Automation Tools & Infrastructure as Code Flashcards
7 cards from real SRE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Automation Tools & Infrastructure as Code flashcards as text
What does 'policy as code' mean in infrastructure management?
Answer: Defining and enforcing governance rules using code rather than manual processes
Policy as code means encoding compliance, security, and operational rules as machine-readable code that can be automatically enforced and version-controlled.
Which command initializes a Terraform working directory and downloads required providers?
Answer: terraform init
`terraform init` initializes the working directory, downloads provider plugins, and sets up the backend for state storage.
What is 'infrastructure drift detection' and why is it important for SREs?
Answer: Identifying when actual infrastructure differs from its IaC definition so it can be corrected
Drift detection identifies discrepancies between actual infrastructure and its IaC definition, allowing SREs to maintain consistency and prevent unexpected behavior.
In Kubernetes, what is the purpose of a ConfigMap?
Answer: It stores non-sensitive configuration data that can be consumed by pods
A ConfigMap stores non-sensitive configuration data as key-value pairs that can be injected into pods as environment variables or mounted as files.
What is the SRE benefit of using declarative IaC over imperative scripts?
Answer: Declarative IaC describes desired state, making the system responsible for achieving and maintaining it
Declarative IaC lets you specify what you want rather than how to get there, enabling tools to handle idempotency and state reconciliation automatically.
Which strategy reduces risk when deploying infrastructure changes using IaC?
Answer: Testing changes in a lower environment before promoting to production
Testing infrastructure changes in staging or development environments before production reduces the risk of outages caused by untested configurations.
What does 'infrastructure versioning' enable in an SRE workflow?
Answer: Rollback to a previous known-good infrastructure state when issues arise
Versioning infrastructure code in Git enables rollback to previous configurations when new changes cause problems, providing a safety net for infrastructure changes.