PeopleCert DevOps SRE Exam Questions Instant Access

Question 1

Microservices are independent services that are developed, deployed, and maintained separately.

Which of the following BEST justifies the use of this application architecture?

AModernizing and refactoring legacy applications

BModernizing the user interface of the core system

CCreating a simple, lightweight business application

DBuilding a basic product fast, as a proof of concept

Answer : A

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SRE supports microservices architecture because it improves reliability by reducing blast radius, allowing independent deployments, and enabling scalable autonomous teams. The SRE Book notes: ''Microservices enable teams to independently iterate and improve reliability without the constraints of large monolithic systems.'' (SRE Book -- Distributed Systems). One of the strongest reasons to adopt microservices is modernizing and refactoring large legacy monoliths, allowing them to be broken into independently deployable, maintainable components.

Option A is therefore the best justification.

Options B, C, and D may involve architectural choices, but they do not explain why microservices are the preferred architecture for reliability and scalability.

Thus, A is correct.

Site Reliability Engineering, Chapters on Distributed Systems and Microservice Reliability Patterns.

Question 2

In a blameless post-mortem, those involved report

AWithout fear of retribution

BAssumptions they had made

CBoth A and B

DUsing testing data

Answer : C

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A blameless post-mortem is a foundational SRE practice that encourages truthful, detailed reporting after an incident. The purpose is to learn, not punish. Google SRE emphasizes that engineers must feel psychologically safe to report what they did, what they assumed, and why they made those decisions.

From the Site Reliability Engineering Book, Chapter ''Postmortem Culture'':

''Blameless postmortems encourage engineers to share the full details of their actions and assumptions without fear of punishment, enabling learning and preventing repeated failures.''

The book further states:

''Understanding the assumptions made during an incident is critical to uncovering systemic issues.''

Thus:

Engineers must report without fear of retribution

They must report assumptions and decisions made during the incident

Therefore, the correct answer is C. Both A and B.

Why the other options are insufficient:

A Only partially correct

B Only partially correct

D Testing data may be included, but it is not the defining feature of blameless postmortems

Site Reliability Engineering Book, ''Postmortem Culture''

SRE Workbook, ''Learning from Incidents''

Question 3

Engineering operational work to scale with a growing application is BEST achieved by addressing which of the following issues?

AStaffing levels

BInterruptions

CToil

DOn-call rotations

Answer : C

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

One of the central goals of SRE is that operational work must scale sublinearly with service growth. The SRE Book states: ''If operational load grows linearly with service size, the model is unsustainable. Eliminating toil is key to scaling operations.'' (SRE Book -- Chapter: Eliminating Toil). Toil prevents scaling because it is manual, repetitive, and tied directly to human effort.

Option C is the only answer that reflects this principle: reducing or eliminating toil enables SRE teams to support growing applications without increasing human labor proportionally.

Option A (staffing levels) does not scale sustainably.

Option B (interruptions) relate to productivity but not true scalability.

Option D (on-call rotations) affects fatigue, not the scaling of operational work.

Thus, C is the correct and SRE-authentic answer.

Site Reliability Engineering, Chapter: ''Eliminating Toil.''

The Site Reliability Workbook, Chapters on automation and scaling operations.

Question 4

Which of the following BEST describes a business continuity plan?

AThe way the organization maintains operations during a disaster

BThe way that data, files, applications, and systems are restored

CThe activity of returning a configuration item back to normal

DThe management of risks that seriously affect the organization

Answer : A

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a critical component of organizational resilience. While not unique to SRE, SRE strongly intersects with continuity planning because reliable systems must continue functioning during disruptions. According to Google's SRE principles, reliability extends beyond typical outages and includes ''ensuring services continue to operate even under exceptional conditions.'' (SRE Book -- Chapter: Addressing Risks). A business continuity plan specifically outlines how essential operations are maintained during major disruptions such as natural disasters, data center outages, or large-scale system failures.

Option A---''The way the organization maintains operations during a disaster''---matches the formal definition of BCP.

Option B refers to disaster recovery (DR), which is separate; DR focuses on restoring systems, not maintaining ongoing operations.

Option C refers to configuration management activities, not continuity.

Option D refers to risk management, which informs BCP but does not define it.

Therefore, A is the correct answer because it directly reflects the purpose of continuity planning as supported by reliability-focused guidance.

Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems, Chapters: ''Addressing Risks,'' ''Managing Critical State.''

The Site Reliability Workbook, Sections discussing resilience and continuity in distributed systems.

Question 5

Which of the following BEST identifies a desired objective of the production readiness review (PRR)?

ATo ensure the service is ready for an SRE team to take over support and care for it

BTo improve the reliability of the service in the development and testing environment

CTo validate the service meets international quality standards and frameworks

DTo ensure the service owner transitions operational accountability to the SRE team

Answer : A

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A Production Readiness Review (PRR) is a core SRE practice ensuring that a service meets specific reliability, operational, monitoring, and alerting standards before SRE assumes responsibility. The Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Workbook states: ''PRRs validate that a service is prepared for production and ready for SRE engagement, ensuring operational readiness, monitoring completeness, on-call preparation, and automation maturity.'' The goal is not merely organizational handover but ensuring the service is fully prepared for reliable operation in production.

Option A fits this definition exactly: ensuring the service is ready for SRE support.

Option B focuses on development/testing readiness, not production readiness.

Option C references standards/frameworks not part of PRR's purpose.

Option D is only a partial implication---transition of accountability happens after PRR readiness, not the main purpose of PRR.

Thus, A is the correct SRE-aligned answer.

The Site Reliability Workbook, Chapter: ''Production Readiness Reviews.''

Site Reliability Engineering, discussion on readiness and reliability gates.

Question 6

Why would some Service Level Indicators require client-side data?

AThere may be metrics affecting users that are not reflected on the server side

BIt would be difficult to negotiate service level agreements with customers without client data

CIt would be difficult to engineer external automation without client side data

DService Level Objectives may not be achievable without client side data

Answer : A

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SLIs must measure user experience, and sometimes server-side metrics alone do not show the full picture. Client-side data may reveal issues such as:

Slow networks

Browser rendering delays

Mobile device limitations

CDN performance issues

Last-mile latency

The Site Reliability Engineering Book, Chapter ''Service Level Indicators,'' states:

''Server-side metrics do not always fully capture the user experience. In many cases, client-side measurements are required to understand the actual reliability delivered to users.''

The SRE Workbook reinforces:

''Some SLIs require client instrumentation because user-visible performance problems may not be observable from backend systems alone.''

Why the other options are incorrect:

B SLA negotiation has nothing to do with SLI selection.

C Automation engineering is unrelated to client-side measurement needs.

D Achievability of SLOs does not determine whether client-side data is needed; accuracy of user-experience measurement does.

Thus, the correct answer is A.

Site Reliability Engineering Book, ''Service Level Indicators''

SRE Workbook, ''Choosing the Right SLIs''

Question 7

Which of the following BEST completes the definition of a canary release?

''A new set of features is released...''

Ausing a rolling wave technique

Bfirst to a small group of users

Cto one small group after another

Dfirst to a trial test environment

Answer : B

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SRE and DevOps release engineering define a canary release as rolling out new features to a small subset of users to validate reliability and performance before full release. The SRE Book states: ''Canarying is the practice of releasing changes to a small percentage of users or servers first to detect issues before global rollout.'' This minimizes risk by catching regressions early without impacting the entire user base.

Option B fits this definition exactly.

Option A (rolling wave) is a deployment pattern but not canarying.

Option C resembles phased rollout but not specifically canary release.

Option D describes testing, not production canary deployment.

Thus, B is correct.

Site Reliability Engineering, Chapter: ''Release Engineering.''

The Site Reliability Workbook, section on Canary Releases and Safe Deployments.

PeopleCert Site Reliability Engineering Foundation v1.2 DevOps SRE Exam Questions