AZ-400 skills coverage matrix

This matrix maps every official exam skill to a specific challenge. Use it to verify you've practiced all testable skills.

Domain 1: Design and implement processes and communications (10-15%)

Design and implement traceability and flow of work

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design and implement a structure for the flow of work, including GitHub Flow	Challenge 01	Covered
Design and implement a strategy for feedback cycles, including notifications and GitHub issues	Challenge 02	Covered
Design and implement integration for tracking work, including GitHub projects, Azure Boards, and repositories	Challenge 02	Covered
Design and implement source, bug, and quality traceability	Challenge 03	Covered

Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for DevOps

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design and implement a dashboard, including flow of work (cycle times, time to recovery, lead time)	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for project planning	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for development	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for testing	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for security	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for delivery	Challenge 04	Covered
Design and implement appropriate metrics and queries for operations	Challenge 04	Covered

Configure collaboration and communication

Skill	Challenge	Status
Document a project by configuring wikis and process diagrams, including Markdown and Mermaid syntax	Challenge 05	Covered
Configure release documentation, including release notes and API documentation	Challenge 05	Covered
Automate creation of documentation from Git history	Challenge 05	Covered
Configure integration by using webhooks	Challenge 06	Covered
Configure integration between Azure Boards and GitHub repositories	Challenge 06	Covered
Configure integration between GitHub or Azure DevOps and Microsoft Teams	Challenge 06	Covered

Domain 2: Design and implement a source control strategy (10-15%)

Design and implement branching strategies for the source code

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design a branch strategy, including trunk-based, feature branch, and release branch	Challenge 07	Covered
Design and implement a pull request workflow by using branch policies and branch protection rules	Challenge 08	Covered
Implement branch merging restrictions by using branch policies and branch protection rules	Challenge 08	Covered

Configure and manage repositories

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design and implement a strategy for managing large files, including Git LFS and git-fat	Challenge 10	Covered
Design a strategy for scaling and optimizing a Git repository, including Scalar and cross-repository sharing	Challenge 12	Covered
Configure permissions in the source control repository	Challenge 09	Covered
Configure tags to organize the source control repository	Challenge 09	Covered
Recover specific data by using Git commands	Challenge 11	Covered
Remove specific data from source control	Challenge 11	Covered

Domain 3: Design and implement build and release pipelines (50-55%)

Design and implement a package management strategy

Skill	Challenge	Status
Recommend package management tools including GitHub Packages and Azure Artifacts	Challenge 13	Covered
Design and implement package feeds and views for local and upstream packages	Challenge 13	Covered
Design and implement a dependency versioning strategy (SemVer and CalVer)	Challenge 14	Covered
Design and implement a versioning strategy for pipeline artifacts	Challenge 14	Covered

Design and implement a testing strategy for pipelines

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design and implement quality and release gates, including security and governance	Challenge 17	Covered
Design a comprehensive testing strategy (local, unit, integration, load tests)	Challenge 16	Covered
Implement tests in a pipeline, including configuring test tasks and test agents	Challenge 16	Covered
Implement code coverage analysis	Challenge 18	Covered

Design and implement pipelines

Skill	Challenge	Status
Select a deployment automation solution (GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines)	Challenge 19, Challenge 20	Covered
Design and implement runner/agent infrastructure (cost, connectivity, maintainability)	Challenge 21	Covered
Design and implement integration between GitHub repositories and Azure Pipelines	Challenge 20	Covered
Develop and implement pipeline trigger rules	Challenge 22	Covered
Develop pipelines by using YAML	Challenge 19, Challenge 20	Covered
Design and implement a strategy for job execution order (parallelism, multi-stage)	Challenge 22	Covered
Develop complex pipeline scenarios (hybrid pipelines, VM templates, self-hosted runners)	Challenge 21	Covered
Create reusable pipeline elements (YAML templates, task groups, variables, variable groups)	Challenge 23	Covered
Design and implement checks and approvals by using YAML-based environments	Challenge 24	Covered

Design and implement deployments

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design a deployment strategy (blue-green, canary, ring, progressive exposure, feature flags, A/B)	Challenge 25	Covered
Design a pipeline to ensure dependency deployments are reliably ordered	Challenge 30	Covered
Plan for minimizing downtime (load balancing, rolling deployments, slot swaps)	Challenge 26	Covered
Design a hotfix path plan for high-priority code fixes	Challenge 30	Covered
Design and implement a resiliency strategy for deployment	Challenge 30	Covered
Implement feature flags by using Azure App Configuration Feature Manager	Challenge 27	Covered
Implement application deployment by using containers, binaries, and scripts	Challenge 28	Covered
Implement a deployment that includes database tasks	Challenge 29	Covered

Design and implement infrastructure as code (IaC)

Skill	Challenge	Status
Recommend a configuration management technology for application infrastructure	Challenge 31	Covered
Implement a configuration management strategy for application infrastructure	Challenge 31	Covered
Define an IaC strategy, including source control and automation of testing and deployment	Challenge 31	Covered
Design and implement desired state configuration (Azure Automation, Bicep, Machine Configuration)	Challenge 32	Covered
Design and implement Azure Deployment Environments for on-demand self-deployment	Challenge 33	Covered

Maintain pipelines

Skill	Challenge	Status
Monitor pipeline health (failure rate, duration, flaky tests)	Challenge 34	Covered
Optimize a pipeline for cost, time, performance, and reliability	Challenge 35	Covered
Optimize pipeline concurrency for performance and cost	Challenge 35	Covered
Design and implement a retention strategy for pipeline artifacts and dependencies	Challenge 36	Covered
Migrate a pipeline from classic to YAML in Azure Pipelines	Challenge 37	Covered

Domain 4: Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)

Design and implement authentication and authorization methods

Skill	Challenge	Status
Choose between service principals and managed identities (system/user-assigned)	Challenge 39	Covered
Implement and manage GitHub authentication (GitHub Apps, GITHUB_TOKEN, PATs)	Challenge 40	Covered
Implement and manage Azure DevOps service connections and PATs	Challenge 41	Covered
Design and implement permissions and roles in GitHub	Challenge 40	Covered
Design and implement permissions and security groups in Azure DevOps	Challenge 41	Covered
Recommend appropriate access levels (stakeholder in ADO, outside collaborator in GitHub)	Challenge 41	Covered
Configure projects and teams in Azure DevOps	Challenge 41	Covered

Design and implement a strategy for managing sensitive information in automation

Skill	Challenge	Status
Implement and manage secrets, keys, and certificates by using Azure Key Vault	Challenge 42	Covered
Implement secretless authentication (workload identity federation/OIDC)	Challenge 42	Covered
Design and implement a strategy for managing sensitive files during deployment	Challenge 43	Covered
Design pipelines to prevent leakage of sensitive information	Challenge 43	Covered

Automate security and compliance scanning

Skill	Challenge	Status
Design a strategy for security and compliance scanning (dependency, code, secret, licensing)	Challenge 44	Covered
Configure Microsoft Defender for Cloud DevOps Security	Challenge 45	Covered
Configure GitHub Advanced Security for GitHub and Azure DevOps	Challenge 44	Covered
Integrate GitHub Advanced Security with Microsoft Defender for Cloud	Challenge 45	Covered
Automate container scanning (container images, CodeQL in containers)	Challenge 44	Covered
Automate analysis of licensing, vulnerabilities, and versioning (Dependabot alerts)	Challenge 44	Covered

Domain 5: Implement an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)

Configure monitoring for a DevOps environment

Skill	Challenge	Status
Configure Azure Monitor and Azure Monitor Logs to integrate with DevOps tools	Challenge 46	Covered
Configure collection of telemetry (Application Insights, VM Insights, Container Insights)	Challenge 47	Covered
Configure monitoring in GitHub (insights, charts)	Challenge 48	Covered
Configure alerts for events in GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines	Challenge 48	Covered

Analyze metrics from instrumentation

Skill	Challenge	Status
Inspect infrastructure performance indicators (CPU, memory, disk, network)	Challenge 47	Covered
Analyze metrics by using collected telemetry (usage, application performance)	Challenge 50	Covered
Inspect distributed tracing by using Application Insights	Challenge 50	Covered
Interrogate logs using basic KQL queries	Challenge 49	Covered

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Total skills covered: 67/67 (100%)