Intermediate
Vocabulary
#devops
#cloud
#kubernetes
#sre
DevOps & Cloud Vocabulary
5 exercises — containers, blue-green deployment, IaC, observability, SLOs — essential vocabulary for cloud-native engineers.
0 / 30 completed
1 / 30
A colleague says: "We moved from VMs to containers." The key difference between a container and a VM is:
A container (e.g. Docker) packages the application and its libraries but shares the host OS kernel, making it lightweight and fast to start. A VM includes a full guest OS, making it heavier. Containers are orchestrated at scale using tools like Kubernetes.
2 / 30
"We use a blue-green deployment strategy to avoid downtime." This means:
In blue-green deployment you maintain two identical environments (blue = current live, green = new version). You deploy to green, test it, then switch the load balancer to route traffic from blue to green. Rollback is instant — just flip the switch back. Compare with canary releases, which gradually shift traffic percentages.
3 / 30
Complete the sentence: "Rather than clicking through the console, we define all our servers and networking rules in YAML files — that's _____."
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) means provisioning and managing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files (not manual processes). Popular tools: Terraform (declarative, cloud-agnostic), Pulumi (imperative, your language), AWS CloudFormation. It enables version control, peer review, and reproducible environments.
4 / 30
In observability, what are the "three pillars"?
The three pillars of observability are: Metrics (numerical measurements over time, e.g. request rate, error rate, latency — often "RED" or "USE" method), Logs (timestamped records of discrete events), and Traces (end-to-end tracking of a single request across services). Tools: Prometheus + Grafana, Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, Datadog.
5 / 30
"Our service has an SLO of 99.9% availability." An SLO (Service Level Objective) is:
An SLO is an internal reliability target (e.g. 99.9% uptime, p99 latency < 200 ms). It's measured via an SLI (Service Level Indicator — the actual metric). An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is the external contract with customers that may reference SLOs. The gap between 100% and your SLO is your error budget — how much unreliability you're allowed before slowing down feature work.
6 / 30
Sarah (DevOps Engineer): "Hey team, we're seeing a lot of spikes in CPU usage on the staging environment. I've rolled out a canary deployment with version 2.1.0 to mitigate this."Canary deployments are a specific type of deployment strategy where a small subset of users or traffic is routed to a new version of an application. This allows for real-world testing without impacting all users, and in this case, Sarah's action addresses the CPU usage spikes by isolating the potential issues with the new version. It's crucial to understand that canary deployments aren't about automatic scaling; they are about controlled exposure.
7 / 30
You're reviewing a PR description for a new API endpoint. The author writes: 'This update implements the `POST /users` endpoint to create new user accounts, returning a JSON object with user ID and name.' What does 'JSON object' refer to?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard format for representing data as key-value pairs. It's incredibly common in APIs and web services because it's lightweight and easy to parse. The description clearly indicates that the response from the API will be structured this way – crucial knowledge when understanding API interactions.
8 / 30
During a standup meeting, your team lead asks: 'What did you do yesterday to improve our monitoring coverage?' You respond: 'I added a new metric to Prometheus for tracking the latency of our database queries.' This action is primarily focused on which aspect of DevOps?
Observability & Monitoring is the practice of understanding the internal state of a system based on its outputs. Adding a new metric to Prometheus directly contributes to this by providing data about database query latency – allowing you to identify and resolve performance issues. While CI/CD can benefit from monitoring data, the core action here is focused on gaining insights into the system's behavior.
9 / 30
Your team is using Terraform to manage its infrastructure. You need to update a variable defined in your configuration file. The correct way to do this is:
Terraform uses state files to track your infrastructure. Modifying the variable directly in the configuration file and running `terraform apply` is the standard procedure for updating Terraform configurations. This command ensures that the changes are tracked and applied correctly, keeping the state file synchronized with your desired infrastructure.
10 / 30
A junior developer asks: 'What's the difference between a Deployment Strategy and a Release Strategy?'
Deployment Strategies define *how* code changes are deployed to different environments (e.g., staging, production), often involving techniques like blue/green or canary deployments. Release Strategies focus on *when* and *under what conditions* those deployments happen—considering factors like feature flags, phased rollouts, and testing procedures. They're distinct but related concepts.
11 / 30
Sarah (DevOps Engineer): "Hey team, we're seeing a lot of spikes in CPU usage on the staging environment. I've rolled out a canary deployment with version 2.1.0 to mitigate this."Canary deployments are a specific type of deployment strategy where a small subset of users or traffic is routed to a new version of an application. This allows for real-world testing without impacting all users, and in this case, Sarah's action addresses the CPU usage spikes by isolating the potential issues with the new version. It's crucial to understand that canary deployments aren't about automatic scaling; they are about controlled exposure.
12 / 30
You're reviewing a PR description for a new API endpoint. The author writes: 'This update implements the `POST /users` endpoint to create new user accounts, returning a JSON object with user ID and name.' What does 'JSON object' refer to?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard format for representing data as key-value pairs. It's incredibly common in APIs and web services because it's lightweight and easy to parse. The description clearly indicates that the response from the API will be structured this way – crucial knowledge when understanding API interactions.
13 / 30
During a standup meeting, your team lead asks: 'What did you do yesterday to improve our monitoring coverage?' You respond: 'I added a new metric to Prometheus for tracking the latency of our database queries.' This action is primarily focused on which aspect of DevOps?
Observability & Monitoring is the practice of understanding the internal state of a system based on its outputs. Adding a new metric to Prometheus directly contributes to this by providing data about database query latency – allowing you to identify and resolve performance issues. While CI/CD can benefit from monitoring data, the core action here is focused on gaining insights into the system's behavior.
14 / 30
Your team is using Terraform to manage its infrastructure. You need to update a variable defined in your configuration file. The correct way to do this is:
Terraform uses state files to track your infrastructure. Modifying the variable directly in the configuration file and running `terraform apply` is the standard procedure for updating Terraform configurations. This command ensures that the changes are tracked and applied correctly, keeping the state file synchronized with your desired infrastructure.
15 / 30
A junior developer asks: 'What's the difference between a Deployment Strategy and a Release Strategy?'
Deployment Strategies define *how* code changes are deployed to different environments (e.g., staging, production), often involving techniques like blue/green or canary deployments. Release Strategies focus on *when* and *under what conditions* those deployments happen—considering factors like feature flags, phased rollouts, and testing procedures. They're distinct but related concepts.
16 / 30
Sarah (DevOps Engineer): "Hey team, we're seeing a lot of spikes in CPU usage on the staging environment. I've rolled out a canary deployment with version 2.1.0 to mitigate this."Canary deployments are a specific type of deployment strategy where a small subset of users or traffic is routed to a new version of an application. This allows for real-world testing without impacting all users, and in this case, Sarah's action addresses the CPU usage spikes by isolating the potential issues with the new version. It's crucial to understand that canary deployments aren't about automatic scaling; they are about controlled exposure.
17 / 30
You're reviewing a PR description for a new API endpoint. The author writes: 'This update implements the `POST /users` endpoint to create new user accounts, returning a JSON object with user ID and name.' What does 'JSON object' refer to?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard format for representing data as key-value pairs. It's incredibly common in APIs and web services because it's lightweight and easy to parse. The description clearly indicates that the response from the API will be structured this way – crucial knowledge when understanding API interactions.
18 / 30
During a standup meeting, your team lead asks: 'What did you do yesterday to improve our monitoring coverage?' You respond: 'I added a new metric to Prometheus for tracking the latency of our database queries.' This action is primarily focused on which aspect of DevOps?
Observability & Monitoring is the practice of understanding the internal state of a system based on its outputs. Adding a new metric to Prometheus directly contributes to this by providing data about database query latency – allowing you to identify and resolve performance issues. While CI/CD can benefit from monitoring data, the core action here is focused on gaining insights into the system's behavior.
19 / 30
Your team is using Terraform to manage its infrastructure. You need to update a variable defined in your configuration file. The correct way to do this is:
Terraform uses state files to track your infrastructure. Modifying the variable directly in the configuration file and running `terraform apply` is the standard procedure for updating Terraform configurations. This command ensures that the changes are tracked and applied correctly, keeping the state file synchronized with your desired infrastructure.
20 / 30
A junior developer asks: 'What's the difference between a Deployment Strategy and a Release Strategy?'
Deployment Strategies define *how* code changes are deployed to different environments (e.g., staging, production), often involving techniques like blue/green or canary deployments. Release Strategies focus on *when* and *under what conditions* those deployments happen—considering factors like feature flags, phased rollouts, and testing procedures. They're distinct but related concepts.
21 / 30
Sarah (DevOps Engineer): "Hey team, we're seeing a lot of spikes in CPU usage on the staging environment. I've rolled out a canary deployment with version 2.1.0 to mitigate this."Canary deployments are a specific type of deployment strategy where a small subset of users or traffic is routed to a new version of an application. This allows for real-world testing without impacting all users, and in this case, Sarah's action addresses the CPU usage spikes by isolating the potential issues with the new version. It's crucial to understand that canary deployments aren't about automatic scaling; they are about controlled exposure.
22 / 30
You're reviewing a PR description for a new API endpoint. The author writes: 'This update implements the `POST /users` endpoint to create new user accounts, returning a JSON object with user ID and name.' What does 'JSON object' refer to?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard format for representing data as key-value pairs. It's incredibly common in APIs and web services because it's lightweight and easy to parse. The description clearly indicates that the response from the API will be structured this way – crucial knowledge when understanding API interactions.
23 / 30
During a standup meeting, your team lead asks: 'What did you do yesterday to improve our monitoring coverage?' You respond: 'I added a new metric to Prometheus for tracking the latency of our database queries.' This action is primarily focused on which aspect of DevOps?
Observability & Monitoring is the practice of understanding the internal state of a system based on its outputs. Adding a new metric to Prometheus directly contributes to this by providing data about database query latency – allowing you to identify and resolve performance issues. While CI/CD can benefit from monitoring data, the core action here is focused on gaining insights into the system's behavior.
24 / 30
Your team is using Terraform to manage its infrastructure. You need to update a variable defined in your configuration file. The correct way to do this is:
Terraform uses state files to track your infrastructure. Modifying the variable directly in the configuration file and running `terraform apply` is the standard procedure for updating Terraform configurations. This command ensures that the changes are tracked and applied correctly, keeping the state file synchronized with your desired infrastructure.
25 / 30
A junior developer asks: 'What's the difference between a Deployment Strategy and a Release Strategy?'
Deployment Strategies define *how* code changes are deployed to different environments (e.g., staging, production), often involving techniques like blue/green or canary deployments. Release Strategies focus on *when* and *under what conditions* those deployments happen—considering factors like feature flags, phased rollouts, and testing procedures. They're distinct but related concepts.
26 / 30
Sarah (DevOps Engineer): "Hey team, we're seeing a lot of spikes in CPU usage on the staging environment. I've rolled out a canary deployment with version 2.1.0 to mitigate this."Canary deployments are a specific type of deployment strategy where a small subset of users or traffic is routed to a new version of an application. This allows for real-world testing without impacting all users, and in this case, Sarah's action addresses the CPU usage spikes by isolating the potential issues with the new version. It's crucial to understand that canary deployments aren't about automatic scaling; they are about controlled exposure.
27 / 30
You're reviewing a PR description for a new API endpoint. The author writes: 'This update implements the `POST /users` endpoint to create new user accounts, returning a JSON object with user ID and name.' What does 'JSON object' refer to?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard format for representing data as key-value pairs. It's incredibly common in APIs and web services because it's lightweight and easy to parse. The description clearly indicates that the response from the API will be structured this way – crucial knowledge when understanding API interactions.
28 / 30
During a standup meeting, your team lead asks: 'What did you do yesterday to improve our monitoring coverage?' You respond: 'I added a new metric to Prometheus for tracking the latency of our database queries.' This action is primarily focused on which aspect of DevOps?
Observability & Monitoring is the practice of understanding the internal state of a system based on its outputs. Adding a new metric to Prometheus directly contributes to this by providing data about database query latency – allowing you to identify and resolve performance issues. While CI/CD can benefit from monitoring data, the core action here is focused on gaining insights into the system's behavior.
29 / 30
Your team is using Terraform to manage its infrastructure. You need to update a variable defined in your configuration file. The correct way to do this is:
Terraform uses state files to track your infrastructure. Modifying the variable directly in the configuration file and running `terraform apply` is the standard procedure for updating Terraform configurations. This command ensures that the changes are tracked and applied correctly, keeping the state file synchronized with your desired infrastructure.
30 / 30
A junior developer asks: 'What's the difference between a Deployment Strategy and a Release Strategy?'
Deployment Strategies define *how* code changes are deployed to different environments (e.g., staging, production), often involving techniques like blue/green or canary deployments. Release Strategies focus on *when* and *under what conditions* those deployments happen—considering factors like feature flags, phased rollouts, and testing procedures. They're distinct but related concepts.
Next up:
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Related vocabulary
These modules build the same on-the-job skills as DevOps & Cloud Vocabulary — work through them together for a fuller vocabulary set.
- Cloud FinOps — useful for Cloud services & FinOps (DevOps & Cloud)
- Cloud FinOps Practice — useful for Cloud services & FinOps (DevOps & Cloud)
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the "DevOps & Cloud Vocabulary" vocabulary exercise cover?
This exercise tests real IT vocabulary related to devops & cloud vocabulary through 30 multiple-choice questions, each built from realistic workplace sentences rather than abstract definitions.
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How many questions does this exercise have?
This exercise has 30 questions. Each one shows a real-world sentence or scenario with multiple-choice options and an explanation once you answer.
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Are these vocabulary exercises connected to other topics?
Yes — this module shares real-world context with 2 other vocabulary modules. See "Related vocabulary" below to keep building a connected skill set.
How is this different from reading a glossary or blog article?
Exercises like this one are active recall drills — you have to choose the correct term or phrasing yourself, which builds retention faster than passively reading a definition.
Where can I find more vocabulary exercises?
Browse the full Vocabulary exercises hub for hundreds of modules covering Agile, DevOps, security, databases, architecture, and more — organised by IT role and skill.