Free PeopleCert DevOps-Foundation Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

ChatOpsis the DevOps practice of using chat platforms (like Slack, Teams, Mattermost) as the central interface for communication, collaboration, and even automated deployment or support tasks.

It encourages “conversation-driven development, delivery, and support,” making processes transparent and collaborative.

Second Way(A) is about feedback loops, but not specifically conversational platforms.

Communication Platforms(C) is a generic term.

VisOps(D) is not a standard DevOps term.

Extract-style reference:

“ChatOps is a collaboration model that connects people, tools, process, and automation into a transparent workflow. Teams communicate and execute commands from a central chat client.”

—DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert Foundation v3.6: ChatOps promotes rapid feedback and a culture of sharing.

The “Three Ways” are foundational principles in DevOps:

The First Wayfocuses on increasing the flow of work from left (development) to right (operations). It is about optimizing the entire system for fast delivery, limiting bottlenecks, and enabling a rapid flow of features and fixes to customers.

The Second Wayis about amplifying feedback loops so corrections can be made early.

The Third Wayemphasizes continual learning and experimentation.

Extract-style reference:

“The First Way emphasizes the performance of the entire system, as opposed to the performance of a specific silo of work or department. The goal is to maximize the flow of work (value) from Development to Operations to the customer.”

—Gene Kim, The Phoenix Project / DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6highlights this in the section on "Principles and Practices," emphasizing The First Way as critical to accelerating flow.

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.

Let’s clarify what these terms mean in DevOps:

Continuous Integration (CI):Developers integrate code into a shared repository frequently (ideally daily), with each integration automatically verified by tests.

Continuous Delivery (CD):Ensures software is always in a releasable state. Every change can be deployed to production, but the deployment itself may be a manual decision.

Continuous Deployment:Every change that passes automated tests is automatically deployed to production,withoutmanual intervention.

Why is D (“Continuous Deployment requires a manual push button”) NOT TRUE?

BecauseContinuous Deploymentis aboutno manual intervention—once code passes all tests, it’s automatically pushed live. Manual deployment is a feature of Continuous Delivery, not Continuous Deployment.

Extract-style reference:

“Continuous Deployment means that every change goes through the pipeline and is automatically put into production, resulting in many production deployments every day.”

—Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps, Jez Humble & Nicole Forsgren

DevOps Foundation v3.6distinguishes between Continuous Delivery (manual trigger) and Continuous Deployment (fully automated).

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.

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.

A fast flow ofunplanned workinto production isnota characteristic of DevOps. In fact, DevOps practices strive to minimize unplanned work (like emergency changes or outages) through automation, testing, collaboration, and rigorous change control. The other options—ensuring organizational success, working toward a common goal, and world-class stability/reliability—are all key DevOps characteristics.

Learning through immersionis powerful in DevOps because:

People learn by doing (A)

People learn from subject matter experts (B)

People learn from failures in a safe environment (C)

All of the above (D) are true

DevOps encourages hands-on, real-world, collaborative, and safe-to-fail learning environments.

Extract-style reference:

“Immersive learning, including hands-on labs, peer interactions, and blameless retrospectives, is vital to building DevOps capabilities.”

—DevOps Handbook,Accelerate

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Calls for learning culture, blamelessness, and experimentation.

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.

Wait Timeis the time work spends waiting between process steps—wasted, non-value-added time.

Mathematically,Wait Time = Lead Time – Cycle Time

Lead Time:Time from work request to delivery.

Cycle Time:Time spent actively working on the item.

Why is this important in DevOps?

Identifying and reducing wait time (waste) is central to Lean/DevOps, directly improving flow and reducing delays.

Extract-style reference:

“Wait time is calculated as the difference between lead time and cycle time—highlighting bottlenecks in the value stream.”

—DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Wait time is a core Lean concept for optimizing flow.