L11 - Continuous Integration

Question 1

Define Continuous Integration…

Answer 1

• The automated continuous and rapid integration of code during the development lifecycle.

Question 2

What is the end product of the integration?

Answer 2

• An artefact

Question 3

What are the 4 release types in traditional Product Delivery?

Answer 3

Alpha release → Developers testing software

Beta release→ Select test-users or a QA team conduct beta testing on the software

Release candidate → Unstable version released to the public. Release with many potential caveats.

Release → Fully released solution.

Question 4

What is another name for Modern Feature Delivery?

Answer 4

CI/CD Pipeline

Question 5

What are the 3 environment in Modern Feature Delivery (CI/CD Pipeline) ?

Answer 5

• Development
• Staging
• Production

Question 6

What is the Development environment in the CI/CD pipeline?

Answer 6

• Where the work of a single development team is put together during a sprint
• Environment is anything that the team finds convenient

Question 7

What is the Staging environment in the CI/CD pipeline?

Answer 7

• Where the work of multiple development teams is put together
• Looks like production

Question 8

What is the Production environment in the CI/CD pipeline?

Answer 8

• When ready, the output from the staging process is published to customers

Question 9

What is meant by automated build management?

Answer 9

If we check-in changes, the VC system should automatically run tests and progress the software through the delivery stages.

Question 10

Explain Git Push and Git Pull Requests…

Answer 10

Push → Uploads changes from local to remote repository

Pull → Proposes a set of changes be made from a local to remote repository

Question 11

What are the components of the Testing Pyramid? Define each…

Answer 11

Unit tests:
- Testing each unit of a code segment to ensure that all tests pass individually
- Usually implement a large number of them

Service tests:
- Performed before code is deployed to a service
- Less numerous that unit tests
- Slower than unit tests due to usually using network requests

End to end tests:
- Performed before system is accepted into the production environment
- Tests a specific journey within the software. E.g. testing the deleting of a user account

Question 12

In testing, what is Stubbing?

Answer 12

Testing code using a Stub, a stand-in for a service, that responds to requests with artificial responses.

Question 13

In testing, what is Mocking?

Answer 13

• A Stub that provides additional assertions and call order
• More advanced than a Stub

Question 14

What are Brittle Tests?

Answer 14

A test that fails due to the failure of another service

Question 15

What are Flaky Tests?

Answer 15

• A test that sometimes fails because another service fails
• Awful kind of failure due to inconsistent nature of test responses
• Should eliminate all flaky tests

Question 16

What are the worst type of test failures and why?

Answer 16

• Flaky tests
• Hard to replicate to identify issues