8 Questions to Ask About Continuous Integration (CI) for DevOps in an Interview
Continuous integration is a way to make software that combines all of a software engineer’s copies of his or her work into a single file that all professionals can access. This is an important skill for software developers to learn because they often work in groups. If you’re applying for a job in this field, the hiring manager may ask you questions to make sure you know what they’re talking about. This article gives examples of interview questions about continuous integration, as well as sample answers and tips to help you get ready for your interview. 8 Questions to Ask About Continuous
8 sample continuous integration interview questions and answers
You can feel more confident and ready for an interview if you say your answers to interview questions out loud. Take a look at these questions and answers about continuous integration to help you prepare for interview questions about it:
1.Have you ever used continuous integration?
This is a simple question that interviewers use to make sure that candidates know how to do this important part of working on a software development team. Try to show how familiar you are with continuous integration by giving examples of when you’ve used it and how much you know about it when you talk about your experience.
Example: “At my last job, I used this principle at the start of projects because it helped my team find problems in our code and design. This helped us finish our projects faster and figure out how to fix any mistakes.”
2.Can you tell me how continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment are different?
This question is asked to see if you understand what continuous integration is and how to use it in the workplace. You should show that you know how and why these terms are used differently when you answer this question. If you have used these methods before, you might want to tell the interviewer about them briefly if you can. This will show that you know everything there is to know about these software development practices.
Example: “At different points in a project, continuous integration, delivery, and deployment are all used for different things. At my last job, I used continuous integration to work on code and save it. I could share this information with internal staff using continuous delivery to help them work together and keep an eye on quality. Lastly, continuous deployment lets my team show clients our work and make changes as needed.”
3.What tools would you use to set up the pipeline for continuous integration and delivery?
Several tools, most of which are DevOps applications, can be used to make a continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline. Some companies may like some apps better than others, so it’s good to find out which ones they usually use. In your answer, be sure to say what tools you know how to use and that you’re willing to learn how to use other tools if the job requires it.
Example: “I’ve used a few different DevOps tools because the companies where I’ve worked gave me access to them and because my skills are getting better. I make the continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline most of the time with Jenkins and Microsoft VSTS. I’ve also used Bamboo in the past.”
4. Tell me about a problem you had with continuous integration at your last job.
This is a question that an interviewer might ask to find out what parts of continuous integration you find hard. It also shows how you solve problems, which is a skill that software developers and engineers need to have. In your answer, try to be honest and briefly explain what happened. It’s also important to explain what you did to fix the problem.
Example: “Once, my team and I noticed that the tests we were running as part of continuous integration weren’t finding bugs in the code as well as they should have been. I made new tests that were specific to the project and could better check our code to fix this. This helped us find bugs or mistakes in our code and gave our team the idea to choose a different kind of test for each project instead of always running the same ones.”
5. What are the keys to the success of continuous integration?
If you know how continuous integration works, you can show interviewers that you understand the whole process and how to make sure it works. Try to include some of the common overall goals of continuous integration in your answer, such as making it easy to access project deliverables, as well as some of the more specific benefits and goals, such as automating deployment and building.
Example: “Continuous integration works well when it keeps the project up to date with small changes to the code and makes software development projects work better. For continuous integration to work, the development and engineering team needs to keep a repository of code and make a build that tests itself.”
6. Why is it a good idea to keep adding things?
This is a question that interviewers might ask to see how well you understand how continuous integration works. By asking about the benefits of this practice, you can show that you understand how it works and how important it is in software engineering. You might want to talk about how the practice has helped you in the past when you answer this question. This lets you put your answer in a bigger picture and shows the interviewer that you are smart and have experience.
Example: “As a software engineer, I like how continuous integration speeds up development and makes it easy to test new code. In my previous jobs, testing during continuous integration helped my team find problems in our code, which let us fix them quickly.”
7. What steps would you take to make sure that the pipeline for continuous integration and delivery is safe?
A hiring manager may ask you this question during your interview to see if you can keep the pipeline for continuous integration stable. If the pipeline isn’t secure, the team building it could put their data at risk. When you answer this question, be clear about what steps you’d take to make sure the pipeline is safe and why you’d take those steps.
Example: “I usually use unit, static analysis, and dynamic analysis testing, as well as other kinds of testing, to look for holes in the pipeline and code repository so that the continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline is safe. In the jobs I’ve had before, these methods made sure the pipeline was safe and the code was good.”
8.How would you handle private information in the pipeline for continuous integration and delivery?
Depending on the job you’re applying for, the hiring manager may ask you this question to see if you care about privacy and know how to keep information safe. Because some software engineers on a team may have a higher rank than others, it could be dangerous for all of them to have access to all the information in the continuous integration and delivery pipeline. To answer this question, tell us what you do to keep your software safe and how you do it.
Example: “From what I’ve seen, the best way to handle classified information in the pipeline is through role-based access control. This keeps some data safe by giving it a password that only managers and other people in authority positions can use. Role-based access control makes sure that every professional knows what they need to know about classified information without letting anyone else see it.”
How to answer questions about continuous integration in a job interview
You can do the following things to get ready for your interview:
- Figure out how to respond to questions. If you say your answers out loud before your interview, you can feel more comfortable and think about them ahead of time.
- Be concise. You should think about how long your answer will be before you give it. Try to give complete answers that don’t take more than a minute or two.
- Review your knowledge of continuous integration. Even if you use continuous integration in your daily work, you might want to look at what it means again to come up with a clear and concise way to explain it.
- Share your experience. Even if continuous integration doesn’t come up in a lot of interview questions, it’s important to show that you’ve done it before. This helps the interviewer learn more about your skills.
- Ask questions. If you have the chance, you might want to ask the company how it uses continuous integration. For example, you could ask what tools they use most often or what role you might play in the process if you get the job.
