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100+ Free IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Practice Questions

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2026 Statistics

Key Facts: IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Exam

~15 courses

Courses in the series

Coursera

~6 months

Typical completion at 10 hrs/week

Coursera

Beginner

Difficulty level

Coursera

No expiry

Credential validity

IBM / Coursera

Up to 18

ACE college-credit recommendation

Coursera (ACE/ECTS recommended)

100

Free practice questions here

OpenExamPrep

The IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate is a beginner-friendly Coursera series of about 15 courses with graded quizzes, labs, and projects. Assessment is per-course (typically 70-80% to pass each quiz) rather than one final exam, and the credential never expires. Core domains are DevOps culture and CALMS, Agile/Scrum, cloud-native and 12-factor apps, Python and Bash, Docker/Kubernetes/OpenShift, Git/GitHub, CI/CD (Tekton, GitHub Actions, Travis), and TDD/BDD with monitoring and security. Cost is a Coursera subscription, with financial aid available.

Sample IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to test your IBM DevOps and Software Engineering exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1In the CALMS framework used throughout the IBM DevOps curriculum, what do the five letters stand for?
A.Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, Sharing
B.Collaboration, Agile, Lean, Metrics, Scaling
C.Continuous, Automation, Logging, Monitoring, Security
D.Culture, Agile, Lean, Microservices, Serverless
Explanation: CALMS stands for Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, and Sharing. It is a framework for assessing an organization's readiness to adopt DevOps, emphasizing that DevOps is as much a cultural shift as a set of tools.
2Which DevOps principle is best described as fostering a culture of shared responsibility between development and operations teams to eliminate silos?
A.A culture of blame to identify who caused an incident
B.Strict separation of duties so developers never touch production
C.A culture of shared responsibility where Dev and Ops jointly own delivery and reliability
D.Outsourcing operations entirely to a managed service provider
Explanation: DevOps culture centers on shared responsibility: developers and operations collaborate across the entire lifecycle, jointly owning building, deploying, and running software. Breaking down silos reduces handoff friction and accelerates delivery.
3Value stream mapping, a core Lean practice in DevOps, is primarily used to accomplish what?
A.Encrypt secrets stored in a CI/CD pipeline
B.Visualize the flow of work to identify bottlenecks and eliminate non-value-adding waste
C.Automatically scale Kubernetes pods based on CPU usage
D.Define the schema of a relational database
Explanation: Value stream mapping visualizes every step from idea to delivery so teams can see where work gets stuck. It is a Lean technique for identifying bottlenecks, redundant steps, and non-value-adding waste, then targeting them for automation or removal.
4What is the main goal of practicing continuous integration (CI) in a DevOps workflow?
A.To deploy every commit directly to production without testing
B.To delay integration until the end of a release cycle to reduce merge frequency
C.To replace version control with a shared network folder
D.To merge developers' code changes into a shared mainline frequently and verify each merge with automated builds and tests
Explanation: Continuous integration means developers merge small changes into a shared branch frequently, with each merge automatically built and tested. This catches integration problems early and keeps the mainline in a working state.
5Which statement correctly distinguishes continuous delivery from continuous deployment?
A.They are identical terms with no difference
B.Continuous deployment requires manual approval, while continuous delivery is fully automated
C.Continuous delivery keeps every change deployable and releases with a manual approval step, while continuous deployment automatically releases every passing change to production
D.Continuous delivery only applies to mobile apps, continuous deployment only to web apps
Explanation: In continuous delivery, every change that passes the pipeline is ready to deploy, but a human triggers the final release. In continuous deployment, that final step is automated, so every passing change goes to production without manual intervention.
6A team adopts a blameless postmortem process after an outage. What is the primary benefit of this approach?
A.It encourages honest disclosure of contributing factors so the team can fix systemic causes and prevent recurrence
B.It identifies which individual to discipline for the failure
C.It avoids documenting incidents to keep records clean
D.It transfers responsibility for reliability solely to the operations team
Explanation: Blameless postmortems focus on understanding the systemic and process factors that led to an incident rather than punishing individuals. When people are not afraid of blame, they share information openly, enabling durable fixes that prevent recurrence.
7Within the CALMS framework, which pillar is most directly concerned with collecting metrics such as deployment frequency, lead time, and mean time to recovery (MTTR)?
A.Culture
B.Automation
C.Sharing
D.Measurement
Explanation: The Measurement pillar of CALMS is about quantifying delivery and reliability so teams can improve. Metrics like deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and MTTR (the DORA metrics) live under Measurement.
8What does the practice of 'shift-left' mean in a DevOps context?
A.Moving deployment servers to a data center on the west coast
B.Performing testing, security, and quality activities earlier in the software development lifecycle rather than at the end
C.Shifting all responsibility to the operations team
D.Reducing the number of automated tests to speed up delivery
Explanation: Shifting left means moving activities like testing and security earlier (to the left on a timeline) in the lifecycle. Finding defects and vulnerabilities sooner is cheaper and faster to fix than discovering them in production.
9Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a key DevOps automation practice. Which statement best describes it?
A.Manually clicking through a cloud console to provision servers
B.Defining and managing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files that can be versioned, reviewed, and applied repeatedly
C.Writing application business logic in a low-level assembly language
D.Storing infrastructure passwords in plain text inside source code
Explanation: Infrastructure as Code manages infrastructure through declarative or imperative definition files (using tools like Terraform, Chef, or Puppet) that are version-controlled. This makes provisioning repeatable, auditable, and consistent across environments.
10A team wants to release a new feature to only 5% of users first, monitor for errors, then gradually roll it out to everyone. Which deployment strategy is this?
A.Big-bang deployment
B.Recreate deployment
C.Cold standby deployment
D.Canary deployment
Explanation: A canary deployment releases the new version to a small subset of users first. If metrics stay healthy, traffic is gradually increased; if problems appear, the rollout is halted, limiting blast radius.

About the IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Exam

The IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate is a beginner-friendly Coursera series of roughly 15 courses that builds job-ready DevOps and software engineering skills. It covers DevOps culture and methodologies (CALMS, value stream mapping), Agile development and Scrum, cloud-native and 12-factor design, Python programming and Linux/Bash scripting, Git and GitHub, containers with Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift, CI/CD pipelines using Tekton, GitHub Actions and Travis, test- and behavior-driven development, and application security, monitoring, and observability. Learners are assessed through auto-graded quizzes, hands-on labs, and peer-reviewed projects, culminating in a DevOps Capstone that composes a microservices application and deploys it through a CI/CD pipeline. The credential is knowledge-prep coursework rather than a single high-stakes certification exam.

Assessment

Question count not published by the exam provider

Time Limit

Self-paced; quizzes are untimed or generously timed

Passing Score

Typically 70-80% per graded quiz, plus completed projects (varies by course)

Exam Fee

Included with a Coursera subscription or Coursera Plus; financial aid available (IBM (via Coursera))

IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Exam Content Outline

~12%

DevOps philosophy, culture and methodologies

DevOps culture of shared responsibility, the CALMS framework, value stream mapping and Lean, blameless postmortems, shift-left, DORA metrics, infrastructure as code, and deployment strategies including blue-green and canary.

~13%

Agile development and Scrum

Agile Manifesto values and principles, Scrum roles, events, and artifacts, the Definition of Done, user stories and epics, story-point estimation and velocity, burndown charts, and Kanban with WIP limits.

~9%

Cloud-native architecture and 12-factor apps

The Twelve-Factor App methodology including config in environment variables, stateless processes, disposability, and logs as event streams; microservices vs monoliths; API gateways; and serverless computing.

~16%

Python programming and Linux shell scripting

Python data structures, functions, exception handling, comprehensions, modules, and pip; the Flask web framework; and Linux/Bash fundamentals such as chmod, head, cron, pipes, redirection, the shebang, and special variables like $?.

~17%

Containers: Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift

Docker images vs containers, Dockerfiles (FROM, CMD vs ENTRYPOINT, multi-stage builds), and CLI; Kubernetes Pods, Deployments, ReplicaSets, Services, Secrets, probes, and rolling updates with maxSurge/maxUnavailable; and OpenShift S2I and Routes.

~8%

Git and GitHub version control

Cloning, the add/commit/push workflow, branching and merging, merge-conflict resolution, .gitignore, fetch vs pull, and collaborating on GitHub through forks and pull requests.

~12%

CI/CD pipelines

Continuous integration, delivery, and deployment; pipeline stages and artifact repositories; pipeline-as-code and secret handling; and the tools Tekton (Tasks, Pipelines, PipelineRuns), GitHub Actions (workflows, events, actions), and Travis CI.

~13%

Test/behavior-driven development, monitoring and security

Test-driven development with red-green-refactor, behavior-driven development using Gherkin Given-When-Then, unit testing with unittest/pytest; observability pillars and tools like Prometheus and Grafana; and DevSecOps with the OWASP Top 10 and defenses against SQL injection.

How to Pass the IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: Typically 70-80% per graded quiz, plus completed projects (varies by course)
  • Assessment: Question count not published by the exam provider
  • Time limit: Self-paced; quizzes are untimed or generously timed
  • Exam fee: Included with a Coursera subscription or Coursera Plus; financial aid available

Keys to Passing

  • Work through all 100 available questions
  • Review every answer and explanation
  • Track weak areas and revisit them
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Study Tips from Top Performers

1Master the CALMS framework (Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, Sharing) and how value stream mapping, shift-left, and blameless postmortems express each pillar.
2Get hands-on with Docker and Kubernetes: build images from a Dockerfile, run containers, and use kubectl to create Deployments, Services, and scale Pods so the commands become second nature.
3Practice the core Git/GitHub flow until it is automatic: clone, add, commit, push, branch, merge, resolve conflicts, and open pull requests from forks.
4Write small Python scripts and Bash one-liners; know functions, exceptions, list comprehensions, pip, and shell essentials like pipes, redirection, chmod, cron, and the $? exit status.
5Learn the CI/CD vocabulary across tools: continuous integration vs delivery vs deployment, and how Tekton Tasks/Pipelines/PipelineRuns, GitHub Actions workflows, and Travis .travis.yml each define a pipeline.
6Internalize the red-green-refactor TDD cycle and the Gherkin Given-When-Then BDD structure, plus the observability pillars (metrics, logs, traces) and DevSecOps basics like the OWASP Top 10.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the IBM DevOps and Software Engineering certificate a single exam?

No. It is a Coursera Professional Certificate made up of roughly 15 courses. You are assessed by auto-graded quizzes (usually needing 70-80% to pass), hands-on labs, and peer-reviewed projects, ending with a DevOps Capstone, rather than one proctored final exam.

How much does the IBM DevOps certificate cost?

Access to the graded materials and certificate requires an active Coursera subscription or Coursera Plus, billed monthly while you are enrolled. Coursera offers financial aid, and you can audit much of the content for free without the certificate.

Does the IBM DevOps Professional Certificate expire?

No. Once you complete all courses and earn the certificate, it does not expire. It is a shareable credential you can add to LinkedIn and your resume permanently.

What tools and technologies does the certificate cover?

It covers DevOps culture and CALMS, Agile and Scrum, Python and Flask, Linux/Bash, Git and GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift, CI/CD with Tekton, GitHub Actions and Travis, test- and behavior-driven development, and monitoring and application security.

Do I need prior programming experience to start?

No. The series is designed for beginners and starts with foundational courses in DevOps, Agile, Git, Linux, and Python before moving to containers and CI/CD. Basic computer literacy is enough to begin.

What is the capstone project?

The DevOps Capstone asks you to build an application composed of microservices, containerize it, and use CI/CD tooling to test, build, and deploy it to a Kubernetes or OpenShift environment, demonstrating an end-to-end DevOps workflow.