Domain 3: Design and Implement Build and Release Pipelines

Exam Weight: 50–55% ⚠️ HIGHEST PRIORITY DOMAIN 📁 ← Back to Home

📑 Sub-Sections

# Topic Key Technologies
3a Package Management Strategy Azure Artifacts, GitHub Packages, SemVer, CalVer
3b Testing Strategy for Pipelines Unit, Integration, Load tests, Code Coverage, Quality Gates
3c Design and Implement Pipelines YAML pipelines, GitHub Actions, Agents, Runners, Triggers
3d Design and Implement Deployments Blue-green, Canary, Feature Flags, Database tasks
3e Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Bicep, ARM, DSC, Terraform, Azure Deployment Environments
3f Maintain Pipelines Health, Optimization, Retention, Classic → YAML migration

🗺️ Pipeline Architecture Overview 

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Source Code (GitHub / Azure Repos)
         │
         ▼
   ┌─────────────────────────────┐
   │     CI Pipeline (Build)      │
   │  ┌────────────────────────┐  │
   │  │  Restore dependencies  │  │
   │  │  Compile / Build       │  │
   │  │  Unit Tests            │  │
   │  │  Code Coverage         │  │
   │  │  Security Scanning     │  │
   │  │  Publish Artifacts     │  │
   │  └────────────────────────┘  │
   └─────────────┬───────────────┘
                 │ Artifact
                 ▼
   ┌─────────────────────────────┐
   │    CD Pipeline (Release)     │
   │                              │
   │  Dev ──► Test ──► Staging    │
   │               ↑              │
   │          Approval Gate       │
   │               ↓              │
   │          Production          │
   └─────────────────────────────┘

GitHub Actions vs Azure Pipelines

⭐ The exam tests your ability to choose between and integrate these two systems.

Feature GitHub Actions Azure Pipelines
Config format YAML (.github/workflows/) YAML or Classic (GUI)
Runner/Agent GitHub-hosted runners, self-hosted runners Microsoft-hosted agents, self-hosted agents
Marketplace GitHub Marketplace (actions) Azure DevOps Marketplace (tasks/extensions)
Triggers GitHub events (push, PR, schedule, workflow_dispatch) Pipeline triggers, branch filters, path filters
Environments Environments with protection rules Environments with approvals and checks
Secrets Repository/Organization/Environment secrets Pipeline variables, Variable groups, Key Vault
Reusability Reusable workflows, composite actions Templates, Task groups, Variable groups
Container support Container jobs, service containers Container jobs, service containers
Cost model Free minutes for public repos; minutes for private Parallel jobs, free tier available

Integration between the two:

  • Use Azure Pipelines trigger from GitHub — connect GitHub repo to Azure Pipelines
  • Use GitHub Actions to deploy to Azure — use Azure CLI action, Azure login action
  • Share artifacts between systems via Azure Artifacts or GitHub Packages

Key YAML Pipeline Concepts 

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# azure-pipelines.yml — basic structure
trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - main
      - release/*

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
  artifactName: 'drop'

stages:
  - stage: Build
    jobs:
      - job: BuildJob
        steps:
          - task: UseDotNet@2
            inputs:
              version: '8.x'

          - script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
            displayName: 'Build'

          - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
            inputs:
              artifactName: $(artifactName)

  - stage: Deploy
    dependsOn: Build
    condition: succeeded()
    jobs:
      - deployment: DeployProd
        environment: 'production'
        strategy:
          runOnce:
            deploy:
              steps:
                - script: echo "Deploying..."
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