO/SLI/SLA)
   • Error Budgets
   • Incident Management and On-Call
4. 4

   GitOps and Configuration

   3 topics

   • GitOps Principles
   • ArgoCD and Flux
   • Drift Detection and Reconciliation
5. 5

   Cost Optimization and FinOps

   4 topics

   • Cost Monitoring and Budgets
   • Rightsizing and Resource Tagging
   • Reserved Capacity and Spot Optimization
   • Cloud Waste Reduction

DevOps, Automation, and Operations flashcards for Cloud Computing

23 of 50 cards from the DevOps, Automation, and Operations deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What distinguishes declarative from imperative Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

   Declarative IaC specifies the desired end state and lets the tool figure out how to reach it (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation). Imperative IaC specifies the exact sequence of commands/steps to execute to reach that state (e.g., shell scripts, raw AWS CLI). Declarative is idempotent and state-aware; imperative is procedural.

2. Why is idempotency important in declarative IaC?

   Idempotency means applying the same configuration repeatedly produces the same result without unintended changes. It lets you re-run the tool safely; only the difference between actual and desired state is applied, avoiding duplicate resources or errors.

3. What is Terraform and who develops it?

   Terraform is an open-source, cloud-agnostic, declarative IaC tool developed by HashiCorp. It uses HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) to define resources across many providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) and manages a state file to track real infrastructure.

4. What is the purpose of the Terraform state file (terraform.tfstate)?

   It is a JSON mapping between the resources declared in configuration and the real-world infrastructure objects. Terraform uses it to detect drift, plan changes, and track metadata/dependencies. It should be stored remotely (e.g., S3 + DynamoDB lock) for team use and treated as sensitive.

5. List the core Terraform workflow commands in order.

   $\text{init} \to \text{plan} \to \text{apply} \to \text{destroy}$. `init` initializes providers/backend, `plan` shows the execution plan (diff), `apply` makes changes, and `destroy` tears down managed resources.

6. In Terraform, what is the difference between a provider and a provisioner?

   A provider is a plugin that lets Terraform manage a specific platform's API (e.g., AWS provider). A provisioner runs scripts/commands on a local or remote resource after creation (e.g., remote-exec) and is considered a last resort by HashiCorp.

7. What is a Terraform module?

   A reusable, encapsulated container of Terraform configuration (a set of .tf files) that groups resources, exposing input variables and output values. Modules promote reuse and DRY infrastructure; the root module is the working directory itself.

8. What is AWS CloudFormation and what languages does it use?

   CloudFormation is AWS's native declarative IaC service that provisions AWS resources using templates written in JSON or YAML. Resources are deployed as a unit called a stack.

9. In CloudFormation, what is a stack versus a change set?

   A stack is a collection of AWS resources managed together as a single unit from one template. A change set is a preview of how proposed template changes would affect running resources before you execute them (analogous to Terraform's plan).

10. What is CloudFormation drift detection?

    A feature that compares a stack's actual resource configurations against the expected configuration defined in its template, reporting resources that have been changed outside of CloudFormation (out-of-band changes).

11. What is Pulumi and how does it differ from Terraform?

    Pulumi is an IaC tool that lets you define infrastructure using general-purpose programming languages (TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java) instead of a domain-specific language. It is declarative in outcome but authored with real code, enabling loops, functions, and classes natively.

12. What is the AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit)?

    A framework for defining AWS infrastructure using familiar programming languages (TypeScript, Python, Java, etc.). CDK code is synthesized (`cdk synth`) into a CloudFormation template, which is then deployed. It provides high-level reusable components called constructs.

13. What are the three levels of AWS CDK constructs?

    L1 (CFN resources) are direct 1:1 mappings to CloudFormation resources; L2 (curated constructs) provide sensible defaults and boilerplate reduction; L3 (patterns) combine multiple resources into common architecture solutions (e.g., a load-balanced Fargate service).

14. What is Ansible and what paradigm does it use?

    Ansible is an open-source configuration management and automation tool by Red Hat. It is agentless (uses SSH/WinRM), uses YAML playbooks, and is primarily procedural/task-based while striving for idempotent modules.

15. Define the key Ansible terms: playbook, inventory, and role.

    A playbook is a YAML file of ordered plays/tasks. An inventory lists the managed hosts and groups. A role is a reusable, structured bundle of tasks, variables, handlers, and templates for a specific function (e.g., installing nginx).

16. Why is Ansible described as 'agentless'?

    It does not require any daemon or software agent installed on managed nodes. It connects over standard SSH (Linux) or WinRM (Windows) and pushes modules to run, reducing footprint and maintenance on target hosts.

17. What is Continuous Integration (CI)?

    A practice where developers frequently merge code changes into a shared mainline (often several times a day), with each merge triggering an automated build and test suite to detect integration problems early.

18. What is the primary goal of Continuous Integration?

    To reduce integration risk and detect defects quickly by ensuring the codebase is always in a buildable, tested state. Fast, automated feedback on every commit prevents 'integration hell' from long-lived divergent branches.

19. Distinguish Continuous Delivery from Continuous Deployment.

    Continuous Delivery keeps every change deployable and automatically pushed to a staging/production-ready state, but production release requires a manual approval/button. Continuous Deployment removes that manual gate—every change passing the pipeline is automatically released to production.

20. What is a CI/CD pipeline?

    An automated sequence of stages—typically build, test, and deploy—that code changes pass through from commit to production. Each stage must succeed before the next runs, providing a repeatable, gated path to release.

21. Name several popular CI/CD pipeline tools.

    Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Travis CI, Azure DevOps Pipelines, TeamCity, Argo Workflows, and Spinnaker (for continuous delivery/deployment orchestration).

22. What is an artifact in a CI/CD context?

    A build output produced by the pipeline (e.g., a compiled binary, container image, JAR, or zip package) that is versioned and stored in an artifact/registry repository, then promoted through environments—built once, deployed many times.

23. Describe blue-green deployment.

    Two identical production environments exist: 'blue' (current live) and 'green' (new version). Traffic is switched from blue to green all at once after green is validated. Rollback is instant by switching traffic back to blue. It requires roughly double the infrastructure.

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