DevOps-Foundation Sample Questions Answers

The urgency for DevOps adoption is driven by increasing market competition, evolving customer expectations, and the need for rapid delivery of value.

B: Nimble start-ups often deliver faster and more innovatively, putting pressure on established enterprises.

C: Customers expect continuous improvement and seamless digital experiences (“app mentality”).

D: Reducing time-to-value is essential for staying competitive and meeting business demands.

However,Adescribes a siloed culture—something DevOps actively works to eliminate, not a reason for its importance. In fact, remaining siloed is an obstacle to achieving DevOps benefits, not a driver for adoption. Therefore,Ais the correct “NOT” choice.

When work is delayed due to resource availability or local optimizations causing global degradation, the issue relates toThe First Way—maximizing flow from left to right.

Organizations should analyze and remove bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline (e.g., in testing).

Extract-style reference:

“Optimizing the flow of work requires eliminating bottlenecks, delays, and handoffs that slow the movement of changes from development to operations.”

—The Phoenix Project

DevOps Foundation courseware discusses value stream mapping and the First Way as critical tools for diagnosing and correcting such issues.

Organizational culture is defined byshared values and behaviors—what people believe is important and how they act in practice. PeopleCert notes that while founders’ vision, leadership style, and employee commitment can influence culture, the actual culture is visible in the consistent behaviors and priorities of the organization’s members.

Therefore,B—what people value and how they behave—is the most accurate description of what dictates culture.

When teams have experienced frequent top-down mandates without adequate involvement, they may feel change fatigue and resist new initiatives. PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 emphasizes the importance ofengagement and empowermentto build buy-in and ownership for DevOps transformation.

Empowering people means involving them in decisions, encouraging contribution of their ideas, and making them active participants in shaping the DevOps adoption plan. This approach builds trust, reduces resistance, and taps into collective knowledge, leading to solutions that are practical and widely accepted.

OptionsA,B, andCcan support DevOps adoption but do not address the root cause of low enthusiasm—lack of involvement. Empowerment fosters intrinsic motivation, which is essential for sustained cultural change.

Thus,Dis the most effective choice.

Reducing delays in launching projects requires eliminating manual, time-consuming tasks in the delivery process:

A: Continuous Integration (CI) with automated builds speeds up integration and reduces defects.

B: Test-Driven Development (TDD) ensures quality from the start, reducing rework and post-development bug fixing.

C: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enables rapid, repeatable provisioning of environments, avoiding manual setup delays.

All three practices contribute to faster, more reliable project starts. As PeopleCert notes, combining these practices creates a strong automation foundation, enabling organizations to move from idea to delivery quickly.

Therefore,D—All of the above—is correct.

The scenario describes entrenched silos and resistance to change—managers are protective of their domains and don’t see the value of DevOps.

This is a textbook example ofcultural debt: the gap between the organization’s current culture and the adaptive, collaborative culture needed for DevOps success.

Cultural debt, like technical debt, accumulates over time and “must be paid back” for transformation to succeed. It creates friction, slows delivery, and blocks cross-team collaboration.

Why not the others?

Organizational changeis what’s needed, not what they’re suffering from.

Change fatiguearises when people are burned out bytoo muchchange, not resistance.

Low trustis a symptom, but the core problem here is ingrained culture.

Reference/Extract:

“Cultural debt is accrued when organizations fail to evolve their culture to match new ways of working, like DevOps. It manifests in resistance to collaboration, entrenched silos, and leadership unwilling to change.”

—DevOps Handbook, Ch. 2, and PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 Syllabus Section 3.4

The most effective approach to tool selection in DevOps is to establish a toolchain—a set of integrated tools that support the end-to-end lifecycle (planning, coding, building, testing, releasing, deploying, operating, and monitoring).

This encourages consistency, automation, and traceability, while still allowing flexibility for teams.

Why not standardize on one vendor?

This reduces flexibility, can cause vendor lock-in, and doesn’t support the varied needs of Dev and Ops teams.

Encouraging independent selection (C) increases fragmentation.

Focusing solely on testing (D) ignores the broader lifecycle.

Extract-style reference:

“Establishing an integrated toolchain provides end-to-end visibility and automation across the software delivery pipeline, aligning tools with process and cultural change.”

— State of DevOps Report; DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: Recommends a toolchain approach for supporting collaborative DevOps practices.

TheThird Wayof DevOps emphasizescontinuous learning and experimentationto drive improvement. Scrum supports this principle throughSprint Retrospectives, which are dedicated sessions at the end of each sprint where the team reflects on what went well, what could be improved, and how to adapt processes or behaviors.

Retrospectives create a structured space for honest discussion, experimentation, and the application of lessons learned. This aligns directly with the Third Way’s focus on learning from successes and failures, promoting innovation, and building a culture of continual improvement.

Bfocuses on throughput, which aligns more with the First Way (flow).Ccould improve collaboration but is not a core mechanism of the Third Way.D(shorter feedback loops) is more related to the Second Way.

Thus,Ais correct because Sprint Retrospectives directly embody the Third Way’s goal of learning and adaptation.

ADevOps toolchainis designed toautomate repetitive tasksacross the software delivery process. This includes compiling code, running tests, building artifacts, deploying to environments, and monitoring systems.

While a toolchaincanautomate continuous testing (D), that is only one of many tasks automated. Standardization (B) is beneficial but not always required—some applications may need specialized tools. Open source tools (C) are not mandatory; many organizations use a mix of open source and proprietary tools.

Therefore,A—automation of tasks in a deployment pipeline—is the most universally correct statement.

A DevOps professional needs:

Business skills: Understanding the business context and value.

Technical skills: Automation, coding, cloud, infrastructure.

Core (soft) skills: Collaboration, communication, empathy, learning.

Self-management: Time, priorities, feedback.

Other options miss the full blend or focus too much on tech or process.

Extract-style reference:

“DevOps success requires a blend of business, technical, and core (soft) skills, as well as the ability to self-manage and continuously learn.”

— DevOps Handbook; Accelerate

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: Holistic skillsets are emphasized for cross-functional teams.

ChatOpsis the integration of chat platforms with tools and workflows, allowing teams to manage operations and incidents directly through chat.

Using anAPI (Application Programming Interface)is the correct, scalable way to transfer incident-related data automatically from chat clients to ITSM (IT Service Management) tools, preserving traceability and reducing manual errors.

Why not manual cut/paste?

Manual processes are error-prone and slow; DevOps aims for automation and integration.

Extract-style reference:

“APIs enable seamless transfer of information between ChatOps platforms and ITSM tools, supporting automation, accuracy, and auditability in incident management.”

—DevOps Handbook;ChatOps: Managing Operations and Collaboration in the Cloud, Jason Hand

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Promotes APIs for integration, automation, and collaboration.

Coercive communication(using force or threat) isnota transformational leadership dimension.

Transformational leaders:

Inspire vision

Recognize contributions

Stimulate new ideas (intellectual stimulation)

Foster intrinsic motivation

Extract-style reference:

“Transformational leadership builds trust, motivates by vision, provides intellectual stimulation, and recognizes individuals—not by coercion, but by inspiration.”

—Transformational Leadership(James Burns), PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6

TheDeming Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act)is foundational to continuous improvement in Lean, and is specifically applied in theImprovement Katapractice:

Improvement Kata: A structured routine for continuous, incremental improvement based on scientific thinking (PDCA).

Value Stream Mapping and Andon cord are Lean practices, but they don’t directly reference PDCA as the core mechanism.

Extract-style reference:

“The Improvement Kata incorporates the Deming cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to drive small, rapid cycles of change, helping teams to experiment, learn, and adjust.”

—Toyota Kata, Mike Rother

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: Cites PDCA as integral to continuous improvement and Lean/DevOps adoption.

PeopleCert outlines multiple methods to encourage sharing and collaboration:

A: Common workspaces promote informal communication and rapid problem-solving.

B: Hackathons provide an engaging environment for innovation, cross-functional teamwork, and sharing solutions.

C: Simulations (e.g., Game Days) allow teams to practice scenarios, learn from each other, and share insights in a low-risk setting.

Each of these fosters trust, transparency, and mutual learning. Using them together can amplify cultural change and skill growth.

Thus,D—All of the above—is correct.

Forcing all development teams toimmediately migrateto a standard set of tools dictated by IT Operations isnota recommended DevOps strategy.

DevOps promotescollaboration, flexibility, and evolutionof toolchains, allowing teams to choose what fits their needs while moving toward sensible defaults and integration over time.

Abrupt, top-down mandates undermine trust and autonomy, often leading to resistance and lower adoption.

Why are the other options better?

IT Ops or infra squads managing toolchain as a service(A),sensible defaults(C), andself-service(D) are all recognized best practices to support DevOps evolution and developer enablement.

Extract-style reference:

“Mandating a single toolset without considering team needs reduces engagement. Toolchains should be managed as self-service platforms with sensible defaults, supporting but not constraining teams.”

—State of DevOps Report;DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Encourages enabling choice, not enforcing uniformity without context.

High-performing organizationsembed learning into their culture, which leads to continuous improvement, innovation, and adaptability.

Employees and leadership committed to learning (option C) is a proven characteristic of high performance.

Other options—individualism, mandated training, and disincentivized development—are actually barriers to DevOps success.

Extract-style reference:

“High-performing organizations deliberately invest in learning and development and have leaders who model and reward learning behaviors.”

—Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps, Nicole Forsgren et al.

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: The syllabus highlights that a “culture of learning” and psychological safety are core characteristics of successful DevOps organizations.

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 emphasizes thatthere is no single “ideal” team structurefor DevOps. The optimal structure depends on organizational size, maturity, product complexity, and culture.

While cross-functional teams (as described inAandC) are common in mature DevOps environments, and temporary tiger teams (B) may be used for rapid initiatives, the key is flexibility. Some organizations integrate DevOps practices into existing teams, while others create dedicated platform teams, guilds, or enablement teams.

The focus should be onremoving silos, fostering collaboration, and aligning around value streams—not adhering to a rigid structure.

DevOps is not a standalone framework—it draws from several methodologies and frameworks to achieve its goals. PeopleCert emphasizes the integration of:

Agilefor iterative delivery, customer collaboration, and responsiveness

ITSMfor effective service delivery and operational stability

Leanfor waste elimination, flow optimization, and continuous improvement

WhileAlists relevant processes, they are subsets rather than foundational frameworks.Cdescribes cultural alignment but is not a set of frameworks.Dincludes valuable concepts but does not match the official trio highlighted in PeopleCert’s materials.

Thus,Bis correct.

Manufacturingisnota type of IT work in DevOps.

DevOps classifies IT work as:

Business projects:New value-creating work.

Planned work:Routine, repeatable tasks (maintenance, upgrades).

Unplanned work:Incidents, emergencies, support.

Extract-style reference:

“IT work includes business projects, planned work, and unplanned work. Manufacturing is an analogy for flow, but not a category of IT work itself.”

—The Phoenix Project

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Recognizes these three categories to manage and improve IT workloads.

Loosely coupled architecturesare not typical IT constraints; in fact, they are often a solution to constraints.

Typical IT constraints include:

Security assessments (slow approvals)

Bureaucratic processes (excessive paperwork or approvals)

Development delays (resource or tool bottlenecks)

Extract-style reference:

“Loosely coupled architectures enable teams to work independently, reducing constraints imposed by tightly integrated systems.”

—Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps

DevOps Foundation v3.6 lists constraints as blockers to fast flow and highlights architectural decoupling as a DevOps enabler.

TheThomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)is a psychometric tool that measures an individual’s behavior in conflict situations—specifically, how they handle disagreement with colleagues.

It classifies responses into five modes: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating.

Why not the others?

Kubler Ross Change Curve:Describes emotional responses to change, not conflict styles.

Westrum’s Typology:Categorizes organizational culture (pathological, bureaucratic, generative) but doesn’t measure individual behavior.

Value Stream Mapping:A process improvement tool, not a behavioral assessment.

Reference/Extract:

“The Thomas-Kilmann instrument helps teams understand how individuals approach conflict and collaboration, enabling better resolution strategies—a key aspect of high-performing DevOps teams.”

—DevOps Handbook; PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 Section 3.7