Free AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Practice Questions

Sample Practice Questions

Try these 10 sample questions from the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional practice bank. Each includes the answer and explanation. Continue with the interactive practice above to review the full question set.

1. 1Within one CodePipeline stage, two build actions must run concurrently after a source preparation action. How should their runOrder values be set?

   1. A. Give both builds the same value greater than the preparation action's value.
   2. B. Give the builds consecutive values greater than the preparation action's value.
   3. C. Give both builds a value smaller than the preparation action's value.
   4. D. Give the builds different values equal to the preparation action's value.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: The action declaration says, "Parallel actions in the stage are shown as having the same integer." It also says, "To specify a serial sequence of actions, use the smallest number for the first action and larger numbers for each of the rest of the actions in sequence." Thus the builds share a later value; consecutive values serialize them.

   Reference: Action declaration — runOrder

2. 2A CloudFormation stack update could replace a critical resource. Which workflow lets an engineer inspect proposed changes before applying them?

   1. A. Create and review a change set, then execute it if acceptable.
   2. B. Run stack drift detection and assume it applies the proposed update.
   3. C. Deploy an unchanged StackSet to the same account.
   4. D. Run cdk synth and assume it directly updates the stack.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: The CloudFormation guide says, "Change sets allow you to preview how proposed changes to a stack might impact your running resources" and that changes occur "only when you decide to execute the change set". Drift detection and synthesis have different purposes.

   Reference: Update CloudFormation stacks using change sets — Update CloudFormation stacks using change sets

3. 3An RDS DB instance needs automatic standby capacity in another Availability Zone for an instance or AZ failure. Which deployment provides that high-availability pattern?

   1. A. A single-AZ DB instance with scheduled snapshots.
   2. B. A Multi-AZ DB instance with a synchronous standby.
   3. C. A primary DB instance with a same-AZ read replica.
   4. D. A primary DB instance with a cross-Region read replica.

   Answer: B

   Explanation: RDS states, "In a Multi-AZ DB instance deployment, Amazon RDS automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone." Snapshots and read replicas do not provide that synchronous standby in another AZ for the DB instance.

   Reference: Multi-AZ DB instance deployments for Amazon RDS — Multi-AZ DB instance deployments for Amazon RDS

4. 4An application publishes a custom CloudWatch metric and needs one-second granularity to inspect brief spikes. How should the metric be published?

   1. A. Use a high-resolution custom metric.
   2. B. Use a standard-resolution custom metric.
   3. C. Increase the metric's namespace count.
   4. D. Add more dimensions to the standard metric.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: AWS states, "High resolution, with data at a granularity of one second" and says custom metrics can be defined at that resolution. Namespace and dimensions distinguish series but do not set time granularity.

   Reference: Metrics concepts — Resolution

5. 5An operations team must automatically notify responders when an AWS Health event affecting its resources matches a specified rule. Which event integration should it configure?

   1. A. Match AWS Health events in EventBridge and target a notification workflow.
   2. B. Review AWS Health events manually in the Health dashboard.
   3. C. Create an EventBridge schedule without an AWS Health event pattern.
   4. D. Create an EventBridge rule for CloudTrail API calls only.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: AWS Health says, "You can use Amazon EventBridge to detect and react to AWS Health events." A matching Health event pattern and response target implement automatic notification; manual viewing and unrelated rules do not.

   Reference: Monitoring events in AWS Health with Amazon EventBridge — Monitoring events in AWS Health with Amazon EventBridge

6. 6An application on an EC2 instance needs AWS API access without storing long-term access keys on the instance. Which identity mechanism should supply its credentials?

   1. A. Associate an IAM role with the EC2 instance for temporary credentials.
   2. B. Embed an IAM user's long-term access keys in the AMI.
   3. C. Copy temporary STS credentials into the AMI during baking.
   4. D. Place an IAM user's long-term keys in instance environment variables.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: IAM says, "you can and should use an IAM role to manage temporary credentials for applications that run on an Amazon EC2 instance." Baking temporary or long-term keys into images, or storing long-term keys in environment variables, does not provide managed role credentials.

   Reference: Use an IAM role to grant permissions to applications running on Amazon EC2 instances — Use an IAM role to grant permissions to applications running on Amazon EC2 instances

7. 7A CodePipeline build action consumes the output of a preceding source action. What must its input artifact name do?

   1. A. Match the pipeline's stage name.
   2. B. Match the preceding action's declared output artifact name exactly.
   3. C. Match the S3 bucket name used as the artifact store.
   4. D. Match the source repository's branch name.

   Answer: B

   Explanation: The action declaration states, "The input artifact of an action must exactly match the output artifact declared in a preceding action." The stage, bucket, and branch names identify different things.

   Reference: Action declaration — InputArtifacts

8. 8A common CloudFormation template must provision the same infrastructure pattern into selected accounts across several Regions. Which service feature supports one coordinated operation?

   1. A. CloudFormation StackSets across selected accounts and Regions.
   2. B. A standalone CloudFormation stack in one account and Region.
   3. C. A nested stack within a single parent stack.
   4. D. A resource import operation into one existing stack.

   Answer: A

   Explanation: AWS states, "CloudFormation StackSets extends the capability of stacks by allowing you to create, update, or delete stacks across multiple accounts and AWS Regions with a single operation." Standalone or nested stacks and resource import do not provide that coordinated scope.

   Reference: Managing stacks across accounts and Regions with StackSets — Managing stacks across accounts and Regions with StackSets

9. 9A team enables a single-standby RDS Multi-AZ DB instance deployment and expects the standby to serve reporting queries. What should they change for read-only traffic?

   1. A. Direct reporting queries to the standby DB instance
   2. B. Increase the Multi-AZ standby's instance class
   3. C. Create a read replica or use a Multi-AZ DB cluster
   4. D. Change only the primary instance's endpoint

   Answer: C

   Explanation: AWS says, "You can't use a standby replica to serve read traffic. To serve read-only traffic, use a Multi-AZ DB cluster or a read replica instead." The standby in the specified DB instance deployment supplies HA rather than query offload.

   Reference: Multi-AZ DB instance deployments for Amazon RDS — Multi-AZ DB instance deployments for Amazon RDS; Note

10. 10Several applications publish similarly named CloudWatch metrics. Which metric attribute separates them so their statistics are not mixed across applications?

    1. A. Metric resolution
    2. B. Metric period
    3. C. Metric namespace
    4. D. Metric unit

    Answer: C

    Explanation: The documentation states, "Metrics in different namespaces are isolated from each other, so that metrics from different applications are not mistakenly aggregated into the same statistics." Resolution and period govern time, while unit describes measurement.

    Reference: Metrics concepts — Namespaces