SAFE DevOps Practitioner (SDP) Practice Exam

Which of the following describes the purpose of the 'Stage' practice?

1. To address problems that arise during deployment

2. To host and validate solutions before production

3. To deliver solutions all at once

4. To create deployable binaries from branches

The correct answer is: To host and validate solutions before production

The 'Stage' practice is primarily concerned with the pre-production environment where solutions are hosted and validated before being released to production. This practice is critical in ensuring that any software, application, or system meets quality standards and adheres to the necessary requirements before it enters the live environment. In a staging environment, teams can conduct various tests, including functional tests, user acceptance tests, and other validations to identify and resolve any issues that may surface without impacting actual users or production environments. This process helps mitigate risks and ensures a smoother transition when the solution is finally deployed to the production stage. The other options indicate practices that, while relevant to DevOps, do not encapsulate the essence of the 'Stage' practice as effectively. For instance, addressing problems that arise during deployment generally falls under troubleshooting and incident management, while delivering solutions all at once relates more to deployment strategies and could lead to bottlenecks in a continuous delivery pipeline. Creating deployable binaries from branches is more linked to the build process rather than the staging of developed solutions.